Events for Staff

Please see below for upcoming events aimed at Common Awards staff working at our partner TEIs.

Please contact the Common Awards team (common.awards@durham.ac.uk)  if you have any queries relating to these events.

Please note that some events are available to staff only and some to both staff and students; this will be made clear in the event description. Please see the student events page for events aimed at Common Awards students.

Upcoming Staff Events

Please click on each event below to find out further information, including how to register:

Common Awards Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Webinar Series

This webinar series has a focus on Diversity and Inclusion. Webinars are aimed at Common Awards students and staff but open to others with an interest in the subject areas addressed. Each webinar features leading scholars and/or faith practitioners who offer diverse insights into a range of topics that directly relate to the core modules taken by Common Awards students. 

Recordings of past webinars can be found here

Disability and Theology

Monday 28th April 2025   2pm-4pm

Please use this link to join the webinar, which will be held on Microsoft Teams  

About this event

The Common Awards team is delighted to host Dr Naomi Jacobs and Rev Dr Hannah Lewis for a webinar discussing Disability Justice and Theological Education.

Naomi Lawson Jacobs (they/them), who is disabled and neurodivergent, is the co-author of At the Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2022). Based on participatory research with disabled Christians, the book grew out of a PhD thesis in religious studies. Naomi is a research associate at Manchester Metropolitan University. They are currently editing a volume of disability theology written by disabled people, as well as co-editing a special issue of a disability studies journal on social-scientific research on religion and disability. Naomi is a trustee for Disability Rights UK and sits on the Church of England’s Neurodiversity Working Group.

Revd Dr Hannah Lewis is a Deaf priest, bilingual in BSL and English, currently working in Oxford diocese. She is also a freelance researcher, writer and presenter. Her PhD thesis was published as Deaf Liberation Theology (Ashgate, 2007) and she has published a number of journal articles and book chapters since then, most recently in Challenging Contextuality: Bibles and Biblical Scholarship in Context ed. Louise J. Lawrence, Peter-Ben Smit, Hannah M. Strommen, Charlene van der Walt (OUP, 2023).

The webinar will take place online on MSTeams on April 28^th 2025 from 2 pm to 4 pm.  This webinar will include breakout groups and group discussion. BSL interpretation will be available. 

The webinar leaders would appreciate knowing any key questions or discussion points you would like to raise beforehand. Please feel free to email Anupama (anupama.m.ranawana@durham.ac.uk) with any questions you might like to raise.

If you would like to be placed in a BSL only breakout group, or have any accessibility needs, please email Anupama at the email address above.

Making ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ for Disabled Students

A webinar with Dr Stephen Campbell, Leeds Trinity University

Wednesday 4th June, 2.00pm – 3.30pm

Please use this link to join the webinar, which will be held on Microsoft Teams 

About this event

This webinar will provide a chance for TEI staff to learn more about ‘reasonable adjustments’, exploring how our teaching, assessment, and student support can be adapted to provide a better experience for disabled students.

Dr Campbell is the author of Supporting Disabled Students in Higher Education: The Reasonable Adjustments Handbook (Routledge, 2023), an excellent guide to creative and practical responses to the needs of students with a wide range of disabilities. The webinar will provide an opportunity to hear about his work, and then to discuss with him how it might apply in the TEI context.

The webinar is open to teaching and administrative staff at any TEI offering Common Awards programmes. It will be recorded, and the recording made available to TEI staff after the event.

Theological Educators' Conference 2025: Children, Youth and Theological Education

16th  – 18th July 2025
Durham University

Conference theme

The theme of the conference is ‘Children, Youth and Theological Education.’

This three-day two-night conference is FREE to all Common Awards staff. 

Speakers will include:

• Melody Briggs, Sarah Strand and Hannah Wilkinson on approaches to the Bible in children’s and youth ministry;
• Maggi Dawn on creating worship for young adults;
• Carolyn Edwards, Meg Prowting and Sarah Holmes sharing perspectives on the current state of children and youth ministry in the UK;
• Mark Griffiths on enabling student research projects in children's and youth ministry; and
• Sara Taylor addressing how children’s and youth ministry is shaped by issues of race, class, and gender and the intersections between them.

Please visit our conference page for more information on the conference including the timetable and booking information.