Professor Jennifer Strawbridge and Professor Justin Jones from the Faculty of Theology and Religion have received prestigious Leverhulme Research Fellowships in consecutive years, with Professor Jones receiving the fellowship in 2025 and Professor Strawbridge in 2026. The achievement marks a significant milestone for the Faculty, which is the only humanities faculty at Oxford to have received the fellowships in successive years.
Awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, the fellowships provide scholars with dedicated time to pursue ambitious and original research projects across the humanities and social sciences. The fellowships are highly competitive and recognise research of outstanding intellectual significance and originality.
Professor Jennifer Strawbridge (Professor of New Testament Studies) received a 2026 Leverhulme Research Fellowship for her project, Blurring Blindness and Complicating Sight Loss in the Ancient World. The project will culminate in a Cambridge University Press monograph entitled ‘Sightlessness in the New Testament: A Study in Five Dimensions.’ Challenging sight-focused interpretations of the New Testament, the research contests assumptions linking blindness with divine punishment, engages critically with disability studies and exclusionary language, and foregrounds marginalised figures within biblical texts. It also explores how early Christian communities interpreted these passages in relation to experiences of sight loss and questions of theodicy.
Professor Strawbridge shared, “I am deeply grateful for a Leverhulme award, which creates dedicated time and space to research and write — both so difficult to sustain alongside the rewarding demands of academic life. Such a privilege and opportunity to bring to life a long-gestating monograph is not one I take for granted. I am thankful to the Faculty and my colleagues for their support throughout this process.”
Professor Justin Jones (Associate Professor in Study of Religion) received a 2025 Leverhulme Research Fellowship for a major research project titled ‘Islam and Child Marriage in Pakistan’. Building on collaborative research with UNICEF Pakistan, the project explores the role of Islamic teachings, religious institutions, and faith leaders in shaping debates around child marriage in Pakistan, while also considering how religious engagement can support social intervention and reform. “It has been a real privilege to have a year to dedicate to research and writing for this complex project. I am grateful to the Leverhulme Trust and Faculty colleagues for supporting it, as well as to the major project partners in Pakistan who have made it possible”, Professor Jones said.
Professor Mark Wynn, Research Director at the Faculty of Theology and Religion, reflects on the achievement:
“These two awards are a tribute to the scholarly excellence of the work of Professor Jones and Professor Strawbridge, and also a striking example of the contribution of the Faculty's research to our understanding of questions of fundamental human concern.”
The consecutive fellowships awarded in 2025 and 2026 reflect the Faculty’s sustained commitment to internationally leading research and underline the originality and scholarly ambition of work being undertaken across the study of theology, religion, history, and culture.
