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Women's Studies Department Faculty
ELIZABETH A. CASTELLI
Professor of Religion
Research and Teaching Interests
Professor Castelli is a specialist in biblical studies and the
history of ancient Christianity. Her scholarship has focused on textual
analyses, translations, and cultural-historical work on the early
Christian archive (the New Testament, extracanonical writings from the
early period, martyrologies, sermons, theological treatises, and
material culture). She is interested in feminist interpretations of
scripture, the “afterlives” of biblical texts, the history of sexuality
and gender in late antiquity, and the histories and meanings of embodied
pieties (e.g., martyrdom and asceticism) in Christianity. Her Religion
course, “Gender in Ancient Christianity,” fulfills the comparative
requirement in Women’s Studies. She also frequently teaches in the
Women’s Studies department, most recently a seminar entitled, “Gender
and War.” Her current research concerns the rhetoric of religious
persecution in contemporary political and activist arenas in the U.S.
She is also interested in an ongoing way in the problem of violence.
Before pursuing an academic career, she was a full-time feminist
activist in Rhode Island, including serving as the Executive Director of
the Rhode Island Council on Domestic Violence, a coalition of shelters
for battered women in the state.
Selected Publications:
BOOKS: MONOGRAPHS AND EDITED VOLUMES
God and Country. Special issue of differences: A Journal of
Feminist Cultural Studies 18.3 (Fall 2007). Guest editor.
Forthcoming.
Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2004. Paperback edition, 2007.
Interventions: Activists and Academics Respond to Violence.
Edited with Janet R. Jakobsen. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2004.
Reverberations: On Violence. Special issue of the Scholar and
Feminist Online 2:2 (Winter 2004). Guest edited. Barnard College:
www.barnard.edu/sfonline/reverb.
Sexuality in Late Antiquity. Special issue of the Journal of the
History of Sexuality 10:3-4 (2001). Guest edited with Daniel Boyarin.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader. Edited with the assistance of
Rosamond C. Rodman. New York: Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, 2001.
Reimagining Christian Origins: A Colloquium Honoring Burton L. Mack.
Edited with Hal Taussig. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International,
1996.
The Postmodern Bible. Co-editor and co-author as member of the
Bible and Culture Collective. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Portuguese translation: A Bíblia pos-moderna.
Translated by Barbara Theoto Lambert. Sao Paolo: Edicoes Loyola,
2000.
Imitating Paul: A Discourse of Power. Literary Currents in
Biblical Interpretation Series. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox
Press, 1991.
German translation in ReligionsKulturen series.
Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 2008 (forthcoming).
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
"God and Country: An
Introduction." differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies
18.3 (Fall 2007), forthcoming.
"Persecution Complexes: Identity Politics and the 'War on Christians."
differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 18.3 (Fall 2007),
forthcoming.
"Theologizing Human Rights: Christian Activism and the Limits of
Religious Freedom." In Non-Governmental Politics, ed. Michel
Feher with Gaelle Krikorian and Yates McKee, 673-687. New York, Zone
Books, 2007.
"The Ambivalent Legacy of Violence and Victimhood: Using Early Christian
Martyrs to Think With." Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality
6 (2006): 1-24.
"Divining the Future Places of Religion: A Partial Response to Graham
Ward, 'The Future of Religion." Journal of the American Academy of
Religion 74 (2006): 187-191.
"Theologiser les droits de l'homme: La nouvelle Bible des evangelistes
americains." Vacarme no. 34 (hiver 2006): 196-200. Numero
special: Politique non gouvernementale.
"Praying for the Persecuted Church: U.S. Christian Activism in the
Global Arena." Journal of Human Rights 4 (2005): 321-51.
"Globalization, Transnational Feminisms, and the Future of Biblical
Critique." In Feminist New Testament Studies: Global and Future
Perspectives, ed. Musa Dube, Althea Spencer-Miller, and Kathleen
O'Brien Wicker, 63-78. New York: Palgrave, 2005.
"Gender and Ideology Critique in the Study of Paul's Letter to the
Romans: A Response to Pamela Eisenbaum and Teresa J. Hornsby." In
Gender, Tradition and Romans: Shared Ground, Uncertain Borders, ed.
Cristina Grenholm and Daniel Patte, 167-79. New York: T & T Clark, 2005.
"Persecution and Spectacle: Cultural Appropriation in the Christian
Commemoration of Martyrdom." Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte 7
(2005): 102-36.
"Feminists Responding to Violence: Theories, Vocabularies, and
Strategies." In Interventions: Activists and Academics Respond to
Violence, ed. Elizabeth A. Castelli and Janet R. Jakobsen, 1-9. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
"Problems, Questions, and Curiosities: A Response to Ivan Strenski's
'Why Is It Better to Know Some of the Questions than All of the
Answers?" In The Future of the Study of Religion: Proceedings of
Congress 2000, ed. Slavica Jakelic and Lori Pearson, 173-88. Leiden:
Brill, 2004.
"Introduction." In Reverberations: On Violence, special issue of
Scholar and Feminist Online 2:2 (Winter 2004): www.barnard.edu/sfonline/reverb/intro.htm.
"The Ekklesia of Women and Feminist Utopia: Locating the Work of
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza in North American Feminist Thought." In
On the Cutting Edge: The Study of Women in Biblical Worlds, ed. Jane
Schaberg, Alice Bach, and Esther Fuchs, 36-52. New York: Continuum
Press, 2003.
"Foucault's History of Sexuality: The Fourth Volume, or, A Field
Left Fallow for Others to Till." Coauthored with Daniel Boyarin.
Journal of the History of Sexuality 10:3-4 (July/October 2001):
357-74.
Reprinted in Readings in the Theory of Religion:
Map, Body, Text, ed. Scott S. Elliott and Matthew Waggoner.
Controversies in the Study of Religion Series. London: Equinox,
2007, forthcoming.
"Women, Gender, Religion: Troubling Categories and Transforming
Knowledge." In Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader, ed. Elizabeth
A. Castelli with the assistance of Rosamond C. Rodman, 3-25. New York:
Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, 2001.
"History's Queer Touch: A Forum on Carolyn Dinshaw's Getting
Medieval: Sexualities and Communities, Pre- and Postmodern."
Journal of the History of Sexuality 10 (2001): 165-212. Organized
and edited forum; my introduction appears at 165-66.
"Ultimately, It's Not a Change of Color, but a Whole Change-of-Subject-Kind-of-Thing."
In African Americans and the Bible, ed. Vincent L. Wimbush with
the assistance of Rosamond C. Rodman, 849-51. New York: Continuum Press,
2000.
"Asterius of Amasea, Ekphrasis on the Holy Martyr Euphemia."
Introduction and translation from Greek in Religions of Late
Antiquity in Practice, Princeton Readings in Religion, ed. Richard
Valantasis, 464-68. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
"Disciplines of Difference: Asceticism and History in Paul." In
Asceticism and the New Testament, ed. Vincent L. Wimbush and Leif
Vaage, 171-85. New York: Routledge, 1999.
"Paul on Women and Gender." In Women and Christian Origins, ed.
Mary R. D'Angelo and Ross S. Kraemer, 221-35. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999.
"Lesbian Historiography Before the Name? A Forum on Bernadette
Brooten's Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female
Homoeroticism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996)." GLQ 4
(1998): 557-630. Organized and edited forum with Ann Pellegrini; my
introduction appears at 557-58.
"Gender, Theory, and The Rise of Christianity: A Response to
Rodney Stark." Journal of Early Christian Studies 6 (1998):
227-57.
"Will It Be a Church Same-Sex Union? A Forum on John Boswell's
Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe." GLQ 3 (1996): 289-99.
"Drawing Large and Startling Pictures: Reimagining Christian Origins by
Painting Like Picasso." Coauthored with Hal Taussig. In Reimagining
Christian Origins, ed. Elizabeth A. Castelli and Hal Taussig, 3-21.
Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1996.
"Imperial Reimaginings of Christian Origins: Epic in Prudentius's Poem
for the Martyr Eulalia." In Reimagining Christian Origins, ed.
Elizabeth A. Castelli and Hal Taussig, 173-84. Philadelphia: Trinity
Press International, 1996.
"Asceticism—Audience and Resistance." In Asceticism, ed. Vincent
L. Wimbush and Richard Valantasis, 178-87. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1995.
"Heteroglossia, Hermeneutics, and History: A Review Essay of Recent
Feminist Studies in Early Christianity." Journal of Feminist Studies
in Religion 10:2 (1994): 73-98.
"Allegories of Hagar: Reading Galatians 4:21-31 with Postmodern Feminist
Eyes." In The New Literary Criticism and the New Testament, ed.
Elizabeth Struthers Malbon and Edgar McKnight, 228-50. Sheffield:
University of Sheffield Press, 1994.
"Visions and Voyeurism: Holy Women and the Politics of Sight in Early
Christianity." Protocol of the Colloquy of the Center for
Hermeneutical Studies, 6 December 1992, new series 2. Berkeley:
Center for Hermeneutical Studies, 1994.
"Paul's Letter to the Romans." In Searching the Scriptures, Vol.
2: A Feminist Commentary, ed. Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza,
272-300. New York: Crossroad Press, 1994.
"Mortifying the Body, Curing the Soul: Beyond Ascetic Dualisms in The
Life of St. Syncletica." differences: a Journal of Feminist
Cultural Studies 4:2 (1992): 134-53.
"Interpretations of Power in 1 Corinthians." Semeia 54 (1991):
197-222.
Reprinted in Foucault and Theology: The Politics of
Religious Experience, ed. James Bernauer and Jeremy R. Carrette,
19-38. London: Ashgate, 2004.
"'I Will Make Mary Male': Pieties of the Body and Gender
Transformation of Christian Women in Late Antiquity." In Bodyguards:
The Cultural Contexts of Gender Ambiguity, ed. Julia Epstein and
Kristina Straub, 29-49. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Reprinted as "Female Martyrs" in Feminism & Theology,
ed. Janet Soskice and Diana Lipton, 62-71. Oxford Readings in
Feminism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Translation of Mieke Bal, "Narratology as Critical Theory," On
Storytelling, ed. David Jobling, 27-48. Translated with David
Jobling. Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press, 1991.
"Les belles infideles/Fidelity or Feminism? The Meanings of
Feminist Biblical Translation." Journal of Feminist Studies in
Religion 6:2 (1990): 25-39.
Reprinted in Searching the Scriptures, Vol. 1: A
Feminist Introduction, ed. Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, 351-65.
New York: Crossroad, 1993.
"Pseudo-Athanasius's Life and Activity of the Holy and Blessed
Teacher Syncletica." Translation, introduction, and critical notes
in Ascetic Behavior in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook, ed.
Vincent L. Wimbush, 265-311. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.
"Beyond the Language and Memory of the Fathers: Feminist Perspectives in
Religious Studies." Co-authored with James McBride. In Transcending
Boundaries: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to the Study of Gender,
ed. Pamela Frese and Michael Coggeshall, 113-50. New York: Bergin and
Garvey, 1990.
"Sex Education in Gnostic Schools: A Response to Richard Smith." In
Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism, ed. Karen L. King, 361-66.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988.
"Virginity and its Meaning for Women's Sexuality in Early Christianity."
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 2:1 (1986): 61-88.
Reprinted in A Feminist Companion to Early Christian
Literature, ed. Amy-Jill Levine. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic
Press, forthcoming.
"Traditions and Transitions: Women's Studies and a Balanced
Curriculum: A Selected Bibliography." In Toward a Balanced
Curriculum: A Sourcebook for Initiating Gender Integration Projects,
ed. Bonnie Spanier, et al., 252-85. Cambridge: Schenkman, 1984.
REPORTS AND OCCASIONAL PIECES
"From Theorizing the Other to the Theories of Others." Spotlight on
Teaching. Theme: The Other Within Christianity:
Diversifying our Knowledge Production. Religious Studies News (AAR
Edition). Fall 2007 (forthcoming).
Interview with Adele Horne, documentary filmmaker. Postscripts: The
Journal of Sacred Texts and Contemporary Worlds 2.2/2.3 (2006),
forthcoming. Interview with the filmmaker of The Tailenders (2006), a
documentary about the Christian missionary group, Global Recordings
Network, which uses low-tech audio devices to evangelize indigenous
peoples around the world.
"Notes from the War Room." The Revealer: A Daily Review of Religion
and the Press, 5 April 2006:
http://www.therevealer.org/archives/main_story_002500.php. A report
on "The War on Christians and the Values Voter" Conference, Washington,
DC, 27-28 March 2006.
"Reading the Book of Ruth." House of Ruth Newsletter (Fall 2004):
2-3. (A publication of the House of Ruth, Assisting Families Victimized
by Domestic Violence, Claremont, California.)
"Shockwave! New Media Warriors Try to Shake the World." The Revealer:
A Daily Review of Religion and the Press, 4 March 2004:
http://www.therevealer.org/archives/feature_000224.php.
"How? What Can We Do About the State of the World? - A Panel of
Activists." Reverberations: On Violence, special issue of Scholar and
Feminist Online 2:2 (Winter 2004):
http://www.barnard.edu/sfonline/reverb/castell1.htm.
"Religion after September 11: Hijacking It, Exonerating It, Getting Over
It?" Spotlight on Teaching. Theme: Peace and Violence
in Religions. Religious Studies News (AAR Edition). October 2003.
"Border Troublings: Report on Whose Millennium? Religion, Sexuality,
and the Values of Citizenship, The Annual Conference of CLAGS, 13-14
April 2000." CLAGS News 10:2 (Summer 2000): 7-8.
"Response to Charlotte Allen's 'Is Nothing Sacred?' in Lingua Franca."
Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion 26
(1997): 79-80.
Women's Studies Teaching:
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies
Feminist Texts I
Advanced Topics in Women’s and Gender Studies: Gender and War
Theoretical Paradigms for Feminist Scholarship: Gender and Religion
Feminist Pedagogy Workshop
Activist Interests:
Anti-violence initiatives
College program at Bayview Prison for Women (NYC)
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