Mary-Jane Rubenstein

{{short description|American philosopher}}{{Infobox philosopher

|image = Mj-headshots-4 crop.jpg

|caption =

|name = Mary-Jane Rubenstein

|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1977}}

|birth_place = United States

|alma_mater = {{ubl|Columbia University|University of Cambridge|Williams College}}

|influences =

|influenced =

|notable_ideas =

|fields =

|main_interests = Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Science, History of Philosophy, History of Science, Gender Studies, Religious Studies, Continental Philosophy, Postmodern Theology}}

Mary-Jane Rubenstein is a scholar of religion, philosophy, science studies, and gender studies. At Wesleyan University, she is Dean of Social Sciences, Professor of Religion and Science and Technological Studies. She has also been an affiliated member of the departments of Philosophy, Environmental Studies and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.{{Cite web |title=Mary-Jane Rubenstein – Professor of Religion and Science in Society |url=https://mrubenstein.faculty.wesleyan.edu/}} From 2014 to 2019, she was co-chair of the Philosophy of Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion. She is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion. Her book, Worlds without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse,{{cite book |last=Rubenstein |first=Mary-Jane |title=Worlds Without End |date=2014-02-11 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-15662-2 |publication-place=New York |page=}} served the inspiration material for the Oscar-winning 2022 American film, Everything Everywhere All at Once.{{cite web |date=2024-03-06 |title=Everything Everywhere All at Wes: Daniel Kwan and Mary-Jane Rubenstein in Conversation |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thd44IPj7AI |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=YouTube}}

Education

Rubenstein earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion and English (summa cum laude) at Williams College in 1999. With the support of a Dr. Herchel Smith Fellowship, she studied philosophical theology at the University of Cambridge, where she earned a Post-Graduate Diploma in 2000 and an MPhil in 2001. She was granted a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship to pursue doctoral work at Columbia University, where she received a PhD in Philosophy of Religion in 2006.

Career

From 2005 to 2006, Rubenstein was Scholar-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In 2006, she earned Columbia University's Core Curriculum Award for Graduate Teaching and served as the Doctoral Commencement Speaker. Rubenstein was appointed Assistant Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University in 2006, Associate Professor in 2011, and Professor in 2014. She won the Wesleyan Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2017.{{Cite web |last=Drake |first=Olivia |date=May 28, 2017 |title=Finn, Rubenstein, Roberts Honored with Binswanger Prizes |url=https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2017/05/28/finn-rubenstein-roberts-honored-with-binswanger-prizes/}}

Research

Rubenstein's research uncovers the mythological and theological legacies of contemporary philosophy and science.{{Cite book |last=Onishi |first=Bradley B. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/onis18392 |title=The Sacrality of the Secular: Postmodern Philosophy of Religion |date=2018 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-18392-5 |doi=10.7312/onis18392|jstor=10.7312/onis18392 |s2cid=171997112 }} While her early work investigated the disavowal of wonder in phenomenology{{Cite journal |last=Capretto |first=Peter |date=July 2014 |title=The Wonder and Spirit of Phenomenology and Theology: Rubenstein and Derrida on Heidegger's Formal Distinction of Philosophy from Theology: The Wonder and Spirit of Phenomenology and Theology |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/heyj.12019 |journal=The Heythrop Journal |language=en |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=599–611 |doi=10.1111/heyj.12019}} and deconstruction,{{Cite journal |last=Keller |first=Catherine |date=April 2010 |title=Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe - By Mary-Jane Rubenstein |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0025.2009.01606.x |journal=Modern Theology |language=en |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=308–311 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0025.2009.01606.x}} her more recent writing has moved into the metaphysical underpinnings of cosmology,{{Cite web |title=Worlds without End {{!}} Syndicate |url=https://syndicate.network/symposia/theology/worlds-without-end/ |access-date=December 26, 2021 |language=en-US}} astronomy and space travel,{{Cite web |date=November 30, 2020 |title=The Ethics of Colonizing Space {{!}} Vlad Smolkin interview with Mary-Jane Rubenstein |url=https://cpmprogram.com/podcast |website=Critical Path Method}}{{Cite web|title=The New Corporate Space Race: A Colonial Remix|date=April 5, 2021 |url=http://therevealer.org/the-new-corporate-space-race-a-colonial-remix/}} general relativity and quantum mechanics,{{Cite web |title=Sacred Matter {{!}} Erik Davis interview with Mary-Jane Rubenstein |url=https://techgnosis.com/sacred-matter/ |website=Expanding Mind Podcast|date=May 17, 2019 }} and non-linear biology and ecology.{{Cite web |title=Mary-Jane Rubenstein {{!}} In-depth Interview |url=https://iai.tv/video/mary-jane-rubenstein-in-depth-interview |access-date=2021-12-26 |website=iai.tv |language=en}}

Her 2023 book, Astrotopia, speaks of her objections to the "corporate space race".{{cite journal | url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2023/03/manifest-destiny-in-space | title=Manifest Destiny in Space | journal=Current Affairs | date=March 31, 2023 }}

Publications

Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022).
Image: Three Inquiries in Technology and Imagination, with Thomas A. Carlson and Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021).
Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018 [cloth], 2021 [paper]).
Entangled Worlds: Science, Religion, and New Materialisms, co-edited with Catherine Keller (New York: Fordham University Press, 2017).
Worlds without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014 [cloth], 2015 [paper]).
Polydox Reflections, co-edited with Kathryn Tanner (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).
Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009 [cloth], 2011 [paper]).

Rubenstein has also published numerous articles, chapters, and interviews.{{Cite web |title=Publications – Mary-Jane Rubenstein |url=http://mrubenstein.faculty.wesleyan.edu/publications/}}

Personal life

Rubenstein has a partner, two children, and a wide extended family of relatives and friends.{{Cite web |last=Rubenstein |first=Mary-Jane |date=December 8, 2020 |title=On Almost Breastfeeding My Mother |url=https://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2020/12/08/on-almost-breastfeeding-my-mother/ |access-date=December 26, 2021 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |language=en-US}} She lives in Middletown, Connecticut.

References

External links

{{Official|http://maryjanerubenstein.com}}
[http://mrubenstein.faculty.wesleyan.edu/publications/ Publications]
[https://twitter.com/janeforbrains Twitter]

Category:Living people

Category:1977 births

Category:21st-century American philosophers

Category:Williams College alumni

Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge

Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:Wesleyan University faculty

Category:Members of the Jesus Seminar