Professor Hannah Bacon
Professor
Biography
Hannah Bacon is Professor of Feminist Theology at the University of Chester. She teaches and researches in Christian theologies and has particular interest in constructive contextual theologies that engage women’s lived experiences to transform Christian belief and practice. Currently, Hannah spends a portion of her time organising EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) community engagement activities at University Centre Warrington for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. She has undertaken a number of leadership roles at the University of Chester, including serving as Head of Theology and Religious Studies and as Deputy Head for a number of years, and is passionate about scholarship that engages with issues of social justice.
Teaching and Supervision
Hannah teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules in Christian theology and ethics. She has supervised a number of doctoral students to successful completion and is currently supervising PhDs on Pentecostal ministerial responses to domestic abuse, transwomen imaging God, the formation of women preachers in the Church of England, and Pentecostal pedagogies of discipleship for the Elim movement. Throughout her career she has designed a range of modules, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and played key leadership roles in shaping curricula and sector expectations in Theology and Religious Studies nationally as well as locally. She has taught across the disciplinary areas of Christian theology, religious studies, sociology and academic skills development.
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Hannah’s research focuses on the interface between Christian theology and contemporary discourses about fatness, with a particular emphasis on gender. As a feminist theologian, she is interested in engaging with women’s real lived experiences of fatness and dieting and in probing how Christian theologies feed as well resist cotemporary systems of fat phobia. Her recent 2019 publication, Feminist Theology and Contemporary Dieting Culture: Sin, Salvation and Women’s Weight Loss Narratives (T & T Clark/Bloomsbury) provides a unique qualitative insight into women’s everyday experiences of slimming and into the theological underpinnings of contemporary weight loss culture. Her research interests cover: - Feminist body theologies and intersections with queer theologies and other theologies of liberation - Feminist qualitative research - Theological appraisals and constructions of fatness - Gender and the politics of size - The contribution of religion/theology to the critical discipline of fat studies and vice versa - Feminist (re)constructions of Christian doctrine