The following is an excerpt of a post for the TheoArtistry blog, announcing the launch of my latest project: TheoArtistry Student-Led Collaborations.
Hosted by the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (ITIA), postgraduate researchers at the University of St Andrews have been invited to bring their expertise, creativity, and curiosity to the task of developing creative methodologies in theological research.
They will undertake unique and cutting-edge research projects through creative collaboration, using a purpose-built critical framework inspired by TheoArtistry’s previous projects.
The 2018/19 partnerships inherit much from the previous TheoArtistry schemes, but with one key difference: the themes, art forms, and outcomes of the collaborations will be entirely student-led. The collaborations will foster both the academic and artistic skills of our participating researchers.
The call for interest attracted a number of thoughtful (and genuinely fascinating) responses to the project brief — not only from divinity students, but from researchers in philosophy, classics, and history as well. Their proposals revealed some common interests in the body and the imagination as sources of discovery and understanding, including encounters with the divine across cultures and worldviews; the arts as a way to inhabit the tensions and realities of human life and death; and the process of art-making as revealing and communicating theological or religious experiences.
For the full announcement and project updates, including contributions from the current participants, go to the TheoArtistry Collaborations blog.
Rebekah M Dyer 