Sarah Parkhouse

I am a historian of religion, focusing on the ancient Mediterranean and the emergence of Christianity within the Greco-Roman-Egyptian context.

Research

1. Early Christianity in Coptic: Manuscripts, Lived Religion, and the Landscape

Previously funded by the British Academy. To find out more about this project see https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/interview-with-dr-sarah-parkhouse/

In addition to the major grant, I was also awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme small research grant for a collaborative project on "Lived Religion in Late Antique Egypt: Bodies, Objects, Places" (2024–25).

I have a forthcoming UKRI-funded project "Coptic in Manchester: Connecting Manuscripts and Communities", which will begin in 2026.

2. Amphitheatres, Space, and Religious Practices. I am interested in exploring how ancient and modern people have conceptualised amphitheatre spaces and the events held within them, particularly in religious terms. I have two forthcoming articles on this topic (see below), one which was awarded the Diamond Award for Integrative Scholarship.

I am a co-editor of a new book series, Coptic Gospels and Associated Texts, with volumes forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, and I serve on the editorial board of the Elements Early Christian Literature series, as well as a couple of journals. 

I have published and continue to work on gospel literature, canonical and non-canonical, gender, papyrology, and martyrdom. Past research projects have focused on the diversity of literature within early Christianity, and I have published on the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of John, the First Apocalypse of James, the martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, and the Pistis Sophia. My first book Eschatology and the Saviour: The Gospel of Mary among Early Christian Dialogue Gospels (Cambridge University Press, 2018) was awarded the Manfred Lautenschläger award for interdisciplinary religious studies.

My more general research interests are ancient religion, lived religion, place and landscape, objects, practices, ritual, magic, and comparative religion.

I came to Manchester in 2021 with a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Before that, I was a research fellow at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne (2017-2020), and held a short-term fellowship at the Warburg Institute, London. I completed a AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Durham in 2017.

Teaching

In 2025/26, I'll be teaching on:

• Introduction to the Study of Religions and Theology (course unit director)
• Bible in Ancient and Modern Worlds
• Digital Greek New Testament
• Religion and Gender Theory
• Introduction to Christianity (seminar only)
• Rhetoric and Society: Persuasion, Argumentation and Debate (seminar only)

My office hours are Wednesdays 11-12 & Thursdays 1-2 in Sam Alex S1.5 or email for an appointment, in person or online.