Blackwells Scholarship 2019 Winner Announced

11th September 2019

Congratulations to Jennifer Brown, the winner of Blackwells Scholarship 2019.

Jennifer Brown is joining Blackfriars as a DPhil candidate, researching Theology and Religion.

She received a PGDip in Theology from Oxford in 2017, studying Philosophy of Religion, Buddhist Philosophy, and Science and Religion; with a culminating examination paper on the metaphysical basis of cognition. This research directly motivated the central inquiry of her DPhil proposal: ‘Is the concept of a “purely natural mechanism” intelligible without recourse to explicitly Theological concepts?’ It engages Thomistic Philosophy of Mind as a rational account of the thinking being that ‘intellects’ scientifically by using abstractions such as cause and effect, principles of function, the idea of purposeful mechanism, and the notion of rationale itself.

Jennifer holds an MA in Consciousness Studies with a concentration on Philosophy and Religion from John F. Kennedy University. There she served as a member on the newly established Diversity Task Force, formed to create the University’s first Diversity Mission Statement and initiate its implementation via a campus-wide code of ethics, diversity awareness training, and curricula enhancement. She has twice been nominated for The Pushcart Prize in literature in the United States.

When not studying, Jennifer volunteers for the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library’s outreach programmes, reads, swims, and tries to surf the rugged Pacific coast.