Internationally acknowledged world leader in chaplaincy studies, informing and enhancing professional performance
“ The Centre offers a unique chance to ask questions of what I'm doing, to improve what I do and to make sure I'm the best I can be as a chaplain and as a priest. ”
Rev Cole Maynard, Army Chaplain
Chaplaincy Studies - Research Activity
Current Centre research activity includes the following:
Research Network: Military Chaplains and the Ethics of Conflict
January 2009 – June 2010, supported by a British Academy small grant. Series of three residential workshops involving chaplains and academics; bringing chaplains' experience, of addressing moral questions in the delivery of military training and in relation to operations, to bear on the ethics of international conflict (including, for example contemporary developments in the Just War tradition). First journal article is in press.
Commissioned Research into Prison Chaplaincy
December 2009 – March 2011. This is a research contract (£71k) with the National Offender Management Service, to conduct a qualitative investigation of the contribution of prison chaplaincy to the prison service. This is an evaluation of prison chaplaincy after ten years of development of multi-faith practice. This involves the appointment of a full-time PDRA and a programme of interviews and focus groups with chaplains, prisoners and prison staff.
Contact Lee Tipton for further information.
Research Project: The Practice of Spiritual Care
May – August 2009, internally funded by Centre for Chaplaincy Studies
Postdoctoral Research Associate conducted literature review and initial fieldwork for a major research project bid relating to healthcare chaplaincy. Proposed major project: a linguistic ethnography of spiritual care in the NHS; which will investigate the practice and discourse of spiritual care, in order to provide an empirically derived, theoretical basis for the public understanding of this area of healthcare. Next stage is a funding bid for a pilot project to establish the methodology for the major project. First jointly-authored journal article is in preparation.
AHRC/ESRC-funded PhD: Spiritual Care in Healthcare and Public Policy
Full-time PhD, 2007-2010 under the AHRC/ESRC Religion & Society Programme, co-sponsored by the Hospitals Chaplaincy Council; investigating the impact of public policy on healthcare chaplaincy (on, for example, models of chaplaincy and public understanding of spiritual and religious care, in a multi-faith context). This is due for completion in the academic year 09/10.
The Centre also has a number of students pursuing research degrees
Next steps
Contact Tina Franklin to find out more.