Christian Women at University : Faith, Feminism, and Feeling at Home

The experience of university is a unique time of change and development, not least in terms of faith. Christian Women at University takes seriously the faith lives and ordinary experiences of women in this context. Examining the intersectional identities and faith stories of 26 Christian emerging women studying at university in England, it uncovers the resources and strategies that the women utilized in crafting a home for themselves at university. Being women and belonging to the Christian faith, the women encountered barriers to feeling at home, including sexism on their academic course, conservative theologies in their church, plus struggling with their mental health, homesickness or the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors intersected with students’ marginalized identities, including their race, sexuality and class. However, their gender provided an avenue for the women to feel safe and to grow at university and their faith also provided contexts for feeling at home, including in their churches, chaplaincies and student Christian societies. Christian Women at University seeks to deepen our understanding of women’s lived faith in transitional times. It highlights how women in university negotiate the twists and turns, and backwards steps as they attempt to ‘make home’ away from home and facing the challenges of their intersecting identities, all in the context of overwhelming change.

The experience of university is a unique time of change and development, not least in terms of faith. Christian Women at University takes seriously the faith lives and ordinary experiences of women in this context. Examining the intersectional identities and faith stories of 26 Christian emerging women studying at university in England, it is concerned with the resources and strategies that the women utilized in crafting a home for themselves at university, when away from the familial home for the first time. Being women and belonging to the Christian faith, the women encountered barriers to feeling at home, including sexism on their academic course, conservative theologies in their church, as well as struggling with their mental health, homesickness or the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors intersected with students’ marginalized identities, including their race, sexuality and class. However, their gender provided an avenue for the women to feel safe and to grow at university, especially though close friendships with other women, and their faith also provided contexts for feeling at home, including in their churches, chaplaincies and student Christian societies, in which the women felt safe enough to be themselves and even to begin to explore the breadth and depth of Christianity.Christian Women at University seeks to deepen our understanding of women’s lived faith in transitional times. It highlights how women in university negotiate the twists and turns, and backwards steps as they attempt to ‘make home’ away from home and facing the challenges of their intersecting identities of age, gender, faith, race, class and sexuality, all in the context of overwhelming change.