Dr Tanya Riches

Dr Tanya Riches completed her PhD at Fuller Theological Seminary supervised by Professor Bryant Myers. Her interdisciplinary project with Aboriginal Pentecostal leaders (located at the intersection of development studies, anthropology, and Pentecostal theology) won the David Allan Hubbard Award from the School of Intercultural Studies. Her monograph entitled Worship and Social Engagement in Urban Aboriginal-led Australian Pentecostal Congregations was published in 2019 with Brill. It investigated links between urban Aboriginal-led congregations’ worship practices and their social justice initiatives.

From 2017- 2022, Tanya was Senior Lecturer and MTh program coordinator at Hillsong College, accredited with Alphacrucis College. Before that, she worked at the Centre for Disability Studies (an affiliate centre of The University of Sydney) where she managed many projects and facilitated the inclusive research network, a group of researchers with intellectual disabilities, their carers, and university staff.

She is an honorary research fellow of the Edward Cadbury Centre for Public Understanding of Religion at The University of Birmingham as well as the Christian Research Association. She lives in Sydney with her husband Tim and her two little boys Ignatius and Manfred. She loves a conversation over good coffee and has acquired a large collection of house plants since covid.