EDUCATION

Ph.D.	University of Pennsylvania,  Department of Religious Studies, 2009
		Dissertation: The Animated Statue and the Ascension of the Soul: Ritual and the Divine Image in Late Platonism. Committee: Peter T. Struck and Robert Kraft (Co-Directors), Annette Y. Reed Ph.D. Field Exams: Hellenistic Judaism, Early Christianity, Greek and Roman Magic Minor Tradition: Islam
M.A.	University of Pennsylvania, Department of Religious Studies, 2004
M.A.	Wheaton College, Department of Biblical and Theological Studies, 2001
		Specialization: New Testament
B.A.	The College of William and Mary, Lyon G. Taylor Department of History, 1994

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RESEARCH & TEACHING INTERESTS

Greek and Roman religions; Late Platonist religio-philosophy and ritual; Greek and Roman “magic”; New Testament and Early Christianity; the intersection of Christian, Jewish, and Greek theological/philosophical/religious discourses in Late Antiquity

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PUBLICATIONS & BOOK REVIEWS

“Invisible Things on Visible Forms: The Role of the Peri agalmatōn in Porphyry’s Pedagogy” (under review).

“Late Platonist Theories of Theurgic Sacrifice” (drafted).

“Rethinking ‘Theurgy’: Towards a Better Definition for Late Platonist Religious Praxis” (in process).

Revision of “The Animated Statue and the Ascension of the Soul: Ritual and the Divine Image in Late Platonism” (in process)

Review of Jeremy Schott, Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) in Review of Biblical Literature June, 2010.

Review of John Phillips, Order from Disorder: Proclus’ Doctrine of Evil and its Roots in Ancient Platonism (Leiden: Brill, 2007) in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.02.40.

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PAPERS & PANELS

“Porphyry’s On Statues in its Philosophical Context,” paper prepared for the MARCO Seminar in Late Antiquity, February 26, 2010, Knoxville, TN.

“Sacrificial Theory from Iamblichus to the Fifth-Century Athenian Academy,” paper presented in the Platonism and Neoplatonism Section at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, November, 2009, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

“Invisible Things on Visible Forms: The Role of the Peri agalmatōn in Porphyry’s Pedagogy,” paper presented in the Religious World of Late Antiquity Section at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, November, 2009, New Orleans, LA.

“Athanasius, Late Platonists, and the Place of the Cult Image in Fourth-Century Alexandria,” paper presented in a panel on Late Platonism at the Annual Meeting of the North American Patristics Society, May, 2008, Chicago, IL.

“Exorcize the Exorcists?  Exorcism and the Exercise of Roman Authority,” paper presented in the Jesus Traditions, Gospels and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World Section at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, November, 2007, San Diego, CA.

“‘It’s a Small World’”: Statue Animation and Platonic Cosmogony in Proclus’ Commentary on the Timaeus,” paper presented in the Europe and the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity Section at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, November, 2007, San Diego, CA.

“The Future and the Illusion: The Role of Ritual Images in the De Mysteriis of Iamblichus,” paper presented in the Greek and Roman Religion Section at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, November, 2006, Washington, DC.

“Iamblichus and the Horizontal Axis: An Examination of Theurgy and Terrestrial Evil in the De Mysteriis,” paper presented at the 2006 Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values IV – KAKOS: Badness and Anti-Values in Classical Antiquity, June 2006, Philadelphia, PA.

Invited panelist in a session on “Scriptural Interpretation and Authority” for the University of Pennsylvania Christian Association, November, 2004, Philadelphia, PA.

“4Q186: Physiognomical Horoscopes in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” paper presented at the 2003 Mid-Atlantic Regional meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, March 2003, Baltimore, MD.