The Common Awards team is pleased to launch a new Student Events Programme, which in 2023/24 will include day conferences for students, alongside our webinar series.
Please contact the Common Awards team (common.awards@durham.ac.uk) if you have any queries relating to these events.
Please note that some events are available to students only and some to both staff and students; this will be made clear in the event description. Please see the staff events page for events aimed at Common Awards staff.
Upcoming Student Events
Please click on each event below to find out further information, including how to register:
28 April 2025
2:00-4:00pm
Disability and Theology
Monday 28th April 2025 2pm-4pm
The Common Awards team is delighted to host Dr Naomi Jacobs and Rev Dr Hannah Lewis for a webinar discussing Disability Justice and Theological Education.
Naomi Lawson Jacobs (they/them), who is disabled and neurodivergent, is the co-author of At the Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2022). Based on participatory research with disabled Christians, the book grew out of a PhD thesis in religious studies. Naomi is a research associate at Manchester Metropolitan University. They are currently editing a volume of disability theology written by disabled people, as well as co-editing a special issue of a disability studies journal on social-scientific research on religion and disability. Naomi is a trustee for Disability Rights UK and sits on the Church of England’s Neurodiversity Working Group.
Revd Dr Hannah Lewis is a Deaf priest, bilingual in BSL and English, currently working in Oxford diocese. She is also a freelance researcher, writer and presenter. Her PhD thesis was published as Deaf Liberation Theology (Ashgate, 2007) and she has published a number of journal articles and book chapters since then, most recently in Challenging Contextuality: Bibles and Biblical Scholarship in Context ed. Louise J. Lawrence, Peter-Ben Smit, Hannah M. Strommen, Charlene van der Walt (OUP, 2023).
The webinar will take place online on MSTeams on April 28th 2025 from 2 pm to 4 pm. This webinar will include breakout groups and group discussion. BSL interpretation will be available.
The webinar leaders would appreciate knowing any key questions or discussion points you would like to raise beforehand. Please feel free to email Anupama (anupama.m.ranawana@durham.ac.uk) with any questions you might like to raise.
If you would like to be placed in a BSL only breakout group, or have any accessibility needs, please email Anupama at the email address above.
This webinar series has a focus on Diversity and Inclusion. Webinars are aimed at Common Awards students and staff but open to others with an interest in the subject areas addressed. Each webinar features leading scholars and/or faith practitioners who offer diverse insights into a range of topics that directly relate to the core modules taken by Common Awards students.
Recordings of past webinars can be found here
Neurodiverse learning in adult theological education
Monday 10th February 2025 2pm-4pm
Canon Dr Gary Wilton - Teaching Fellow in Theology & Ministry within the Durham University Common Awards Team invites students and staff to join him when he hosts Dr Elli Wort and Dr Leon van Ommen to discuss neurodiverse learning in adult theological education. The conversation will range from the conceptual to the very practical.
Dr Elli Wort is Head of Initial Training and Research Associate for Church Army. She is co-author of Fuzzy Church - Gospel and Culture in the North of England ( Sacristy, 2021). Dr Leon van Ommen is Co-Director of the Centre for Autism & Theology, University of Aberdeen. He is author of Autism and Worship - A Liturgical Theology ( Baylor University Press, 2023)
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/departments-/common-awards/images-and-logos/theology-images/37247.jpg)