Leech Fellows

Dr Florence O' Taylor

Florence O' Taylor is a William Leech post-doctoral research fellow at St. John’s College. Thinking with the Church at the Margins initiative within Methodism, her project aims to reflect theologically on ‘Recovery Church’, a community of people living with addictions that gather for services that incorporate elements of the 12-Step programme. This research builds on her doctoral thesis, which paid attention to the lived experiences of women living with addiction in order to develop an empirically grounded political theology of addiction. Her interest in addiction grew out of working for several years in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre alongside running a Christian ministry with women facing multiple forms of marginalisation. Flo will be undertaking this research part-time and in College when she is in the North East visiting Recovery Church. 

Rev Dr Stuart Bell

Stuart Bell is a Methodist minister, currently living in Nottingham. After studying computer science at Manchester University, he taught that subject for seven years at Plymouth College of Further Education and Plymouth Polytechnic. Training for ordained ministry at Wesley House and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge was followed by appointments in Brighton, Horsham and Southampton. While in Southampton, he completed an MTh in Applied Theology at Oxford, his dissertation examining the influence of the First World War on the Anglican Modernists. He was awarded his PhD in 2016 by the University of Birmingham, his thesis exploring the impact of that conflict on the faith of the people of Britain. He has published several book chapters and journal articles in recent years on religion and conflict. In 2018, with Professor Tom O’Loughlin of Nottingham University, he co-edited a critical centenary edition of Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy’s ‘The Hardest Part’, published by SCM.

Dr Ruth Perrin

Dr Ruth Perrin is a current Leech Research Fellow. She is undertaking a follow up project to the Leech sponsored 'Changing Shape; the Faith Lives of Millennials' which explored the Christian faith of those born between 1981-1996 as they passed through their twenties. Her current project, entitled 'Friendship, Faith and Flourishing', uses a mixture of online surveys and interviews to discover what established Christian faith looks like now the Millennial generation are in their 30's and early 40's. Having researched their faith since they were 20, Ruth is delighted to have been granted funding to continue exploring how Christian faith evolves in younger generations in post-Christian Britain, and in particular within the often overlooked Northeast region. 

https://ruthperrin.net/