Editorial Team
Brett H Speakman (Editor) is currently working towards his PhD in the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews. His research includes apologetics, the Inklings, the imagination, and the history of Christianity. Prior to moving to the UK, Brett completed an MA in both the History of Christianity and Historical Theology at Wheaton College, while working at the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College as a graduate research assistant, where he conducted research for scholars, processed manuscripts and letters for archival use, and assisted in the editing of book reviews and articles for the journal, VII: An Anglo-American Literary Review. He is also the Co-Editor of Book Reviews for the Journal of Inklings Studies.
Kimberley Jane Anderson, ‘Billie’ (Book Reviews Editor) is a PhD student at the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts, University of St Andrews. Her current research applies a literary and musical critical approach to ‘art rock’ music, investigating theological and philosophical understandings of the self and the song as ‘sacramental’. She has also written on Renaissance literature, especially drama, in relation to theology and philosophy of the self. She writes and performs music intermittently with a band, Anderson & Sargent, and also works in hospitality.
Katelynn Carver (Guest Contributors Editor) is currently studying for her PhD in the Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts, St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, taking a multidisciplinary, process-oriented, theopoetic approach to the postsecular consideration of literature, culture, and psychotherapeutic responses to mood disorders and trauma. Prior to coming to the UK, Katelynn both worked in university administration and earned her Master’s degree in Religion and the Sciences / Religion, Literature, and Culture at Harvard University, where she also served as Managing Editor for Cult/ure: The Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School. She currently serves as the Professional Skills and Leadership Development Coordinator at the University of St Andrews, as a Contributing Scholar at State of Formation, and as the Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Inklings Studies.
Cynthia ‘Allie’ Thomas (Social Media Coordinator) has recently completed her MLitt in the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews. Before moving to St Andrews, she completed her BA in Humanities, with a Modern and Contemporary Studies emphasis, at Lee University in Cleveland, TN. Her research analyzes the ways in which theological and philosophical thought have a sustained conversation with modern culture and its artifacts, particularly film and the visual arts.
Dr. Gavin Hopps (ITIA Director, ex officio Editor) is Lecturer in Literature & Theology and Director of the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews. He has been involved in ITIA since he came to St Andrews as an RCUK Academic Fellow in 2006. Prior to this, he was a Lecturer in English at the universities of Aachen, Oxford and Canterbury Christ Church and a CRASSH Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge. His research is broadly concerned with theology and the arts, with a particular focus on Romantic literature and contemporary British popular music, though he is also interested in the relationship between theology and modalities of lightness (such as comedy, camp, leisure and play). He has published numerous articles on Romantic writing, a collection of essays on the spectral, the spiritual and the supernatural in Byron, a co-edited collection on Romanticism and Religion, and a monograph on the singer-songwriter Morrissey. He is currently working with Dr Jane Stabler in the School of English on a new edition of the complete poetic works of Byron, a volume in the New Directions in Religion and Literature series, a monograph on the levity of Byron’s Don Juan, and another on popular music and radical wonder, entitled The Kitsch Epiphany.
Regular Contributor(s)
Kevin Antlitz received his M.Div. (2010) and his Th.M. (2011) from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, MA, while also completing coursework at Harvard Divinity School and Boston College. He currently serves as a Ministry Fellow with Christian Union at Princeton University. Prior to his work at Princeton, he taught as an Adjunct Professor at Gordon College.