Chrissie Thwaites

From 2020 to 2025, Thwaites conducted her PhD at the University of Leeds, supervised by Dr Al McFadyen and Dr Caroline Starkey. This was fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) via the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH). Her research investigated the phenomenon of evangelical Christian purity culture and its impact on young women in Britain, based on a large online survey (which reached over 1300 people and generated around 600 responses) and a small number of interviews.  

As a LAHRI Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow, she will be disseminating and further developing insights from her PhD for both academics and the general public. This will have two key areas of focus: purity culture in Britain, and emotionally demanding research. The former will involve sharing key findings from my research on purity culture in Britain, through both academic articles and a portfolio of writing for public audiences, which will be of interest to practitioners, policymakers and confessional religious settings. 

During her PhD, she also developed an interest in researcher wellbeing when conducting sensitive research. The second area of focus for this fellowship therefore involves the development of conceptual innovations to support emotionally demanding research, through both academic writing and a resource to equip novice researchers conducting sensitive research. Prior to her PhD at Leeds, she gained a BA (Hons) (First Class) in religion and ancient history, and MA (Distinction) in theology and religion, from the University of Exeter. Thwaites also continues to maintain a keen commitment to university access, participation and outreach, having previously worked as a Widening Participation Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Exeter.

Qualifications:

PhD, University of Leeds, MA Theology and Religion, University of Exeter, BA (Hons) Religion and Ancient History, University of Exeter 

Publications

Thwaites, Christabelle. (2025). ‘Challenges to conducting sensitive research’, Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religion, 26, pp. 46-61. 

Conferences and Presentations

Conference contributions 

Panel chair, ‘Re/assessing approaches to sensitive research in religious studies’, British Association for the Study of Religions Annual Conference (BASR), University of Leeds, September 2024  

Keynote roundtable panellist, ‘Reckoning with the Past in Student Education in the Study of Religion: Increasing Tensions for the Discipline’, British Association for the Study of Religions Annual Conference (BASR), University of Leeds, September 2024 

Co-organiser, Researching Religion and Abuse Workshop for PGRs and ECRs, University of Leeds, 14-15 November 2022 

Organiser, BIAPT Doctoral Student Conference, British and Irish Association for Practical Theology, online, April 2022 

Organiser, BIAPT Doctoral Student Conference, British and Irish Association for Practical Theology, online, April 2021 

Co-organiser, South West Theology & Religion Postgraduate Conference, University of Exeter and University of Bristol (online), May 2020.  

Conference papers 

‘Use of the Bible in British evangelical purity culture’, British Sociological Association SocRel (Sociology of Religion Study Group) Bible in Contemporary Britain Conference, King’s College London, March 2024  

‘Methodological and ethical challenges: researching purity culture in British Christianity’, British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR) Annual Conference, University of Cambridge, September 2023  

‘Sociological study of sensitive topics: challenges in contemporary research’, International Society for the Sociology of Religion 37th Biennial Conference, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, July 2023  

‘Becoming the problem: managing positionality and public perceptions of research’, Researching Religion and Abuse Workshop,  University of Leeds, November 2022 

‘“A culture of coercive power and control”: researching purity culture in Britain’, Association for the Sociology of Religion 83rd Annual Conference, Los Angeles, USA, August 2022.  

‘Researching Religion and Sexuality’, White Rose College of Arts and Humanities Festival of Research, online, June 2021. 

‘The impact of evangelical purity culture on young women’, British and Irish Association for Practical Theology Doctoral Student Conference, online, April 2021.  

‘Disability, identity and the welfare state: confronting the reality of disability benefits policy’, Society for the Study of Christian Ethics Postgraduate Conference, online, March 2021.  

‘Expectation vs reality: Eating disorders, bodily experience, and commensality in contemporary Christianity’, Cambridge Body and Food Histories Group Conference, online, July 2020. 

‘Simply Eat? Eating disorders and commensality in church communities’, South West Theology & Religion Postgraduate Conference, online, May 2020. (Voted best conference paper).  

‘Religious Influences and Female Duality: The Construction of Female Boundaries in Jane Eyre.’ Exclamat!on: An Interdisciplinary Journal Conference, University of Exeter, June 2019.