Marcia Robinson Assistant Professor Office: 511 Hall of Languages Phone: 315-443-5726 mrobin03@syr.edu

Professor Robinson specializes in the history of Western Christian thought and culture, with an emphasis on 19th-Century Europe and America. Her research focuses upon theological anthropology and aesthetics; religion, culture, and identity; and religion and art. These interest converge in her study of Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish religious thinker and poet; Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an African-American poet, abolitionist, and activist; Henry O. Tanner, an African-American religious painter; and Benjamin Tucker Tanner, an African Methodist Episcopal bishop, biblical scholar and church historian.

Christianity
Women, Abolition and Religion in 19th-century America
Themes 19th-Century Religious Thought

• Ph.D., Religion (History of Christian Thought), Emory University (2001)
• M.A., Religion (History of Christian Thought), Emory University (1986)
• Enrolled in the Religion and Art M.A./Ph.D. Program, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1988-1989)
• B.A., Classics, Concentration in Latin, Minor in Studio Art and Art History, Georgia State University (1987)

• Assistant Professor, Department of Religion, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 2002-present.
• Visiting Instructor, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, Spring 2002.
• Adjunct Instructor, American Baptist Seminary of the West, Berkeley, CA, Spring 2002.
• Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA.
• Assistant Professor of Church History, Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis, MO, 1996-1999.

• Frances Watkins Harper: Black Abolitionist Among the Women of Maine, 1854-1856. Book project currently being researched and written for publication in late 2006.

• “A Complex Mirror of Identity-or Womanhood in Black and White: Frances Watkins Harper and the Christian Anti-Slavery Women of Maine.” Article currently being written for submission to Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture in 2004.
• “Creation, Cooperation, and the Self: Kierkegaard’s Christian Existential Aesthetics.” Article currently being written for submission to The Journal of Religion or Kierkegaardiana in early 2005.
• “Beauty, Imagination, and the Self: Kierkegaard’s Reading of Matthew 6 in the 1849 Discourses on the Lilies and the Birds.” Article to be submitted to the International Kierkegaard Commentary, ed. Robert L. Perkins, for the Without Authority volume, September 2005.
• “Frances Watkins Harper and the Christian Anti-Slavery Women of Maine: A Complex Mirror of Identity.” Article currently being written for submission to the Journal of Religion in early 2005.
• “Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.” Article currently being written for H. H. Price and Gerald E. Talbot, eds., Maine’s Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of Its People (Gardiner, ME: Tilsbury House Publishers and the University of Southern Maine), forthcoming.
• “The Eloquent Lady from Baltimore: Frances Ellen Watkins’ Lecture Tour of Maine, 1854-1856.” Article being prepared for submission to the Maine Historical Quarterly in early 2006.
• “The Black Christ: The Theological Reflection of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.” Article being prepared for submission to Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture in 2006.
• “Living Poetically Christianly: Kierkegaard’s Conception of Life as Art.” Article currently being written for submission to the International Philosophical Quarterly in early 2005.
• “Beauty on the Heath: Kierkegaard’s Poetic Interpretation of Matthew 6 in the 1849 Discourses on the Lilies and the Birds.” Article being prepared for submission to the International Kierkegaard Commentary Series, ed. Robert L. Perkins, for the Without Authority volume, September 2005.
• “Creation, Imagination, and the Experience of God: A Reading of Kierkegaard’s Practice in Christianity.” Article being prepared for submission to Kierkegaardiana or the Journal of Religion in 2005.

• Review of Timothy Houston Polk, The Biblical Kierkegaard: Reading By the Rule of Faith (Mercer, 1997), in Kierkegaardiana 23 (2004).

• “Schiller.” In The Edinburgh Dictionary of Continental Philosophy, ed. Jon Protevi. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming. Lead article on the aesthetics of German poet, dramatist, and philosopher, Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805).
• “Play Impulse.” In The Edinburgh Dictionary of Continental Philosophy, ed. Jon Protevi. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming. Secondary article on Schiller’s aesthetics, focusing on an important technical term.

• “Ars Divina: Kierkegaard’s Conception of Christian Poetic Living.” Doctoral dissertation, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 2001. Currently being revised as a book manuscript.

• “The Wonder of Christianity: A Study of Søren Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments.” Unpublished Master's thesis, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 1991.

• “Despair, Fragmentation, and Wholeness: A Kierkegaardian Reading of Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” A Paper to be presented to a joint session of the Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture Group and the Black Theology Group of the American Academy of Religion at the Annual Meeting, November 2005.
• “The Black Mother as Moses-Christ: A Reading of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Iola Leroy.” A Paper presented to the Pan-African/ Womanist Group, Western Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, March 23, 2003, Davis, CA.
• “Review of Timothy Houston Polk, The Biblical Kierkegaard: Reading By the Rule of Faith (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997). A paper presented to the Søren Kierkegaard Society, Book Panel, American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, November 17, 2001, Denver, CO.
• “Kierkegaard and “The Other”: The Danish Dialogical Thinker.” A Paper co-authored with Edward F. Mooney and presented to the Pacific Coast Theological Society, Graduate Theological Union, November 3, 2001, Berkeley, CA.
• “Ars Divina: Kierkegaard’s Conception of Christian Poetic Living.” An abstract of a doctoral dissertation presented to the Dissertation Panel, Fourth Annual Kierkegaard Conference, Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, June 9-13, 2001, Northfield, MN.
• “Kierkegaard on Creation, Incarnation, and Irony: Through Fichte to Romantic and Christian Poetic Living.” A Paper presented to the Theology and Philosophy of Religion Section, Western Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, March 12, 2001, Claremont, CA.
• “Frances Harper: A 19th-century African-American Interpreter of Scripture.” A Paper presented to the Gender Issues Section, Central States Society for Biblical Literature, Joint Regional Meeting of the Midwest American Academy of Religion and the Central States Society for Biblical Literature, March 20, 1999, St. Louis, MO.
• “Anticipating the Self Before God: The Lily of the Field as Worshiper of God.” A Paper presented to the Kierkegaard, Religion and Culture Group, American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, November 23, 1997, San Francisco, CA.