Virginia Burrus is an American scholar of

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

and expert on

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

. She is currently the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion and director of graduate studies at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

Education

Originally from Texas, Burrus attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

where she gained a BA in

Classical Civilization Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

in 1981, before studying theology at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, Germany (1981–1982). She then went on to gain an master's degree in 1984 in the

History of Christianity The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teach ...

from the

Graduate Theological Union The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded in 1962 ...

Berkeley, CA Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryv ...

. Her dissertation was entitled ''Chastity as Autonomy: Women in the Stories of the Apocryphal Acts.'' She received her PhD in 1991 from the same institution. Her doctoral thesis was entitled ''The Making of a Heresy: Authority, Gender, and the Priscillianist Controversy''. Her PhD was supervised by Rebecca Lyman, Professor Emerita of History at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Career

Burrus was professor of early church history at

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

from 1991 to 2013 (assistant professor, 1991–1996; associate professor, 1996–2003; chair of the Graduate Division of Religion, 2009–2013). On joining Syracuse University as the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion, Burrus was the third person to be appointed to the position and succeeded

Patricia Cox Miller Patricia Cox Miller is the (Bishop) W. Earl Ledden Professor Emerita of Religion at Syracuse University. She researches religious imagination in late antiquity, religion and aesthetics in late antiquity, early Christian asceticism, women and religio ...

, professor emerita at Syracuse University. Burrus was appointed director of graduate studies at Syracuse University in 2016. Burrus is a member of several academic societies, including the

American Academy of Religion The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholarly method, scholars in the List of academic disciplines, field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a profes ...

(1985–present) and the

Society of Biblical Literature The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), founded in 1880 as the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, is an American-based learned society dedicated to the academic study of the Bible and related ancient literature. Its current stated mis ...

(1985–present), and has sat on steering committees for both associations. She has been elected as a member of the

American Theological Society The American Theological Society, founded in 1912, is the oldest professional theological society in North America. It has met at least once each year in various locations on the East Coast of the United States, lately at Princeton Theological Semin ...

(2002), the American Society of the Study of Religion (2005) and the International Association of Patristic Studies (2010). From 2009 to 2010 she served as the president of the North American Patristics Association, of which she remains a member. Burrus has served as an associate editor for the ''Journal of Early Christian Studies'' (2008–2014), and is the founding co-editor of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Press Series ''Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion'' (2001–present). Burrus specializes in the literary and cultural history of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, and has a wide range of interests including

orthodoxy Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churc ...

and

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

dom,

asceticism Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...

and histories of

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

within Late Antiquity. Burrus engages with a variety of theoretical discourses within her work, including

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

and

post-colonialism Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is ...

, applying and critiquing the approaches of 20th century philosophers and theorists such as

Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as wel ...

, Cixous, Foucault and Irigaray. Her 2004 publication ''The Sex Lives of the Saints'' has been translated into French, Italian and Czech. In April 2021, Burrus was elected member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

Select bibliography

Books and edited volumes

* Czech translation: Sexuální životy svatých: Erotika středověké hagiografie, translated by Zuzana Gabajová. Prague: Academia, 2015 * ''The Life of Saint Helia: Critical Edition, Translation, Introduction, and Commentary''. Early Christian Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. (Co-author with Marco Conti) * French translation: ''La vie sexuelle des saints: L'art érotique de l'hagiographie ancienne'', translated by Elsa Boyer. Montrouge: Bayard, 2011 * Italian translation: ''La vita erotica dei Santi'', translated by Marta Albertella. Genova: Il Melangolo, 2011 *''Seducing Augustine: Bodies, Desires, Confessions''. NY: Fordham University Press, 2010. (Co-author with Mark Jordan and Karmen MacKendrick) * ''Saving Shame: Martyrs, Saints, and Other Abject Subjects''. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. * ''Toward a Theology of Eros''. NY: Fordham University Press, 2006. (co-editor with

Catherine Keller Catherine Keller (born 1953) is a contemporary Christian theologian and Professor of Constructive Theology at Drew University's Graduate Division of Religion. As a constructive theologian, Keller's work is oriented around social and ecological ju ...

) * ''Late Ancient Christianity: A People's History of Christianity, Volume 2''. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005. (editor) * ''The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography''. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. * ''"Begotten, Not Made": Conceiving Manhood in Late Antiquity''. Figurae: Reading Medieval Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000. * ''The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority, and the Priscillianist Controversy''. Transformation of the Classical Heritage. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. * ''Chastity as Autonomy: Women in the Stories of Apocryphal Acts''. Women in Religion. Lewiston & Queenston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987.

Articles and essays

* "Socrates, the Rabbis and the Virgin: The Dialogic Imagination in Late Antiquity". Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Aharon Shemesh & Moulie Vidas (eds.) in collaboration with James Redfield, ''Talmudic Transgressions: Engaging the Work of Daniel Boyarin''. Leiden: Brill (2017), 457-74 * "Torture, Truth, and the Witnessing Body: Reading Christian Martyrdom with Page duBois," in ''Torture, Truth, and Slavery: Engaging the Work of Page duBois'', ed. by Albert Harrill, special issue of ''Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Issues'', 25.1 (2017) * With Marco Conti, "Between Fragment and Compilation: A Virgin’s Vision of the Afterlife," ''Sacris Erudiri'' 54 (2015) 201-224 * "'Nec sanabatur vulnus illud meum' (Conf. 6.15): Trauma, Time, and Voice in Augustine's Confessions," ''Trauma and Traumatization in Individual and Collective Dimensions: Insights from Biblical Studies and Beyond'', ed. by Eve-Marie Becker, Jan Dochhorn, and Else Holt (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014), 100-110 * "History, Theology, Orthodoxy, Polydoxy", ''Modern Theology'' 30 (2014) 7-16 * "Gender, Eros, and Pedagogy: Macrina's Pious Household", ''Ascetic Culture'', edited by Blake Leyerle and Robin Darling Young, University of Notre Dame Press, 2013, 167-81 * "Seducing Theology", ''Theology and Sexuality'' 18:2 (2013) * "Augustine, Rosenzweig, and the Possibility of Experiencing Miracle", ''Material Spirit'', edited by Carl Good, Manuel Asensi, and Gregory Stallings. New York: Fordham University Press, 2013, 94-110 * "Nothing is Not One: Revisiting the ex nihilo." ''Modern Theology'' 29.2 (2013): 33-48 *"'Honor the Fathers": Exegesis and Authority in the Life of Saint Helia." ''Asceticism and Exegesis in Early Christianity: The Reception of New Testament Texts in Ancient Ascetic Discourses'', edited by Hans-Ulrich Wiedemann. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2013, 445-57 * "'The Passover Still Takes Place Today': Exegesis, Asceticism, Judaism, and Origen's On Passover." ''Asceticism and Exegesis in Early Christianity: The Reception of New Testament Texts in Ancient Ascetic Discourses'', edited by Hans-Ulrich Wiedemann. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2013, 235-45 * "Bodies, Desires, Confessions: Shame in Plotinus, Antony, and Augustine", ''Shame Between Penance and Punishment'', edited by Bénédicte Sère and Jörg Wettlaufer. Florence: SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2013, 23-48 * "Augustine's Bible", ''Ideology, Culture, and Translation'', edited by Scott Elliott and

Roland Boer Roland Boer is an Australian theologian and scholar of Marxism. He was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2014. Career Boer obtained a bachelors degree in divinity from the University of Sydney. He was a professor at University of Newcast ...

. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012, 69-82 * "Wyschogrod's Hand: Saints, Animality, and the Labor of Love", ''Philosophy Today'' (Winter 2011): 412-421 * "Seeing God in Bodies: Augustine, Rosenzweig, Wolfson", ''Reading Forwards and Backwards: Postmodern Readings of Ancient Christian Texts'', edited by Scot Douglass and Morwenna Ludlow. London: T&T Clark, 2011, 44-59 * "2010 NAPS Presidential Address: 'Fleeing the Uxorious Kingdom': Augustine's Queer Theology of Marriage", ''Journal of Early Christian Studies'' 19 (2011): 1-20 * "A Saint of One's Own: Emmanuel Levinas, Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, and Eulalia of Mérida", ''L'Esprit Créateur'' 50 (2010): 6-20. Special issue on "Sanctity," edited by Cary Howie * "Carnal Excess: Flesh at the Limits of Imagination", ''Journal of Early Christian Studies'' 17 (2009): 247-265 * "Queer Lives of Saints: Jerome's Hagiography", ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', vol. 10 (2001) 442-479 * "Words and Flesh: The Bodies and Sexuality of Ascetic Women in Christian Antiquity", ''Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion'', vol. 10 (1994) 27-51

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burrus, Virginia Patristic scholars Yale University alumni Christian feminist theologians Living people American women writers 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Syracuse University faculty American women editors American editors American classical scholars Women classical scholars Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American women American women academics 21st-century American women