ITIA
The Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (ITIA) is one of the leading centres in the world for bringing together the study and practice of theology and the arts.
Founded in 2000, ITIA operates out of St Mary’s College in the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews. In the seaside medieval town of St Andrews in Scotland, scholars and artists gather regularly to engage in study, conversation and research about the role of the arts within theology, and the place of theology within the arts. Students from all over the world join each year to pursue their graduate degrees (MLitt, MPhil, PhD) and study under the supervision of world class scholars in theology and the arts.
Through weekly seminars, coursework, conferences, and events throughout the term, ITIA is a hub of vibrant discourse on the theological dimensions of film, television, literature, the visual arts, music, drama, and more. Directed by Dr. Gavin Hopps, ITIA comprises five full-time staff, about thirty graduate students, and several part-time, honorary, and post-doctoral fellows.
Examples of past and/or current PhD projects include:
- Rooted in all its Story, More is Meant than Meets the Ear: A Study of the Relational and Revelational Nature of George MacDonald’s Mythopoeic Art (Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, PhD)
- Inherent grace : Thomas Pynchon, American Gothic, and Postsecular Hope (Matthew Nelson, PhD)
- Where Darkness is as Light : Approaching the Divine in the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (James Smoker, PhD)
- Storied Revelations : Parables, Imagination and George MacDonald’s Christian Fiction (Gisela H. Kreglinger, PhD)
- Learning How to Die : Affective Practice, Death and Popular Art (Joy Marie Clarkson, PhD)
- The Dardenne Brothers’ Cinematic Parables : Integrating Theology, Philosophy, and Film (Joel Mayward, PhD)