SCIBS is proud to announce the new Sir Henry Stephenson Fellow, Dr Grace Emmett. Dr Emmett started as the Sir Henry Stephenson Visiting Research Fellow in October 2021. The focus of Dr Emmett's fellowship will be on a project currently entitled “Reimagining Paul: Apostolic Portraits of Masculinity”, building on previous doctoral research exploring the apostle Paul’s presentation of himself in his letters through the lens of masculinity studies. In addition to gender criticism, Dr Emmett is also interested in reception studies and eco-hermeneutics with respect to Paul’s letters and the New Testament generally. She is a contributor to The Two Cities podcast and works part-time for the Church of England. You can find out more about her current research by following her on Twitter or Humanities Commons.
Dr Emmett's project—currently entitled “Reimagining Paul: Apostolic Portraits of Masculinity”—will build on her recently completed doctoral research to explore the complexity of Paul’s self-presentation with respect to gender. Paul’s disabled (2 Cor 10:10, 12:7b–10, Gal 4:13–15), marked (Phil 3:5, Gal 6:17), enslaved (Gal 1:10, Phil 1:1, Rom 1:1, 1 Cor 9:19, 2 Cor 4:5), and maternal (1 Thess 2:7b–8, 1 Cor 3:1–3, Gal 4:19) body is not commonly found in visual representations of the apostle. What might it mean for conceptions of masculinity to visualise these Pauline themes and remember Paul in ways that resist more prominent depictions of him as convert, preacher, and letter-writer?
Through this project, Dr Emmett will commission visual depictions of Paul corresponding to the themes above, to be staged as a public exhibition in the summer of 2022. The exhibition will explore the questions above and be accompanied by a series of public lectures, aiming to facilitate dialogue between the academy and the Church on the topic of biblical and contemporary masculinities.