Adam Kotsko
{{short description|21st-century American writer and theologian}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Adam Kotsko
| image = Adam Kotsko reception 2011.jpg
| caption = Kotsko in 2011
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1980|07|19}}
| birth_place = Flint, Michigan, US
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| website = {{official URL}}
| alma_mater = {{unbulleted list | Olivet Nazarene University | Chicago Theological Seminary}}
| thesis_title = Atonement and Ontology
| thesis_year = 2009
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| doctoral_advisor = Ted Jennings
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| influences = {{hlist | Giorgio Agamben{{cite web |last=Greenaway |first=Jon |date=May 23, 2018 |title=Review: The Prince of this World, by Adam Kotsko; Part One |url=https://thelitcritguy.com/2018/05/23/review-the-prince-of-this-world-by-adam-kotsko-part-one/ |website=TheLitCritGuy |access-date=December 19, 2018}} | Dietrich Bonhoeffer{{cite web |last=Kotsko |first=Adam |date=April 26, 2009 |title=Narrative CV: Adam Kotsko |url=https://itself.blog/2009/04/26/narrative-cv-adam-kotsko/ |website=An und für sich |access-date=August 17, 2018}} | Jean-Luc Nancy | Friedrich Nietzsche | Dorothee Sölle | Slavoj Žižek}}
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| discipline = {{hlist | Religious studies | theology}}
| sub_discipline = Political theology
| workplaces = {{unbulleted list | Shimer College | North Central College}}
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Adam Kotsko (born 1980) is an American theologian, religious scholar, culture critic, and translator, working in the field of political theology. He served as an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Shimer College in Chicago, which was absorbed into North Central College in 2017. He writes about philosophers Slavoj Žižek and Giorgio Agamben, as well as American pop culture.
Early life and education
Adam Kotsko was born on July 19, 1980,{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} in Flint, Michigan, and grew up in nearby Davison.{{Cite web|url=http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2004/08/the_normblog_pr.html|date=2004-08-06|title=The normblog profile 46: Adam Kotsko|work=Normblog|author=Norman Geras|accessdate=2013-05-24}}{{Cite web|url=http://itself.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/red-toryism-the-british-invasion/|title=Red Toryism: The British Invasion|date=2010-03-19|accessdate=2013-05-24|author=Adam Kotsko|work=An und für sich}}
Kotsko earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois, in 2002. From there, he went on to the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS), where he completed a Master of Arts degree in religious studies in 2005, with a thesis in the form of a translation and commentary on Jacques Derrida's essay "Literature in Secret: An Impossible Filiation".{{Cite book|title=An Impossible Filiation by Jacques Derrida: Translation and Commentary|via=Worldcat|oclc = 76942979}}. [http://itself.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/derrida-literature-in-secret.pdf Text of translation].
Kotsko completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in theology, ethics, and culture at CTS in 2009.{{Cite web|title=Adam Kotsko |url=http://www.shimer.edu/aboutshimercollege/AdamKotsko.cfm |publisher=Shimer College |accessdate=2013-05-24 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708055425/http://www.shimer.edu/aboutshimercollege/AdamKotsko.cfm |archivedate=2012-07-08 }} His doctoral dissertation was titled Atonement and Ontology.{{cite thesis |last=Kotsko |first=Adam |year=2009 |title=Atonement and Ontology |degree=PhD |location=Chicago |publisher=Chicago Theological Seminary |oclc=456250141}}{{Cite web|url=http://itself.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/my-dissertation-atonement-and-ontology/|title=My Dissertation: "Atonement and Ontology"|accessdate=2013-05-24|date=2009-02-11|author=Adam Kotsko|work=An und für sich}} A modified version of his dissertation was published by Continuum International Publishing Group in 2010 under the title of The Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation.{{Cite book|title=The Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YBSSBoNdUXYC&pg=PR7|page=vii|author=Adam Kotsko|year=2010| publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0567185662}}
Career
After completing his doctorate in 2009, Kotsko taught for two years at Kalamazoo College, a liberal arts college in Michigan.{{Cite web |author=Adam Kotsko |title=CVs: Adam Kotsko |url=http://itself.wordpress.com/cvs/kotsko-cv/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511092434/http://itself.wordpress.com/cvs/kotsko-cv/ |archive-date=2013-05-11 |accessdate=2013-05-24 |work=An und für sich}}{{Cite web|url=http://itself.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/an-announcement/|date=2011-04-25|accessdate=2013-05-24|author=Adam Kotsko|title=An announcement|work=An und für sich}} In 2011, Kotsko was hired by Shimer College, a small great-books college in Chicago.{{Cite web |date=2011-06-01 |title=Shimer Hires Three New Faculty Members |url=http://www.shimer.edu/newsandevents/upload/2011-June-New-Faculty.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605215200/http://www.shimer.edu/newsandevents/upload/2011-June-New-Faculty.pdf |archive-date=2012-06-05 |accessdate=2013-05-24 |publisher=Shimer College}}
File:Kotsko graduation 2012 uncropped.jpg commencement ceremony in Chicago in May 2012]]Kotsko has written on the philosopher Slavoj Žižek, including a 2008 book titled Žižek and Theology{{Cite journal |last=Tester |first=Keith |date=September 2009 |title=none |journal=New Blackfriars |language=en |volume=90 |issue=1029 |pages=628–630 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-2005.2009.01312_6.x |issn=0028-4289 |jstor=43251338}} and a 2012 article in the Los Angeles Review of Books.{{Cite news|work=Los Angeles Review of Books |url=http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=897 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905010858/http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=897 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-09-05 |title=How to Read Žižek |author=Adam Kotsko |date=2012-09-02 |accessdate=2013-05-24 }} His other works include The Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation{{Cite journal |last=Elgendy |first=Rick |date=2011 |title=none |journal=The Journal of Religion |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=567–569 |doi=10.1086/662400 |issn=0022-4189}} and a translation of Giorgio Agamben's The Sacrament of Language: An Archaeology of the Oath.{{Cite journal |last=Tell |first=Dave |date=2012 |title=none |journal=Philosophy & Rhetoric |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=452–459 |doi=10.5325/philrhet.45.4.0452 |issn=0031-8213}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
{{commons}}
- {{Official website}}
- [https://archive.today/20140213183432/http://www.shimer.edu/live/profiles/9-adam-kotsko Official faculty profile]
- [https://itself.blog An und für sich]
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Category:American male bloggers
Category:American religion academics
Category:Chicago Theological Seminary alumni
Category:Kalamazoo College faculty
Category:Olivet Nazarene University alumni
Category:People from Davison, Michigan
Category:Religious studies scholars
Category:Shimer College faculty
Category:Writers from Flint, Michigan