Dr Karen O’Donnell
Academic Dean, Lecturer in Worship & Human Community
Tel: 01223 272976
Email: k.odonnell@westcott.cam.ac.uk
Karen is Academic Dean and Lecturer in Worship & Human Community. As Director of Studies, Karen is responsible for ensuring that ordinands and students are getting the most out of their opportunities for learning within their time at Westcott House. She ensures students are on appropriate academic pathways and monitors academic progress. As a lecturer she is focused on providing excellent learning opportunities for students around the themes of liturgy, worship, and trauma.
Karen’s taught courses include:
- TMM1537 Introduction to Christian Worship
- BTh32 Patterns in Christian Worship
- TMM2277/3317 Theology & Trauma
- TMM47720 Liturgical Theology & The Eucharist
- MPhil Exercise in Gender and Christian Theology
Karen supervises a range of postgraduate students in themes such as Trauma Theology, LGBTQIA+ Theologies, Christian Spirituality, Liturgical Theology, and Gender & Theology.
Karen serves as a member of the Durham, Cambridge and ARU Academic Oversight Groups. She is also a member of the BTh Management Committee and of the Divinity Faculty’s Christian Theology Subject Group.
Karen’s research interests are interdisciplinary. A feminist theologian, she is interested in the places where bodies and theologies meet. This accounts for her interest in trauma theology where she is concerned with the impact bodily experiences of trauma have on theological imaginations. Similarly, she is interested in liturgy as the embodied outworking of theological ideas and in the ways in which theology and liturgy are entwined within the body.
Away from academic interests, Karen is a keen reader and (very) amateur piano player. She enjoys cooking, yoga, and the bracing fresh air in her beloved homeland of the Peak District.
Selected Publications
O’Donnell, Karen. Broken Bodies: The Eucharist, Mary and the Body in Trauma Theology. London: SCM Press, 2019.
‘Feminist Theology.’ In Ford’s New Modern Theologians, edited by Ashley Cocksworth and Rachel Muers. Blackwell, 2024.
‘Mary the Crone.’ In From the Shores of Silence:, edited by Ashley Cocksworth, Rachel Starr, and Stephen Burns. London: SCM Press, 2022.
O’Donnell, Karen. Survival: Radical Spiritual Practices for Trauma Survivors. London: SCM Press, 2024.
O’Donnell, Karen. The Dark Womb: Re-Conceiving Theology through Reproductive Loss. London: SCM Press, 2022.
O’Donnell, Karen, and Katie Cross, eds. Bearing Witness: Intersectional Perspectives on Trauma Theology. SCM Press, 2022.
O’Donnell, Karen, and Katie Cross, eds. Feminist Trauma Theologies: Body, Scripture, and Church in Critical Perspective. London: SCM Press, 2020.
O’Donnell, Karen, and Claire Williams, eds. Pregnancy and Birth: Critical Theological Conceptions. SCM Press, 2024.