Exploring Videogames for Access and Leadership Among Disabled People in Christian Communities by Rev. Dr. Erin Raffety

Rev. Dr. Erin Raffety is a Practical Theologian who uses ethnographic methods to study Christian congregations and communities. Raffety is currently a Lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program where she teaches on disability justice.

At Princeton Theological Seminary, Raffety serves as the Senior Researcher on the Isaiah Partnership (a study of pastors leading innovation for theological education), the Empirical Research Consultant on the Imagining Church Project (a nationwide study of thriving congregations) and the Associate Research Scholar for the Institute for Youth Ministry. From 2020-2023, she served as a Research Fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry, where she built and studied a Minecraft video game for disabled Christians and their congregations, and conducted a study on worship access for Christians living with Long COVID and chronic illness. She is the recipient of numerous grants from the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship, the Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Louisville Institute, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

She is also the author of two books, one on disability ministry in the United States, From Inclusion to Justice (Baylor, Sept 1, 2022), and the other on foster care in China, Families We Need (Rutgers, Nov 11, 2022). She is also the recipient of the 2024 Reimagining Spirituality Leadership Award from the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). She is ordained as a Teaching Elder in the PC(USA), holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Princeton University, and is a proud parent of a daughter with multiple disabilities.