Reverend Dr Liz Carmichael

My research interests are in practical theology and Christian spirituality. My first career was in medicine, working for a year on the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada and then for seven years, 1975-81, in Soweto, South Africa. After a second BA and D.Phil in Theology, I worked in spirituality, theological education, peacebuilding and community development in the Diocese of Johannesburg 1991-96. I became Chaplain, Fellow and Tutor in Theology at St John's in 1996, and in 2004 published Friendship: Interpreting Christian Love, a history of the interpretation of 'agape' as friendship-love in the western Christian tradition.

I convene the Oxford Network of Peace Studies (OxPeace), a multidisciplinary initiative to promote the study of peace, peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping in the University. I am currently researching on the origins and operation of the South African National Peace Accord and the work of its structures in the transition period 1991-94.

I have a parallel research interest in a spirituality topic: the life and work of the Anglican priest and spiritual director Reginald Somerset Ward (1881-1962). I am Director of the St Theosevia Centre for Christian Spirituality.