Emily Turner is a doctoral candidate in History of Christianity specializing in Patristics and Early Christianity. Her dissertation aims to make a historical-theological contribution to the Catholic Church’s path of “spiritual renewal and structural reform” known as synodality. By studying sources produced in response to controversies over church discipline in third to fifth-century North Africa (especially those of Cyprian, Augustine, and relevant regional synods and councils), it develops the work of historical theologians, as well as historians of law, late Antiquity, and early Christianity, in order to draw attention to important characteristics of early Christian thinking about the nature and function of ecclesial governance.

In addition to research focused on the early Church, Emily has a strong secondary interest in contemporary canon law, and the prospect of canonical reform in view of the Synod on Synodality. She published her first article in Theological Studies in December 2025 on the theological and practical imperatives of greater scholarly attention to the relationship between canon law and theology.

Originally from Portland, OR, Emily holds a B.A. in History and Latin American Studies from Willamette University in Salem, OR (2017), and M.A.R. in Theology from Yale Divinity School (2021). Her work has been supported by fellowships from the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at Loyola University of Chicago.