Hello, my name is

Kelly Collins

Public Theologian

  • fatlibtheo@gmail.com
  • @fatlibtheo
Headshot of a white woman with short brown hair smiling.
About me

I am a parent, pastor, and PhD student

Rooted in faith.

Committed to liberation.

“Nearly two decades spent teaching children and youth thought me that theology is not abstract—it is lived in the bodies, questions and belonging of real people.”

I have been part of the Church my entire life and my path within it has taken me from pew, to Sunday school classroom, to pulpit, and now doctoral research. My lifelong journey has been one of learning, growing, deconstructing, listening for whose voices are missing from the chorus, and noticing how these shape our collective  understanding of the human body.

My experiences have sharpened my conviction that the Church has both a profound capacity for liberation and a troubling tendency to overlook the real people  it continues to push to the margins. My scholarship lives in that tension.

Read More

What I do

My work sits at the intersection of theology, embodiment, and justice. I research, teach, and preach with one orienting question: who is the Church leaving out, and what does faithfulness demand of us in response?

Fat Liberation Theology

My doctoral research develops a theological framework that confronts fat phobia as a justice issue, naming and dismantling the narratives that harm fat people within and beyond the Church.

Teaching & Formation

With experience in faith formation and teaching across ages, I bring grounded, relational theology to each context I inhabit. Recently, I have found joy in teaching new parents to embrace their changed bodies, my non-white sisters, and female-identifying folx, the ways racism is linked to sizes, and LGBTQUIA+, non-binary, and 2S folks to embrace the exploration of their divinely intended bodily diversity.

Public Theology

I preach and write for audiences beyond the academy, translating rigorous scholarship into language that moves people toward justice, inclusion, and deeper faithfulness.

My Education

2026-

Emmanuel College, University of Toronto

PhD Student

My doctoral research develops a theological framework that confronts fat phobia as a justice issue, naming and dismantling the narratives that harm fat people within and beyond the Church.

2023-2026

Methodist Theological in Ohio

M. Div, MTS

My M.Div included significant coursework in New Testament and my MTS concentration is Theological Anthropology. My MTS thesis is titled "God Likes Big Butts and God Cannot Lie: A Liberative Body Hermeneutic