Maia Kotrosits
New Testament
Bible Consortium
Contact
3041 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
maiakotrosits@gmail.com
Education
Ph.D., Union Theological Seminary, May 2013 (anticipated)
M.Phil., Union Theological Seminary, May 2012
M.Div., Union Theological Seminary, 2008
B.A. in Creative Writing, Binghamton University, 2000
Biography
Maia Kotrosits is a Ph.D. student in New Testament. Her work focuses on reading canonical and non-canonical early Christian texts side by side, devising fresh categories and relationships for these texts that do not rely on canon or creed. Engaging work in cultural studies, psychoanalysis, and gender and queer theories, and following recent scholarship deconstructing the categories of orthodoxy, heresy and Gnosticism, her work sketches alternate, non-dominant imaginations of early Christian history. Most recently, her work surfaces themes of violence, identity/belonging, and collective experiences of pain and loss, finding connections and disjoints between the ancient world and some worlds of the present. She has presented regularly at the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion annual meetings, and at conferences on religious identity and empire-critical work in the United States and Europe.
Maia grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Before coming to Union, she taught middle-school reading and English in the New York City public schools, and performed in experimental theatre and multimedia theatrical installations with GAle GAtes et al. and Counts Media. Since beginning at Union, she has taught Bible and early Christian history to adult Sunday school students and students at Regis High School in Manhattan, in addition to Union’s own masters students. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband, John, and son, Rocco.
Advisor: Hal Taussig
Dissertation Title
“Affect, Violence and Belonging in Early Christianity”
Languages
Ancient: Coptic, Koine Greek, Hebrew
Modern: French, German
Publications
Monographs:
Marking Loss: Reading a Gospel Amidst Pain and Trauma (co-authored with Hal Taussig) (in negotiation with Fortress Press)
The Thunder: Perfect Mind: A New Translation and Introduction (co-authored with Hal Taussig, Jared Calaway, Justin Lasser and Celene Lillie) Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Articles/Essays:
"The Ekklesia and the Politics of the Meal: Re-thinking 'Christian Identity' in and through Acts," in Mahl und religiöse Identität im frühen Christentum eds. Matthias Klinghardt and Hal Taussig, 241-278. Tanz Verlag (2012).
"Romance and Danger at Nag Hammadi" The Bible and Critical Theory 8.1 (March 2012): 39-52.
"The Rhetoric of Intimate Spaces: Affect and Performance in the Corinthian Correspondence" Union Seminary Quarterly Review Vol. 62, no. 3-4: 134-151.
"The Thunder: Perfect Mind and Early Christian Conflicts About Gender" The Fourth R Vol. 24, no.1. (January/February 2011): 7-12.
"Re-reading Canonical Identity: A Sexual Ethics of Bible Interpretation" Studies in Gender and Sexuality vol. 11, issue 2 (April 2010): 89-100.
Book Review
Essen als Christusgläubige: Ritualtheoretische Exegese paulinischer Texte Francke Verlag (2011) by Soham Al-Suadi. Religious Studies Review (forthcoming, 2013)
Papers/Presentations:
Panelist, Society of Biblical Literature, National Conference, 2012
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion sponsored-session
The Future of Feminist Biblical Studies Across Disciplines and Communities
Paper, Society of Biblical Literature, National Conference, 2012
Bible and Cultural Studies Unit
“Creating the World Out of the Excesses of Pain”
Panelist, American Academy of Religion, National Conference 2011
Queer Studies in Religion
Implications of Jasbir K. Puar’s Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times for the Study of Religion
"Terrorist Assemblages and Discourses of Christian Exceptionalism"
Respondent: Jasbir K. Puar
Paper, Society of Biblical Literature, National Conference 2011
Psychology and Biblical Studies Section
"Divinity As Excess"
Paper, Meals and Religious Identity in Early Christianity Conference, June 2011
University of Dresden, Germany
"The Ekklesia and the Politics of the Meal: Re-thinking 'Christian Identity' in and through Acts"
Paper, Society of Biblical Literature, National Conference 2009
Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section
"Re-thinking the Gnostic Myth in the Roman Imperial Context"
(with Hal Taussig, Brigitte Kahl and Celene Lillie)
Paper, Society of Biblical Literature, National Conference 2009
Bible and Cultural Studies Section
The Bible and Circuits of Affect
"Romance and Danger at Nag Hammadi"
Response to Karen King, Union Theological Seminary, May 2009
Christianity Without Canon: Revisiting Karen King’s 1996 Essay
“Canon and Critiques of Limitlessness”
Paper, New Testament and Empire: Resistance and Re-Imagination
Conference at Union Theological Seminary, April 2008
Canon and Empire Consultation
“Canon as Nostalgic Object”
Paper, Society of Biblical Literature, National Conference 2008
Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Program Unit
"Gender and Identity in The Thunder: Perfect Mind"
Respondents: Anne McGuire and Davina Lopez
Paper, American Academy of Religion, National Conference 2007
Rethinking the Field Program Unit
Theology and Film: Challenging the Sacred/Secular Divide
“Film and Fetishizing the Ancient”
Teaching Fellow for the following courses at Union Theological Seminary:
Loosening Canon, Spring 2012
Christ and Cosmos: The Pastoral and Catholic Epistles, Spring 2011
Introduction to the New Testament, Spring 2011
Galatians: Paul and the God(s) of Empire, Fall 2010
The Gospel of Mark, Spring 2010
Introduction to the New Testament, Spring 2010
Introduction to the New Testament, Spring 2009
Loosening Canon, Fall 2008