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MRCAS Honorary Research Fellows

Currently the Michael Ramsey Centre for Anglican Studies is hosting the following honorary research fellows:

Hannah Cleugh

Reverend Hannah Cleugh

The Revd Dr Hannah Cleugh: Vicar, St Peter’s Monkseaton

Hannah Cleugh is Vicar of Monkseaton St Peter in the Diocese of Newcastle, having previously served as Senior Chaplain to the Bishop of Ely, and prior to that as Chaplain and Solway Fellow at University College, Durham. 

Hanna conducted her doctoral research in Oxford with Diarmaid MacCulloch, looking at baptism and burial in the Reformation Church of England.  

She is the author of a number of essays, including (most recently):

  • ‘The Myth of the Anglican Communion?’ in  E. Gebarowski-Shafer, A. Null and A. Ryrie (eds) Contesting Orthodoxies in the History of Christianity.  Essays in Honour of Diarmaid MacCulloch (Boydell and Brewer 2021). 

Her more recent work continues to focus on questions of doctrine, liturgy, and Anglican identity especially in the seventeenth century.

 

Tom Holland

Photograph of Tom Holland

Our Honorary Fellow Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, biographer and broadcaster. He is the author of:

  • Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic (2003) (winner of the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History; shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; 
  • Persian Fire (2005) - a history of the Graeco-Persian wars (winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award, 2006)
  • Millennium (2008) - a panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000
  • In the Shadow of the Sword (2012) covering the collapse of Roman and Persian power in the Near East, and the emergence of Islam
  • Dynasty (2015) - a portrait of Rome's first imperial dynasty 
  • Æthelstan: The making of England (2016) - a biography of the first King of England (Penguin Monarchs series, Book 3)
  • Dominion (2019) exploring why Christianity is the most enduring and influential legacy of the ancient world. 
  • Pax, due out in July 2023, covers the heyday of the Roman Empire, from the death of Nero to Hadrian

His translation work includes:

  • Herodotus (2013; Penguin Classics)
  • Suetonius (due 2024, also Penguin Classics)

Tom has also adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC.  He is co-presenter of Britain’s most downloaded history podcast, The Rest is History. He has also written and presented several TV documentaries, for the BBC and Channel 4, on subjects ranging from ISIS to dinosaurs.

He has been described by The Times as “a leading English cricketer”...

See Tom's webpage for more information: https://www.tom-holland.org/

 

Scott MacDougall

Scott MacDougall

Dr Scott Mac Dougall, Associate Professor of Theology, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkley

https://cdsp.edu/faculty/scott-macdougall/

Scott MacDougall was born and raised in Central New York, studied for his B.A. at Hofstra University (Long island), and followed a career in the not-for-profit sector before applying himself to the formal study of theology.  After an M.A. with the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (2007), Scott completed his Ph.D. studies in systematic theology with Fordham University in 2014.

Scott's passion is for nurturing embodied Christian perspectives and practices among both clergy and laity seeking deeper engagement with their faith traditions.  His students at Church Divinity School of the Pacific are supported to explore the breadth of their Christian heritage, doctrine and seminal figures, evolving a living theology which deploys their integrity, creativity and pragmatism to engage with the biggest questions and challenges.  Likewise, his research explores how a well-formed and engaged theological imagination influences how individuals and corporate entities live out their vocations.  His investigations to date have specifically focussed on:

(1) Constructive theological work in ecclesiology, eschatology, and embodiment

(2) The nature and character of Anglican theology and the role of theology in the Anglican Communion

Following completion of his first book, More Than Communion: Imagining an Eschatological Ecclesiology, in 2015, Scott's published works have gone on to include a breadth of books, articles and book reviews.  His most recent outputs include: 

  • The Shape of Anglican Theology: Faith Seeking Wisdom, Brill Research Perspectives in Theological Traditions (Boston and Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2022)
  • “The Holy Spirit Makes the Church: Changing the Church as a Responsive Act,” in Changing the Church: Transformations of Christian Belief, Practice, and Life, ed. Mark D. Chapman and Vladimir Latinovic (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 85–92. 
  • “Pursuing the Decolonial Agenda: A Future for Anglican Studies,” in Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski and Joy Ann McDougall, “The Future of Anglican Studies,” Journal of Anglican Studies (forthcoming)
  • On the Whence and Whither of Christian Flesh,” contribution to Syndicate symposium on Paul Griffiths’ Christian Flesh, 2020.    
  • “Bodily Communions: An Eschatological Proposal for Addressing the Christian Body Problem,” Dialog  57 (2018): 178-85
  • Common Discernment about Common Prayer during Lockdown,” Church Divinity School of the Pacific website, 2020

In addition, Scott MacDougall serves as Co-Editor in Chief of the Anglican Theological Review and was the inaugural Theologian to the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church. At the American Academy of Religion, he co-chairs the Anglican Studies Seminar and serves on the steering committee of the Ecclesiological Investigations Unit.  

 

Sanjee Perera

Sanjee Perera

Canon Dr. Sanjee Perera

Canon Dr. Sanjee Perera is a Cognitive Psychologist and Theologian and is currently on sabbatical with Virginia Theological Seminary as the 2023 Dean’s scholar. Her Doctoral thesis was on Ethno-social Identity, Moral judgement and Decision making in Societies experiencing Ethnic conflict (2010 University of Liverpool) and her most recent large scale research project was the Minority Anglicanism Project at the University of Birmingham, investigating how the Church of England navigates race, belonging and inclusion and the cognitive impact of racialised ecclesial spaces on marginalised peoples.  She was most recently the Archbishops’ Adviser for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns in the Church of England and has spent the last couple of decades in academia teaching and researching in Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy, Theology & Religion.

At present she serves as an Honorary Canon of Liverpool Cathedral in her home diocese and lives with ordinands at Queens Foundation. She also serves as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Durham, Research Fellow at William Temple Foundation,Associate Fellow at the Open University School of Law, Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, at Coventry University, Honorary Research Fellow in Theology and Religious Studies, at the University of Chester and 2023 Dean’s scholar at Virginia Theological Seminary. She is also a Trustee and Company Director at ‘World friendship’BIAPT & SPCK.

She is an avid gardener,  choral singer, and a church crawler with a passion for stained glass and lives in community with ordinands at Queens foundation.

Stephen Spencer

Photograph of Reverend Stephen Spencer

The Revd Canon Dr Stephen Spencer

Stephen Spencer studied Theology at Oxford University including a doctorate on the social thought of Archbishop William Temple.  He has been a tutor in theological education in the north of England, most recently as Vice Principal of St Hild College in Yorkshire.

Stephen's publications include books on William Temple, Anglican social theology and a study of church growth in Tanzania and England (selected titles below), along with study guides on Christian Mission, Anglicanism and Church History. 

  • Archbishop William Temple: A Study in Servant Leadership (SCM Press, July 2022)
  • Christ in All Things: William Temple and his Writings (Canterbury Studies in Spiritual Theology) (Canterbury Press, February 2015)
  • William Temple: A Calling to Prophecy (SPCK Publishing, 2001)
  • Growing and Flourishing: The Ecology of Church Growth (SCM Press, 2019)

Stephen has worked as a parish priest in England and Zimbabwe, in urban, suburban and rural parishes, and for six years was the link officer for a diocesan link between Leeds and Mara Region in Tanzania.

In 2018 he became Director for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion, based at the Anglican Communion Office in London, working to build up links between theological colleges and courses across the world and commissioning learning resources for online publication.

He continues this work today as an adviser on theological education.

 

Andrew Totten

Photograph of Reverend Andrew Totten

The Reverend Andrew Totten OBE MTh rcds

A graduate of Queen’s University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin, Andrew Totten was ordained in the Church of Ireland. Commissioned into the Royal Army Chaplains’ Department in 1994, he served over the course of 27 years with the Royal Tank Regiment, the Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the Light Dragoons, the Royal Irish Regiment, the Irish Guards, 7th Armoured Brigade, 16 Air Assault Brigade, and 1st Armoured Division. He was a padre on the ground in Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Having gained a Masters with distinction at Cardiff University, Andrew’s published work includes chapters in:

  • A Handbook of Chaplaincy Studies (Routledge, 2015)  chapters in
  • A Persistent Fire: The Strategic Ethical Impact of World War I on the Global Profession of Arms (National Defense University Press, Washington, 2019).

He received the individual award for strategic analysis at the Royal College of Defence Studies. 

As Principal of the Armed Forces’ Chaplaincy Centre, he oversaw its relocation to Beckett House at the Defence Academy and the establishment of the new Royal Army Chaplains’ Museum.

Appointed MBE in 2002 and OBE in 2021, Andrew became an Honorary Chaplain to HM Queen Elizabeth II. He is now the Honorary Chaplain as well as a Trustee of The Royal Irish Regiment.

Andrew's home is a fisherman’s cottage on the Mourne coast of County Down, where he enjoys keeping a garden of Irish heritage plants alive in the teeth of the sea winds.