Devan Stahl, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Religion
Education
- Saint Louis University, PhD
- Vanderbilt Divinity School, MDiv
- University of Virginia, BA
Biography
Devan Stahl is an Associate Professor of Bioethics and Religion at Baylor University and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Education, Innovation, and Technology at the Baylor College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Health Care Ethics from St. Louis University and her M.Div. from Vanderbilt University. She specializes in disability theology, bioethics, and the visual arts within medicine. Dr. Stahl also volunteers clinical ethicist consultant for the Supportive and Palliative Care Team at Baylor, Scott, and White Hillcrest and has trained as a hospital chaplain. She is the author of, Disability’s Challenge to Theology: Genes, Eugenics, and the Metaphysics of Modern Medicine (Notre Dame Press), which develops a Christian response to genetic technologies using the insights of disability scholars. Dr. Stahl also hosts the popular podcast Bioethics for the People, which explores the work of bioethicists for a general audience.
Academic Interests and Research
Clinical ethics, theological bioethics, disability ethics, medicine and the visual arts.
Professional Awards/Activities/Grants and Fellowships
-John Templeton Foundation, “Illuminating Theological Inquiry and Christian Ethics Through Training in the Psychological Sciences,” PI, 2023-2025
-Texas Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, “Dementia: Determining the Capacity Necessary to Designate a Surrogate,” PI, 2020-2024
-Wabash Center, “Disability Pedagogy: Mapping the Lay of the Land,” PI, 2021-2023
-Issachar Fund, "Bioenhancement Technologies and the Vulnerable Body,” PI, 2019
- Emerging Scholar Award, Institute for Theology and Disability, 2018
Books
Disability’s Challenge to Theology: Genes, Eugenics, and the Metaphysics of Modern Medicine. Notre Dame Press, 2022.
Bioenhancement Technologies and the Vulnerable Body: A Theological Engagement. Ed. Devan Stahl, Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2023.
Imaging and Imagining Illness: Becoming Whole in a Broken Body. Ed. Devan Stahl, Eugene OR, Cascade Books, 2018.
The Body and Ultimate Concern: Reflections on an Embodied Theology of Paul Tillich. Ed. Pryor A. and Stahl D, Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2018.
Selected Research Articles
Stahl, D. (2023). “Misuses of ‘Quality of Life’ Judgments in End-of-Life Care,” CHEST 163 (5): 1228-1231.
Stahl, D. (2022). “Why Medicine Needs a Theology of Monstrosity” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 47 (5): 612-624.
Stahl, D. and Curry, L. (2022) “Intersections and Methods in Disability Theology: Bioethics and Critical Studies as Dialogue Partners” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 42 (1): 153-168.
Stahl, D. (2021). “Understanding the Voices of Disability Advocates in Physician Assisted Suicide Debates.” Christian Bioethics 27(3): 279-297.
Stahl, D. (2021). “The Continuing Need to Combat Disability Discrimination in Organ Transplantation,” Surgery 171 (4): 1123-1125.
Stahl, D. (2020). “Re-Imagining the Healing Service,” Theology Today 77(2): 165-178.
Courses Taught at Baylor
REL 4395 Bioethics
4389 Disability Ethics
5368 Theological Bioethics