Naomi Lawson Jacobs

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Research Associate at Manchester Metropolitan University

This research project involved qualitative research with thirty disabled Christians. In the thesis, I argue that, in many churches, disabled people are conceptualised as objects of care. However, disabled Christians are capable of being active agents in churches, with service, ministry and theologies of their own to offer.

https://www.dartonlongmantodd.co.uk/titles/2360-9781913657185-at-the-gates Based on extensive research, Naomi Lawson Jacobs and Emily Richardson have collected prophetic and transformative narratives of experience, shared directly by disabled people who have rarely been enabled to speak in Christian books about disability. By centering disabled Chr...

[Full text cannot be uploaded to ResearchGate due to journal embargo, but the text is available open access at https://naomilawsonjacobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Manuscript_Speaking-With-Us-Not-For-Us.pdf ] To belong in the Christian tradition, we must be able to contribute to it. Yet neurodivergent Christians have rarely been enabled to tel...

Law’s role in fostering inclusive and accessible pedestrian environments: insights from a multinational study This project aims to strengthen initiatives to use law, policy and awareness-raising to enhance the accessibility of city streets, particularly for disabled and older pedestrians. It focuses on five countries and, within each of them, two c...

Presentation with Emily Richardson, based on research with disabled Christians (Jacobs, 2019), reflecting on epistemic injustice in theology and churches for disabled participants. Participants were positioned as objects of theological knowledge; their socially located perspectives were invalidated as a source of authoritative knowledge, while barr...

Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability, 2(2), 2022, 132-142. This piece is based on two talks I have recently given on disability and sexuality: for the Church of England LGBTQIA+ network Open Table, and for a panel on disability and intersectionality organised by HeartEdge and the Church Times. In this rewritten piece, I refle...

(ANVIL: Journal of Theology and Mission 38:1) Through a resistant reading of the Gospel story of a man with leprosy and his transformative encounter with Jesus, I ask what we can learn from him about mission by and with disabled people - not just 'to' us. https://churchmissionsociety.org/resources/man-with-a-mission-naomi-lawson-jacobs-anvil-vol-3...

Seminar in the ‘Power and the Church of England’ series

Invited contributor to curriculum planning event for ‘Cultivating God’s Brainforest’ course.

A booklet summarising the research in non-technical language for a general audience, shared at the annual Disability and Church conference Oct 2019 (Inclusive Church/St Martin-in-the-Fields).

A book review of Schumm and Stolzfus's collection of texts on disability theologies and philosophies across a range of world religions.

A conversation with Judith Butler at Birkbeck School of Arts about disability activism and the difficulties people with disabilities have in accessing academic events in the UK.

Invited visiting speaker.