Visiting Research Fellows

Visiting Research Fellows are scholars who conduct research through the Centre.

Applications for the 2025 Joint Visiting Fellowship with the University of Manchester are now open! The aim of the fellowship is to promote research in the Methodist and Wesleyan traditions by facilitating scholarly access to the internationally renowned Methodist Archives held at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library in Manchester and the MWRC and Nazarene Theological College library. The deadline for application is Monday, 27 January 2025, 5pm.

Applications are now open for the 2025 MWRC Fellowships. The application deadline for these fellowships is 31 January 2025. The MWRC Fellowships are the MWRC Visiting Research Fellowship, Postgraduate Student Fellowship, and Sabbatical Fellowship. (The Postdoctoral Fellowship is not formally being offered, but expressions of interest are welcome at any time.) To find out more, click on the name of the fellowship. An overview of our various fellowships can be found here.

Prospective Visiting Fellows are encouraged to read our 'Guide to Research in Manchester'.

For an accommodation form with terms and conditions, click here.

The MWRC currently has three annual Visiting Fellow programmes: the joint programme with the University of Manchester, the MWRC programme, the and the programme with Point Loma Nazarene University. Additionally, we are willing to discuss the possibility of helping to facilitate self-funded research visits or sabbaticals from scholars and pastors. Information about current and past Visiting Fellows can be found below.

MWRC-University of Manchester Joint Visiting Research Fellows

2024: Holly Day, Ph.D., (University of York), project: ‘“Piety on the Left; Profit on the Right!”: The Development of Methodist Pocket Books, 1792-1840’.

2023: Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Ph.D., (Wesley Theological Seminary), project: ‘How Methodism Became Global’.

2022: Kelly Diehl Yates, Ph.D., (Indiana Wesleyan University), project: ‘Methodists and Marriage: 1743-1800’.

2020: Pedro Zavala Chaparro, Ph.D., (ITESM / Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana [University of the Cloister of Sor Juana], Mexico City), project: ‘The Journal of Charles Wesley (English-Spanish translation) and Charles Wesley: A Contemporary Lecture from Latin America’. Residency in summer 2022.

2019: Stéphanie Prévost, Ph.D., (Université Paris Diderot), Project: ‘The Liberal Non-Conformist Conscience and the Eastern Question: Appraising the Liberal Internationalist Turn. An Investigation in Methodist, Congregationalist, and Quaker Circles and Print (1875-1915)’. A video recording of her presentation ‘Practical Christianity and Methodist Advocacy for Ottoman Armenians (1894-1915)’ can be watched here. Dr Prévost’s reflections on her experience can be found here.

2018: Alan M. Guenther, Ph.D., (Briercrest College and Seminary [Saskatchewan, Canada]), Project: 'The Globalization of Methodist Worship' focusing on the 19th century 'growth of the number of songs from the United States and other countries included in Methodist hymnals published in Britain', including contributions that may have come from converts in mission settings. Prof Guenther's reflections on his experience can be found here. A video recording of his presentation ‘“Go Ye Messengers of God”: Global Awareness in 19th Century Methodist Hymn Books’ can be watched here. Based on this research he has published ‘The Globalization of Methodist Hymnody’, Wesley and Methodist Studies, 14/2 (2022).

2017: Christopher H. Evans, Ph.D., (Boston University School of Theology), Project: 'Institutionalizing Social Holiness: Methodism and the Rise of Transatlantic Social Christianity, 1870-1910'. Prof Evans's research centred on transatlantic Methodism in the late nineteenth century, focusing on the role of British Methodist 'sisterhoods' formed in the 1880s, culminating with the establishment of the Wesley Deaconess Institute in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1890. Based on this research he has published '"The Noblest Ideals of Service": Sister Jeanie Banks's Sojourn in London's East End, 1888-1893', Methodist History, 56:4 (July 2018) and began his biography of Frances Willard: Do Everything: The Biography of Frances Willard (OUP, 2022). Prof Evans's reflections on his experience can be found here.

2016: David Bebbington, Ph.D., (University of Stirling). Project: Methodist growth in the British Isles during the Victorian Era. During his residency Prof Bebbington presented a paper titled, 'The Mid-Victorian Revolution in Wesleyan Methodist Home Mission', which has been published in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 70:1 (Jan. 2019). The video recording of the presentation can be watched here. Prof Bebbington's reflections on his experience can be found here.

2015: Cindy Aalders, D.Phil., Project: The Methodist Child in Eighteenth-Century England.

MWRC Visiting Research Fellows

2024: Russell Frazier, Ph.D., (Africa Nazarene University), project: ‘The Manuscripts of John William Fletcher’.

2024: Esther D. Jadhav, Ph.D., (Asbury University), project: ‘Theoretical Framework for a Wesleyan Theology of Racial Equity, Mutuality and Social Justice’.

2023: Matteo Ricciardi, Ph.D., (European Nazarene College), project: ‘Tracing Wesleyan Heritage in Eucharistic Celebrations in the Church of the Nazarene: A Study Exploring the Article of Faith No. 13 and Liturgical Guidelines’.

2022: Patrick Eby, Ph.D., (Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University), project: ‘Charles Wesley and the Formation of Community at Bristol (1749-1771)’.

2022: Natalya Cherry, Ph.D., (Brite Divinity School), project: ‘John Wesley: A Single Life in Communities’.

2020: Crawford Gribben, Ph.D., (Queen’s University Belfast), project: ‘J. N. Darby and the Birth of Dispensationalism’, residency in summer 2022. A video recording of his presentation ‘J. N. Darby as a Charismatic Theologian’ can be watched here. The research has been incorporated into J. N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism (Oxford University Press, 2024).

2020: Walter N. Gessner, Ph.D., (Nazarene Pastor; Nazarene Bible College; Mount Vernon Nazarene University), project: ‘Seek Not; Forbid Not: An Historical and Theological Development of the Calvary Holiness Church and Union with the Church of the Nazarene’. Residency in summer 2022.

2020: Kyle B. Robinson, Ph.D., (Olivet Nazarene University): ‘The Methodist Mouth: The Formation of Reasonable Speech in 18th Century Methodism’. Residency in summer 2022.

2020: James E. Pedlar, Ph.D., (Tyndale Seminary): ‘With Borrow’d Rays: The Eclipse of Ecclesiology in English Methodist Revivalism’. Residency in summer 2022. The research has been incorporated into British Methodist Revivalism and the Eclipse of Ecclesiology (Routledge, 2024).

2019: Ulrike Schuler, Ph.D., (Reutlingen School of Theology, Germany), project: research on the Tolpuddle Martyrs, which was published as ‘Re-formation in Action: Liberty in a Wesleyan Spirit and Praxis—The Tolpuddle Martyrs, Part I’ and ‘. . . Part, II’, in Wesley and Methodist Studies, 12:1 and 12:2 (2020).

2019: Arseny Ermakov, Ph.D., (Eva Burrows College/University of Divinity [Melbourne, Australia]), project: ‘Jesus the Purifier: A Reading of Gospel Purity Texts in the Light of Greco-Roman Religious Traditions’.

2019: Andrew F. Walls, Ph.D., (Retired historian of missions), Project: ‘Evangelical Conversion in Historical Perspective’. A video of his presentation can be found here.

2019: Ingrid Reneau Walls, Ph.D. (Independent scholar), Project: ‘Early African American Methodist Activists in the Public Sphere’. A video of her presentation can be found here.

2018: Jayhoon Yang, Ph.D., (Hyupsung University, South Korea), Project: Writing a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount from Wesleyan perspective. Dr Yang was resident in the UK for the 2018-19 academic year.

2018: Kimberly Ervin Alexander, Ph.D., (School of Divinity, Regent University [Virginia]), Project: 'Bearing Witness: Spirit Baptism in the Life of the Pentecostal and Her Community' focusing on 'the personal and communal meaning and significance of the experience of Spirit baptism for the Pentecostal tradition'. Prof Alexander’s reflections on his experience can be found here. A video of her presentation ‘Receiving the Spirit in the Early Pentecostal Body: Sanctification, Spirit Baptism, and the Lamb Slain for Sinners’ can be found here.

2018: Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Ph.D., (Methodist Theological School in Ohio), Project: work on volume 14 of The Works of John Wesley (Doctrinal and Controversial Treatises III [published in 2022]) focusing on John Wesley's writings in response to the Moravians. See also ‘Disputing Holiness: Wesley’s Debate with the Moravians’, Ministry Matters (2021).

2017: Stanley J. Rodes, Ph.D., (Global Education and Clergy Development, Church of the Nazarene). Project: ‘Testing the Tenability of John Wesley’s Soteriology: The Historical Roots and Theological Gravity of an Early Nineteenth-Century Methodist Controversy on the Witness of the Spirit’. His research focused on debates concerning Wesley’s understanding of the witness of the Spirit in relation to justifying faith and their implications for the subsequent trajectory of Methodist soteriology. Further details on his research plans can be found here. A video of Stan's reflections on his experience can be found at this link. His research was published in Wesley and Methodist Studies, 12:2 (2020): ‘A Tale of Two Sermons: The Quest for Theological Coherence in Early Nineteenth-Century English Methodism’.

2016: James E. Pedlar, Ph.D., (Tyndale Seminary, Toronto). Project: ‘Charism, Renewal and Wesleyan Identity: Interpreting the Emergence of Primitive Methodism’. Dr Pedlar's reflections on his experience can be found here. An audio recording of his presentation on 'Schism and the Spirit in Hugh Bourne's Theology' can be heard here. His article of this same title was published in Wesley and Methodist Studies, 10:2 (2018).

2016: Priscilla Pope-Levison, Ph.D., (Southern Methodist University). Project: Women in the Pentecostal League of Prayer (an interdenominational holiness movement established in 1891). An article on her research was published here. An audio recording of her presentation, ‘Pentecost in the Churches: Women in the Pentecostal League of Prayer’, can be heard here. Her article of the same title was published in Wesley and Methodist Studies, 10:1 (2018). She also published ‘Five Women in Ministry Articles Transcribed from Tongues of Fire’ in Wesley and Methodist Studies, 11:1 (2019).

2015: Glen O'Brien, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Church History, Sydney College of Divinity, Head of Theology, School for Christian Studies, Booth College. Project: John Wesley's Political Writings. 

2015: David Bundy, Ph.D., Visiting Professor at Seoul Theological University and Research Professor of World Christian Studies at New York Theological Seminary. Project: The English Roots of the Korean and Japanese Holiness Churches. Research published as: ‘British Roots of the Korean Holiness Church: The Case of John Thomas,’ Journal for World Christianity and the Fourfold Gospel, 2:1 (2015), 111-142; British Roots of the Korean Holiness Church: The Case of John Thomas [Korean] (Seoul: Seoul Theological University, 2015); and ‘Radical Holiness Becomes a World Christian Movement: The Influence of Isabella Sarah Leonard in Great Britain, Australia and Singapore, 1881-1892,’ in William Kostlevy and Wallace Thornton, Jr. (eds), The Radical Holiness Movement in the Christian Tradition: A Festschrift for Larry D. Smith, Studies in the History of World Christianities, 1 (Emeth Press, 2016).

2014: Andrew O. Winckles, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Chair, Adrian College. Project: Research on Methodist women's writing as Literature. Research published as: ‘Agnes Bulmer's Select Letters and the Construction of Evangelical Femininity’, Nineteenth Century Studies, 28 (2014); ‘The Secret Textual History of Pamela, Methodist’, Studies in Book Culture, 6:2 (2015); Eighteenth-Century Women’s Writing and the Methodist Media Revolution: ‘Consider the Lord as Ever Present Reader’ (Liverpool University Press, 2019); and ‘‘‘Pray for the Unworthy Scribbler”: The Textual Cultures of Early Methodist Women’, in After Print: Eighteenth-Century Manuscript Cultures, ed. Rachael Scarborough King (University of Virginia Press, 2020).  

2014: Keith E. Beebe, Ph.D., Professor of Church History, Whitworth University. Project: 'George Whitefield and John Wesley in Scotland', for a forthcoming book on the Cambuslang Revival. 

2013: Jon Kulaga, Ph.D., Provost, Asbury University. Project: 'John Wesley's Leadership Style: In Search of a Paradigm'

2013: Ayo Adewuya, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament, Pentecostal Theological Seminary. 

2012: David McEwan, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in Theology, Pastoral Theology, and Practice; Academic Dean; Director of the Australasian Centre for Wesleyan Research, Nazarene Theological College (Brisbane, Australia). Research published as: The Life of God in the Soul: The Integration of Love, Holiness and Happiness in the Thought of John Wesley, Studies in Evangelical History and Thought (Paternoster Press, 2015).

2010: Ricardo Gomez, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Asbury Theological Seminary and Curriculum Coordinator for Latin America, Free Methodist World Missions.

2010: Rachel Cope, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University. Research published as: Rachel Cope, Amy Harris, and Jane Hinckley, eds. Family Life in England and America, 1690–1820, 4 vols (Routledge, 2015) and Rachel Cope and Bradley Kime. 'The Vision: A Dream Account Collected and Preserved by Mary Bosanquet Fletcher', Wesley and Methodist Studies 8:1 (2016), 52–66.

2012, 2008: Barry W. Hamilton, Ph.D., Theological Librarian and Professor of Historical and Contemporary Theology, Northeastern Seminary. Research published as: The Role of Richard Watson’s Theological Institutes in the Development of Methodism After John Wesley (Edwin Mellen Press, 2014). 

2008: Anthony J. Headley, Ph.D., Professor of Counseling, Asbury Theological Seminary. Research published as: Family Crucible: The Influence of Family Dynamics in the Life and Ministry of John Wesley (Wipf and Stock, 2010).

MWRC Visiting Research Fellows from Point Loma Nazarene University

2019, 2017: William Wood, Ph.D., Professor of History, Point Loma Nazarene University. Project: 'British Evangelicals and Islamic Central Asia in the 19th Century'. Dr Wood's reflections on his experience can be found here and a published version here (see p. 6).

2015: Robert Gailey, Ph.D., Professor of Business and Director, Center for International Development, Point Loma Nazarene University.

2015, 2013, 2009, 2005: Carol Blessing, Ph.D., Professor of Literature, Point Loma Nazarene University. 2015 project: 'George Herbert's "Exceeding Exact" Country Parson and its Influence on Methodism'. Previous Research published as: '"Oh That the Mantle May Rest on Me!" The Ministry of Mary Tooth', in Religion, Gender, and Industry: Exploring Church and Methodism in a Local Setting (Pickwick Publications, 2011). 

2014, 2012: Rebecca Laird, D.Min., Associate Professor of Christian Ministry, Point Loma Nazarene University.

2013, 2006: Charlene K. Pate, M.A., Associate Professor of Writing and Director of Writers' Studio, Point Loma Nazarene University.

2010: John W. Wright, Ph.D., Professor of Theology and Christian Scriptures, Point Loma Nazarene University. Research published as: ‘“Use” and “Enjoy” in John Wesley: John Wesley’s Participation within the Augustinian Tradition’, Wesley and Methodist Studies 6 (2014).

2007: Enedina Martinez, Ed.D, Professor of Education, Point Loma Nazarene University. Research published as: 'Reflections on the Theologies of Education of John Comenius and John Wesley', in Christianity, Education and Modern Society (Information Age Publishing, 2007).