Biography
I am a first year doctoral student on an AHRC scholarship. I began my theological studies with a BA (Hons) in Theology at Heythrop College, University of London, where, graduating with high First Class Honours, I was awarded the Marcus Ward Prize for Excellence in New Testament Studies. I then came to Cambridge to undertake an M.Phil in New Testament and Early Christianity, under the supervision of Professor Judith M. Lieu, for which I received the Isaac Newton Boak Award, and passed with Distinction. In my doctoral thesis, I am exploring the category of 'myth'—as a socio-anthropological concept—and its relation to New Testament exegesis, in particular, the Pauline epistles. I am tracing the historical reception of myth in Pauline studies, as well as mapping and consolidating the history of research pertaining to the status and function of μῦθος/myth outside of NT studies, with a view to 'rethinking' myth as an analytically helpful socio-anthropological field in Pauline studies—exploring the extent to which myth as a heuristic hermeneutical category may serve lucidly to locate the literary and intellectual activity of Paul in his extant epistolary legacy. I am particularly interested in the foundational and paradigmatic quality many scholars have attributed to mythic narratives, as 'lived' stories, in conjunction with Paul's understanding of himself and the communities to which he writes as those who in some way 'participate' in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
