Noel Cheong (Singapore)

I am currently pursuing a DPhil in Theology at the University of Oxford, focusing on ethnic imagination in 1 Peter. I explore the emergence of Christianity in the first few centuries as a group distinct from Jews and Gentiles, and the use of terms typically associated with ethnicity to describe the character of this new community, paying close attention to the interconnectivity between “ethnicity” and “religion” in the ancient and the modern worlds.

Prior to my doctoral research, I graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in Theology & Religion in 2019 and an MPhil in Theology in 2021, the latter made possible through the generous support of the Ertegun Graduate Scholarship. I have written on the motif of displacement in 1 Peter and on Palestinian liberation theology. Before coming to Oxford, I spent a year working with a Christian charity in Nepal in 2015-2016 and completed mandatory national service in Singapore in 2013-2014, serving as a tank gunner.

The Ertegun House community has been an incredible source of intellectual growth, encouragement, and laughter for me over the past few years, and I am grateful to Mica & Ahmet Ertegun for their munificence.