Research Fellow - Department of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Nottingham

Emily's AHRC-funded doctoral thesis, The Midwifery of God (2022), explores the intersections of maternity and divinity in early Jewish and Christian writings. The research won the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise 2023 (University of Heidelberg). The revised monograph is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. 

Emily is currently developing her second book project, Divine Sexuality in Early Christianity. Articles/chapters in progress include ‘Under the Shadow of His Wings: Mary’s Reproductive Agency in the Lukan Annunciation Narrative,' and 'Puberty in Second Temple Judaism' 

Research and Teaching Interests

• The New Testament (especially the Pauline corpus)

• Early Christian apocrypha

• Early Christian origins

• Healthcare and healing in the ancient world

• Gender and sexuality

Key Publications 

The Midwifery of God (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

‘Ephesians,’ in Judeophobia in the New Testament: Texts, Contexts, and Pedagogy, eds. Eric Vanden Eykel, Sarah Rollens and Meredith J. C. Warren (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, forthcoming)

‘Papyrus 32 (Titus) as a multi-text codex: a new reconstruction,’ New Testament Studies 59 (2013): 588-606

‘Special Delivery: The Hidden Birth of Jesus in the Ascension of Isaiah 11,’ Ancient Jew Review (Nov 2021)

‘Ascension of Isaiah,’ e-Clavis Christian Apocrypha research bibliography for the North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (July 2023)

Seminars

‘The Midwifery of God: Tokological Deliverance in Early Jewish and Christian Reconceptions of Genesis 3.16,’ International Centre for Biblical Interpretation, University of Gloucester, Feb 2024

‘Mary’s Burning Bush: Divine Epiphany Meets Divine Midwifery in the Protevangelium of James,’ Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Nov 2023

‘Divine Midwifery in Antiquity and Today,’ Health Humanities Working Group, Universities of Nottingham and Adelaide, Oct 2023

‘Wombful of Grace: Divine and Maternal Embodiment in Early Christian Apocrypha,’ Durham University New Testament and Patristics Research Seminar, May 2023

‘Hierophagic Ritual Technology in Early Christianity,’ Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award Colloquium, University of Heidelberg, Apr 2023

‘The Afterbirth of Genesis 3:16: Early Jewish and Christian Re(con)ceptions of the Maternal Curse,’ University of Aberdeen Biblical Studies Research Seminar, Feb 2023

‘Deliver Her from Evil: Messianic Midwifery in the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Baruch) 72–74,’ Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Nov 2022

‘Your Faith has Delivered You: Divine Midwifery and Perinatal Discipleship in Early Christian Apocrypha,’ LMU Munich NT Colloquium, June 2022

‘Gendered Fluids of Salvation: The Father’s Seminal Lactation and the Virgin’s Masculine Maternity in the Odes of Solomon 19,’ North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting, May 2022 

‘Call the Midwife! Apostolic Birthing and Childless Discipleship in the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew,’ University of Nottingham Theology Seminar, Feb 2022 

Discussant, ‘Studies in Second Temple Judaism: A Global Enterprise,’ Enoch Seminar/Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, Jan 2022 

‘Deus misereatur mei: childbearing, salvation, and religious competition for women's devotion in the Acts of Andrew,’ Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting (San Antonio, TX), 20-23 Nov 2021

‘She will be delivered: the "tokological" salvation of Eve in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve and 1 Timothy,’ British New Testament Society Conference (St. Andrews), 19-21 Aug 2021

‘The Problems and Promise of Interpreting 1 Timothy 2:8–15,’  Denver Seminary Graduate Seminar, Mar 2021 

Service and Community

Chair of the University of Nottingham Biblical Research Seminar (2021-present)

Steering Committee, Tyndale Fellowship New Testament Study Group (2021-present)

Reviewer for Journal of the American Academy of Religion and Journal for the Study of the New Testament 

Curriculum development team for TRS undergraduate courses (2023-present)

Cohost of DiviniTea (fortnightly departmental social)

ReMeDHe Writing Retreat organiser (2023, 2024)

'Writing Abstracts for Biblical Research' workshop organiser (2022)

COVID-19 Emergency Volunteer Responder, Royal Voluntary Service (2021-2023)

Public-facing publicaions

Co-host of ‘PhDStudentsToFollow’ (site promoting the work of graduate students and ECRs in religion) (2021-present)

'Nurture Habits of Goodness,' Church Times (May 2021) 

'I AM and #MeToo: the Incarnation and violence against women' Psephizo: Scholarship Serving Ministry (March 2021) 

Contributor to the ‘Bibledex’ project of educational mini-films on the Bible, on location in Israel and Palestine 

Memberships 

Society of Biblical Literature

British New Testament Society

ReMedHe: Working Group for Religion, Medicine, Disability, and Health in Late Antiquity

Bible and the Religions of the Ancient Near East Collective

Institute for Biblical Research

Contact

Email: emily.gathergood@nottingham.ac.uk

Linkedin: EmilyGathergood 

Hcommons: EmilyGathergood

ORCiD: 0000-0002-5273-938X 

Twitter: @emilygathergood

Facebook: EmilyGathergood