Mary-Jane Rubenstein, a scholar specializing in Christian theology and continental philosophy, joined the Department of Religion as an assistant professor this semester. She brings years of teaching experience from Columbia University and hopes to incorporate an orientation towards larger philosophical questions in her classes.
“From the moment I interviewed, I was excited about the position,” Rubenstein said.
Rubenstein came to Wesleyan from Columbia University, where she recently earned her PhD in Philosophy of Religion. During her time at Columbia, Rubenstein taught full-time and earned the Award for Teaching Excellence for her approach to Contemporary Civilizations, a yearlong mandatory core course. Rubenstein also holds masters degrees from Columbia and Cambridge Universities and a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College. The alumni magazine of Williams recently chided her for joining the faculty of “that other Little Three school.”
Rubenstein will teach two courses this semester: Modern Christian Thought and Unthinkable Suffering: The Problem of “the Problem of Evil,” a First Year Initiative.
“I try to have a set narrative for each class, to make a journey but leave room for exploration,” Rubenstein said. “With a group as alert and awake and alive as Wes students, this freedom is especially important.”
Rubenstein explained that the truth in a discussion is not to be found within the professor or within the students, but in the free interaction between them. She acknowledged that students choose to study religion for very different reasons. The warning that one should avoid trying to find God through religious studies makes her uncomfortable, since research in which she was involved as a graduate student illustrated that many students do just that.
“I try to be sensitive to the reality that people who study this discipline are concerned with big issues like being,” Rubenstein said.
Rubenstein’s own interest in philosophy and religion began as an undergraduate.
“I fell in love with Kierkegaard,” she said.
Rubenstein’s research in religion has taken her across the globe from West Africa to Manhattan, where she spent a year as the scholar-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. While there, she created programs on religion and sex, the death penalty, and other social justice topics. She has given presentations on subjects ranging from Freud to God and gender, and published articles on Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Derrida, among other philosophical and theological areas.
Throughout her studies, Rubenstein has watched dramatic changes in the perception of the value of religious studies. Ten years ago, people assumed that she wanted to be a nun; now, she finds respect.
“Religion has been vilified as a signifier in our society,” Rubenstein said.
Because of this, she believes, it is more important than ever to examine the ways in which religion intersects with all disciplines—politics, art, and science.
“Even if it doesn’t look like religion, it is,” she said.
Rubenstein finds the level of enthusiasm and collaboration among professors in the University’s Department of Religion particularly refreshing, and she sees what seems to be a great community among students in her classes so far.
“I really like the vibrant energy on this campus,” she said.