The Rev. Dr. Susanna Snyder

“Rilke said, ‘Do not now look for the answers… at present you need to live the question.’ Studying ethics is about grappling with questions and paradoxes, and it involves inhabiting boundary-places. We need to engage with contemporary society and work actively for justice while digging deeply into our tradition. We need to value and explore the rich resources of the Christian faith while learning from the insights of other academic disciplines and religions. I enjoy exploring these and other creative tensions with students and colleagues at Epsicopal Divinity School.”

The Rev. Dr. Susanna Snyder, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Society and Christian Ethics, was appointed to the faculty in 2010. She holds an MA from the University of Cambridge, a BA from the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, and a PhD from the University of Birmingham. Prior to her appointment at Episcopal Divinity School, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Intiative in Religious Practices and Practical Theology at Emory University. Snyder was curate of two diverse, multi-ethnic Anglican parishes in London from 2005-2008 and has also spent time teaching and observing in Swaziland, Mozambique, and the Philippines.

Her research focuses on forced migration, religion and faith-based organizations, and she works at the intersection of social sciences and theology to explore these and other pressing social, economic and political issues. She has published a number of peer-reviewed articles, including 'Encountering Asylum Seekers: An Ethic of Fear or Faith?' in Studies in Christian Ethics (2011) and 'Un/settling Angels: Faith-Based Organizations and Asylum-seeking in the UK' in Journal of Refugee Studies (2011), and has contributed essays to edited volumes including the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Anglican Studies (OUP, 2013). Her first book, Asylum-Seeking, Migration and Church, will be published by Ashgate in October 2012. One of her current projects involves collaborating with other scholars to develop multi-faith theologies and ethics relating to migration.

Professor Snyder is Co-Chair of the Religion and Migration Group at the American Academy of Religion and a member of the Society of Christian Ethics. She is Founder and Co-Convener of the Migration, Theology and Faith Forum, which brings together migrants, academics and faith-based activists from across the US to learn from one another.