Dr Pavlína Kašparová

Dr Pavlína Kašparová is the Director of Studies at The Faraday Institute and The Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. Her academic journey includes a PhD in Fine Art and Theology from Anglia Ruskin University and The Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, where she has been a Research Associate since 2022. Since April 2024, she has also held the position of Post-doctoral Research Associate at St. Edmund’s College in Cambridge. Pavlína holds two MA degrees in Catholic Theology and Art Theory and History and a BA in Design.

Pavlína’s research focuses on the intersection of art practice and theological scholarship, exploring how visual expression can enhance our understanding of complex theological concepts. As a practising artist, she pioneers innovative research methodologies that blend practice-based approaches with theological reflection, pushing the boundaries of traditional linguistic frameworks to uncover new realms of knowledge and understanding.

Through her long-term research, drawing on feminist theology, she explores the expression of religious identity through physical appearance. Her research employs photography, collages, and video to create a visual diary that conveys people’s perceptions of their bodies. The artist’s perspective is to investigate how women view and represent other women. She uses a practice-based research methodology to examine how individuals communicate their self-awareness and identity through visual narratives.

Selected papers:

2024, Creative Nun: Perceptions of Art and Spirituality, Yale Podcast Network.

2023, Art and Theology in Practice (talk), Beer and Theology series, Cambridge.

2023, Living Christian Identity as a Woman (research in progress presentation), CTF Annual Conference, Westminster College, Cambridge.

2022, Art Practice as Interfaith Dialogue (seminar lecture). CCCW/Divinity Faculty World Christianity Seminars series, Cambridge.

Kašparová, P. (2022). Perception of Visual Art in Christian Churches. In: H. Alford, ed., Preaching and the Arts / Predicazione e Arte. Communitas 2021. Rome: Angelicum University Press, pp.33–42.

2020, Religious Women: Double Discrimination (paper). 1st Virtual UACES Conference, online.