Our conference this year, “Affected Bodies: Ethics, Physicality, and Emotion,” will take place on March 31 at the University of Aberdeen. Registration can be found here.

The field of ethics cannot escape bodies. Bodies are either the direct or implicated subject matter of ethics, they are the places from which ethical dilemmas and questions arise, they are the ever-moving points between which ethical conversations occur, and they are, finally, the place from which and towards which we take ethical action. These bodies, though made of the same stuff, are not the same. Bodies are situated differently within times and cultures. Bodies are implicated differently in our moral tales. And, to make life in bodies even more complicated, persons who inhabit/are these bodies, understand and interpret their bodies, and what they are, differently.

Christian theological ethics, along with theology more broadly, has begun to turn toward the particularity of bodies as a site of important information for the practice of ethics. This turn is a turn toward the body in its situatedness, its history, its particularity, its affect, its dis/abilities, its desires, its needs. This year’s SSCE Postgraduate conference will address the ways in which bodies–what they are and how they are affected and affectable–matter for the practice of theological ethics.

Below is the schedule of the event. Please note the optional dinner event on Thursday evening and optional writing workshop on the Saturday morning that follows the conference (and an optional—but enticing—dinner and karaoke outing on the Friday following the conference). The price of the conference (£25) covers everything from 9am-5:30pm on Friday. Do reach out with questions!

2023 SSCE PG Conference Detailed Schedule

Thursday, March 30

7:30pm Pre-conference Welcome Dinner and drinks at 6°N 

Friday, March 31
8:30am Morning Prayer in King’s Chapel
9am Coffee + Light Breakfast

9:15am Welcome + Introduction to the day
9:20am Keynote 1: Dr. Katy Hockey, Lecturer in New Testament at University of Aberdeen, “Social bodies, emotion and the love of enemies in Luke 6”

9:50am Q&A

10:15am Short Coffee Break
10:30am Student Paper - Melissa Barciela Mandala, University of St Andrews, ”What Bodies Are': Paul’s Suffering Body in 2 Corinthians 4:7–12 and Implications for an Ethic of Suffering”

            Respondent: Olly Mears, Durham University

11:05 Q&A
11:30am Coffee Break

11:45am Student Paper - Andrew Borror, University of Aberdeen, "Christ's Body and Ours: Working Out the Meaning of the Body”

            Respondent: Oliver Wright, University of Oxford

12:20pm Q&A

12:45pm Catered Lunch
1:45pm Keynote 2: Professor Grant MacAskill, Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis, University of Aberdeen, “On Rhizomes and Repentance: Neurodiverse Embodiments and the Interpretation of Scripture”

2:15pm Q&A
2:40pm Short Break
2:50pm Student Paper - Victoria Phillips, University of Oxford, “Ambassadresses for God and America: Re/Reading Female Missionary Memoirs and Autobiography”

            Respondent: Jared Stacy, University of Aberdeen

3:25pm: Q&A

3:50pm: Student Paper - Iona Curtius, University of Aberdeen, “Cyborgs vs. the Metaverse: Identifying the 'good' in a techno-dystopian body”

            Respondent: Joelle Lucas, Durham University 

4:25pm: Q&A

4:50pm Break

5:05 Closing conversation about themes from the day

5:30pm Conclude 

7:30pm Conference Dinner off-site in Aberdeen, followed by Karaoke (of course)

Saturday, April 1
9am-12:15pm Writing Workshop: Developing and Reflecting on Voice - Authority, Audience, and Conversation (Indicate interest when you fill out the survey sent to those who sign up for the conference; workshops participants will be asked to bring one page of their writing)

Conference Bursaries

Travel and Accommodation bursaries are available for those who wish to attend the conference but need additional funding to do so. The application can be found here.

Contact Information

Please reach out to the current post graduate co-conveners, Ed Chan-Stroud (Oxford) and Annie Dimond (Aberdeen) at pg-convener@ssce.org.uk if you have any questions related to the conference, our other events, or postgraduate membership in the society more generally.