Alison Zilversmit (Divinity Shaw Scholar)
Thesis title: Colonial Missionary Conceptions of Development: The British Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Southern Rhodesia, 1900-1953
PhD supervisors:
Qualifications
BA with Honors, Stanford University (2018)
Religious Studies and Philosophy Major, Art History Minor
Phi Beta Kappa
MPhil with Distinction, University of Oxford (2020)
Modern Doctrine of Christian Theology
Clarendon Scholar
Prince Sultan Scholar
MSt, University of Oxford (2023)
Study of Religions: Christianity and Islam
Abrahamic Religions Studentship
Zayed Foundation Study of Islam Studentship
Responsibilities & affiliations
Wilson Center Fellow--CARE Project
University of Edinburgh Centre for Study of World Christianity Member
University of Edinburgh Global History Graduate Group Member
Undergraduate teaching
Popular Religion and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Autumn 2024)
God(s) of the Philosophers (Spring 2025)
Research summary
My broader research interests lie in how British Anglican mission agencies constructed and incorporated ideas of “charity,” “humanitarianism,” and “development” into their missiologies in the twentieth century, paying especial attention to how such mission-aid entangles global colonial and post-colonial power-dynamics. My work embraces a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on my background in modern Christian theology and history, anthropology of religion, Western philosophy, and post-colonial theory.
Current research interests
My current PhD project explores the British Anglican mission Society for the Propagation of the Gospel’s history from 1901-1953 in colonial Zimbabwe, and how SPG missionaries engaged with and imagined land development. I am particularly focusing on the triangulation of communication between the English missionary Arthur Shearly Cripps, the Southern Rhodesian labour organizers Charles Mzingeli and Jasper Savanhu, and the English metropolitan political parties like the Fabian Society. I ask how they potentially collaborated transnationally to co-construct an early iteration of “development.”Past research interests
My current PhD project is based on research during my 2020 MSt at the University of Oxford under the guidance of Prof Mark Chapman. There, I did a comparative study of SPG in its eighteenth and twentieth-century iterations. During the same 2020 MSt, I also worked under the guidance of Prof Mohammad Talib and explored anthropological approaches to contemporary practices of Islam. Previously, my 2018 MPhil at the University of Oxford focused on approaches to Modern Theology. Under the guidance of Dr Michael Oliver, I worked particularly on feminist and post-colonial Christian theologies .Conference details
"'Charity to the Souls of Men': Interplaying Christian Charity and Missions in the Anglican SPG's Early Sermons" -- SGSAH Scottish Universities Theologies and Religious Studies Postgraduate Conference (January 2024)
"Reading Along the Historian's Grain: Analyzing Frank Klingberg's History of SPG's 'Humanitarian' Slavery"--EHS Post-Graduate Symposium: New Directions for Church History, Methods and Sources (March 2025)
Invited speaker
Panelist "Book Launch: Dr Pedro Feitoza's Propagandists of the Book"--University of Edinburgh School of Divinity Centre for Study of World Christianity (September 2024)
Organiser
University of Edinburgh New College Postgraduate Colloquium (Forthcoming June 2025)
Reviews
Studies in World Christianity. "Mark A. Lamport & Upolu Lumā Vaai, editors. 2023. Restoring Identities: The Contextualizing Story of Christianity in Oceania." March 2025.
Studies in World Christianity. "Pedro Feitoza. 2024. Propagandists of the Book: Protestant Missions, Christian Literacy, and the Making of Brazilian Evangelicalism." (Forthcoming)
Journal of Ecclesiastical History. "Michelle Leibst. 2024. Labour and Christianity in the mission. African workers in Tanganyika and Zanzibar, 1864-1926" (Forthcoming)