Jennifer Hockenbery, Ph.D.

Jennifer Hockenbery, Ph.D. 
Professor of Philosophy

Email: hockenj@mtmary.edu
Phone: (414) 930-3231
Office: FH 313

Education:

•     Boston University, Ph.D Philosophy
•     Boston University, M.A. Philosophy
•     Bowdoin College, A.B. Philosophy and Classics

"I feel blessed to be at an institution where I can teach a wide variety of philosophical subjects from the Ancients to the Post-moderns constantly stretching my own thinking and understanding. I am especially lucky to teach a bright and interesting diverse group of women in small classes at a faith-based university that believes that philosophy is a core part of educating the whole person."

Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth talks about the lives and ideas of women in the history of philosophy. Watch the full interview, courtesy of Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Areas of Interest: Ancient Philosophy, Late-Antique and Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Ethics and Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Gender.  

Research:  Faith and Reason in Augustine and Luther, especially in the writings of Hildegard of Bingen, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche among others. Philosophy of Gender.

Presentations

• "Platypi, Hermaphrodites, Intellectual Women: The Humanities Relationship with Oddities" Marquette University Humanities Symposium. Keynote Address April, 2015.
• "What does Athens have to do with America: Reclaiming hope in public discourse"  Keynote address for the Conference for Interfaith Studies at Northeastern University of Illinois.  October, 2013.  
• "Soren Kierkegaard: Poet, Philosopher, Man of Faith" Keynote address for the Kierkegaard Celebration at St. Ansgaard's Lutheran Church, Portland, ME. May, 2013.
• "All in God's Good Time: Luther and Augustine on Genesis 1 and 2" Martin Luther and Global Lutheranism Group at  The Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.  November 2012.
• "Thinking Woman: Philosophy of Gender in Western Philosophy" Lutheran Women in Theology and Religious Studies Annual Meeting. November, 2012.
• "A Post Modern Luther?" and "All in God's Good Time: Luther and Augustine on Genesis 1 and 2"  at the World Luther Congress in Helsinki Finland.  August, 2012.
• The Lutheran Vocation of a Philosopher. Faith and Learning Speaker Series. Roanoke College. March 15, 2012.
• "Better a Smart Turk than a Dumb Christian: Luther and the secularization of political philosophy" Political Science Colloquium. Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN.  Feb. 10, 2012.

Publications

"Just in Time: Moments in Teaching Philosophy. A Festschrift Celebrating the Teaching of James Conlon." Ed. Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth. (Pickwick Publications, 2019).

"Thinking Woman: A Philosophical Exploration into the Quandary of Gender." Cascade, Oct. 2015.

"Kierkegaard on Beauty, Morality, and Faith  and Kierkegaard as Poet, Aesthete, and Seducer." Lutheran Forum (Fall, 2013) Vol.47, No.3.

"A Discussion of Procreative Ethics: Philosophical and Christian Approaches Questions at the Beginning of Life" In Journal of Lutheran Ethics (Nov., 2012).

"The Devil’s Whore: Reason and Philosophy in the Lutheran Tradition." Ed. Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth. (Fortress Press, 2011) Reprinted by IA Books.

"Augustine: ‘Confessions’.  in Christian Spirituality: The Classics." Ed. Arthur Holder. (Routledge: 2009).

"The He, She, and It of God:  Translating Saint Augustine’s Gendered Latin God-Talk into English in Augustinian Studies" (December, 2005).

Professional Memberships

• American Philosophical Association
• American Academy of Religion
• Steering Committee for Martin Luther and Global Lutheranism Group of the American Academy of Religion
• Lutheran Women in Theology and Religious Studies

Special Projects

Current research project: The philosophical implications of Luther's exegesis of Genesis, 2013.

Current research project: Augustine's theological foundation for Philosophy.