Biography
Joyce Ann Mercer is the Horace Bushnell Professor of Christian Nurture and Professor of Practical Theology and Pastoral Care at Yale Divinity School. Her work focuses on practices of care in diverse contexts including post-conflict areas of Southeast Asia, trauma and pastoral care, children in the consumer culture of the US, addictions in family systems, and the religious lives of adolescent girls. She joined the YDS faculty in January 2016, following ten years at Virginia Theological Seminary as Arthur Lee Kinsolving Chair in Pastoral and Practical Theology, having previously taught at the Graduate Theological Union, and at Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines. A current book project with Oxford University Press is based on an ethnographic study of churches in conflict with their denominations over sexuality. She recently co-edited Conundrums in Practical Theology (Brill, 2016). Earlier works include Welcoming Children: A Practical Theology of Childhood (Chalice Press). She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA. Mercer edits the international scholarly journal Religious Education and is the immediate past-president of the Association of Practical Theology. She has served as co-chair of the steering committee of the Practical Theology Group in the American Academy of Religion and is on the board of the Religious Education Association. Professor Mercer is a member of the International Academy of Practical Theology.