Research
In my dissertation, supervised by Celia Deane-Drummond, my research addresses the relationship between neurodegenerative memory loss and Christian self-identity through an interdisciplinary dialogue that engages theology, science, philosophy, and history. I contend that human memory is both individual and relational, and ultimately extends beyond the biological individual, even in face of neurodegeneration. My dissertation scholarship bridges several fields by bringing the work of theologian Edward Schillebeeckx together with neuroscientific research in order to construct a contemporary theological anthropology. I employ both analytical and hermeneutic methods to determine whether different meanings of memory can or should be re-interpreted in the transdisciplinary space that embraces persons who live with memory loss.
In-Progress for Conferences / Publication
In her 1969 seminal work On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross identifies hope as a persistent affect throughout the dying process. Kubler-Ross argues that some form of hope for the patient should always be cultivated, since it is hopelessness and isolation that generate a fear of dying. I explore the question of hope in the face of dementia diagnoses by giving attention to the role that both religious and scientific institutions play in providing hope for individuals with dementia. I examine patients’ descriptions of their sources of hope in order to determine whether they conflate hopes with expectations, and whether they associate hope with particular forms of meaning. Drawing on recent memoirs written by those with Alzheimer’s disease or by their caregivers, I analyze this literature to understand where those afflicted with dementia direct their hope. I compare the manner in which these authors describe scientific/medical/ technological hope and expectations with religious or faith-based hope and expectations. Consequently, I argue that further study needs to be done to understand the dying process of those who have been diagnosed with dementia. While Kubler-Ross’ work is an invaluable resource for illuminating the psychological path through dying and death, those who are silenced in the later stages of dementia by the inability to communicate may experience a different psychological path through dying than previously suggested.
The question of how developments in biology and neuroscience should impact theological understandings of the human person has been widely debated in theological scholarship. This article addresses the human-microorganism symbiosis by giving theological attention to emerging neurobiological evidence that human gut microbiota are linked to changes in the brain. Specifically, I look at research associating the microbiome with brain development and neuroinflammation, in order to show the direction in which this integrative neurobiological approach is moving towards understanding the body. I raise questions about the brain-body axis and its role in a microbiome-focused model of holistic body health. I bring these revolutionary neurobiological findings into conversation with theological perspectives on the body as given by Pope John Paul II and David Kelsey in order to reveal connections between body micro-ecosystems and contemporary theological anthropology. Consequently, I argue that an understanding of the human microbiome leads to an understanding of the human body as a micro-image of the body of Christ: a complex plurality of relationships that thrives when those relationships work in harmony.
