Mary-Jane Rubenstein Mary-Jane Rubenstein is Assistant Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University, and core faculty in the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.  She holds a B.A. in Religion and English from Williams College, an M.Phil. in Philosophical Theology from Cambridge University, and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University, where she also received a Certificate in Comparative Literature and Society.  Her primary  research interests lie in the intersections of continental philosophy and Christian theology.  Secondary areas of focus include gender, and sexuality studies; post-colonial Christianities; and literary and critical theory.  She has published articles on Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Derrida, negative theology, and global Anglicanism, and her doctoral dissertation explores Western philosophy's foundation in, and ambivalence to, the pathos of wonder (thaumazein).  She has strong weaknesses for ice cream and musical theatre. Contact Information Department of Religion Wesleyan University Middletown, CT 06459 Telephone: 860-685-3594 Fax:  860-685-2821 mailto:mrubenstein@wesleyan.edu Websites of Interest Interview with WESU.FM - Aired on 4/18/08 Select Courses Unthinkable Suffering: The Problem of "the Problem of Evil" RELI 125 Reason and Revelation:  An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion RELI 214 Modern Christian Thought RELI 220 Political Theologies:  Contemporary Christian Engagement in the Public Sphere RELI 291 God After the Death of God:  Postmodern Echoes of Pre-Modern Thought RELI 304 Christianity & Sexuality RELI 310 Curriculum Vitae Education 2006   Ph.D. (with distinction), Columbia University, Philosophy of Religion 2004   M.Phil (with distinction), Columbia University, Philosophy of Religion 2003   M.A. (with distinction), Columbia University, Philosophy of Religion 2001   M.Phil. (with distinction), Cambridge University, Philosophical Theology 1999   B.A. (summa cum laude), Williams College, Religion and English Book Wondrous Strange:  The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe, Columbia University Press, forthcoming. Publications Articles "Dionysius, Derrida, and the Critique of Ontotheology," Modern Theology (forthcoming). "Anglicans in the Postcolony:  On Sex and the Limits of Communion," Telos (forthcoming). "Onward, Ridiculous Debaters," Political Theology (forthcoming). "Of Ghosts and Angels:  Derrida, Kushner, and the Impossibility of Forgiveness," Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory (January 2008). "Let Freedom Free:  Politics and Religion at the Heart of a Muddled Concept," in The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken, ed. Jeffrey W. Robbins and Neal Magee, with an introduction by Terry Eagleton, preface by Jack Caputo, and postface by Slavoj Zizek (Durham, NC:  Duke University Press, forthcoming). "A Certain Disavowal:  The Pathos and Politics of Wonder," Princeton Theological Review (Fall 2006):  11-18. "The Unbearable Withness of Being:  On the Essentialist Blind-Spot of Anti-Ontotheology," in Theology and the Political, ed. Creston Davis, John Milbank, and Slavoj Zizek, with a foreword by Rowan Williams (Durham, NC:  Duke University Press, 2005), 340-349. "Pardon Me...," in Derrida's Bible, ed. Yvonne Sherwood (New York:  Palgrave, 2004), 295-300. "An Anglican Crisis of Comparison:  Intersections of Race, Gender, and Religious Authority with Particular Reference to the Church of Nigeria," Journal of American Academy of Religion 72:2 (June 2004):  341-365. "Unknow Thyself:  Apophaticism, Deconstruction, and Theology after Ontotheology," Modern Theology 19:3 (July 2003):  387-417. "Relationality:  The Gift after Ontotheology," Telos 123 (Spring, 2002):  65-80. "Ecstatic Subjectivity:  Kierkegaard's Critiques and Appropriations of the Socratic," Literature and Theology 16:4 (December 2002):  349-362. "Kierkegaard's Socrates:  A Venture in Evolutionary Theory," Modern Theology 17:4 (October 2001):  441-474. Book Reviews Aristotle Papanikolaou, Being with God:  Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine-Human Communion (Notre Dame, IN:  University of Notre Dame Press, 2006).  Modern Theology 23:4 (October 2007):  634-6. Jean-Louis Chrétien, The Ark of Speech (London and New York:  Routledge, 2004).  Modern Theology 21:2 (April, 2005):  340-343. Amy Laura Hall, Kierkegaard and the Treachery of Love (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2002).  Modern Theology 20:2 (April 2004):  327-330. M. Jamie Ferreira, Love's Grateful Striving (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2001).  Modern Theology 19:2 (April, 2003):  295-297. Francis Clark, Godfaring:  Reason, Faith, and Sacred Being (Washington DC:  Catholic University of America Press, 2000).  Modern Theology 18:1 (January 2002):  127-129. Lectures and Presentations "On Not Knowing Where I'm Going:  A Response to John Thatamanil," Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium, Drew University, Madison, NJ, November 2007. "The State of the Church:  Sex and Gender in Postcolonial Anglicanism," Trinity College, Hartford, CT, October 2007. "A Faith in Ends:  Sam Harris and the Gospel of Neo-Atheism," Durham, NC Alumni Associationo f Wesleyan University, June, 2007.  A Faith in Ends: Sam Harris and the Gospel of Neo-Atheism "The Eclipse of the Political:  A Response to '[De]Constructing Boundaries,'" "ReStating Religion" Conference.  Columbia University, New York, New York, March 2006. "Reconciliation and the Post-Colonial Church," St. Luke in the Fields, New York City, 6 November, 2005. "The Limits of Orthodoxy:  A Response to John Milbank," Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 2005. "Of Ghosts and Angels:  Derrida, Kushner, and the Impossibility of Forgiveness," Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 2005. "Wonder and the Births of Philosophy," "Religion Unwound:  A Graduate/Faculty Colloquium," Columbia University, New York City, 27 October 2005. "Freud's Leonardos/Leonardo's Freuds:  On Identification, Deification, and Disavowal."  Art Students' League, New York City, March 2004. "Response to Slavoj Zizek's 'In What Sense Was Nietzsche a Christian?'" "Engaging Traditions:  Ontologies in Practice" Conference.  Charlottesville, Virginia, September 2002. "Revealing Darkness:  Toward an Anti-Racist Reading of Revelation," "Illumination:  Reason, Revelation and Science" Conference.  St. Stephen's House, Oxford, July 2002. "Kierkegaard:  Narrativity and the Knight of Faith," Portsmouth Grammar School, England, Spring 2001. "Ecstatic Subjectivity:  Kierkegaard's Critiques and Appropriations of the Socratic," delivered to the D-Society of Cambridge University, November 2000. "Repetition and Ordeal," Job Reading Group, Peterhouse College, Cambridge University, Michaelmas, 2000. "God, Gender, and the Fall:  Working through Kristeva's 'Stabat Mater,'" Adam and Eve Reading Group, Peterhouse College, Cambridge University, Michaelmas, 1999. Honors and Awards May 2006 Core Curriculum Award for Teaching Excellence, Columbia University May 2006 Class Speaker, Columbia University Doctoral Convocation May 2005-July 2006 Scholar in Residence, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine February 2004-May 2006 Episcopal Church Foundation Doctoral Fellowship August 2001-May 2005 Jacob K. Javits Doctoral Fellowship August 2001-May 2006 Center for Comparative Literature and Society Fellowship, Columbia University August 2001-May 2006 Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Fellowship, Columbia University October 2001 Theological Studies Prize (M.Phil.), Cambridge University October 1999-October 2001 Dr. Herchel Smith Fellowship, Williams College June 1999 Arthur B. Graves Essay Prize in Religion, Williams College September 1998-June 1999 Class of 1960 Scholarship in English, Williams College