Tiffany Hartnell-Howden is currently a Systematics Theology Ph.D. Candidate with a minor in Comparative Theology, specializing in Buddhism. She is also Instructor-on-Record for the course "Buddhism and Christianity in Dialogue" in the Theology Department and for the Woods College of Advanced Studies in both in-person and online/asynchronous formats.

Her research interests include theological anthropology, comparative and contemplative theologies, science-engaged theology, and contextual/constructive methodologies.

Her dissertation, titled "Grace, Desire, and Addiction" is a synthesis of the anthropology of Jesuit Karl Rahner with feminist Anglican theologian Sarah Coakley’s contemplative pedagogy of desire to explore ways in which human longing participates in divine disclosure. She applies Charles Taylor’s reform master narrative to reveal the sacred dimension of addiction in dialogue with comparative contemplative insights and the neuro-narratival “deep learning” model of addiction. She argues that addiction is a unique context for exploring the human-divine relationship as it is an example of a “limit experience”, and as such can be a catalyst for disrupting dualistic anthropologies.