Dr. Nicola Hayward

Biography

PhD (McGill University), MA (UBC), BFA (Emily Carr College of Art and Design)

Nicola E. Hayward is a Research Associate at the Vancouver School of Theology as well as holding an Associate Fellowship in the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society (CSRS) at the University of Victoria. Her present area of research focuses on the intersection between material culture and texts. Her work explores aspects of memory, gender, social identity and ritual. 

Nicola’s doctoral thesis, which she completed at McGill University, is titled The Use of Funerary Art for Commemorating Social Identity and Memory: The Case of the Via Latina’s Samaritan Woman. Her dissertation explored social identity and memory through the lens of funerary ritual and commemorative images. More specifically, her work brought together text and image in an attempt to understand how visual representations, its subjects and themes, might have influenced or reflected the roles of women in early Christianity. Portions of her dissertation have been published in Early Christian Ritual Life, Routledge, 2018.

Nicola has worked as a tutor, teaching assistant and guest lecturer at McGill University, as well as an adjunct lecturer and conference director at VST.

She currently lives in Vancouver with her outstanding cat, Rhoan, where she can take full advantage of the outdoor life that the city has to offer, including cycling and swimming.