LORI L. ROWLETT, Ph.D.

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Eau Claire, WI 54702

715-836-3167

rowletl@uwec.edu

PROFESSIONAL:

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, since August 1997 (tenure-track).

Adjunct Professor, Philosophy Department, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA,

August 1995- May 1997.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, August 1994-May 1995.

Temporary Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Women’s Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, August 1993-May 1994.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, August 1991-May 1993.

Adjunct Professor of Bible, Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies, University of Dallas (Roman Catholic), Irving, TX, Fall of 1992.

Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX,

August 1989-December 1991.

EDUCATION:

Cambridge University, PhD in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, completed 1995 (conferred February 1996).

Dissertation Supervisor: H.G.M. Williamson, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge (now Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford). Dissertation Title: The Rhetoric of Violence in the Conquest Narrative:

A ‘New Historicist’ Analysis of the Phrase hzq w’mz in the Book of Joshua

Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas; Master of Theological Studies, 1986.

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Austin, Texas, January- July, 1984; credits transferred to Perkins School of Theology.

The University of Texas, Austin, post-graduate study in English literature, 1979.

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitãt, Munich, post-graduate study on Fulbright Travel Grant and Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Cultus grant, 1976-77.

The University of Texas, Austin; Bachelor of Arts with Honors, in Germanic Languages and Literatures, 1976.

BOOKS:

Joshua and the Rhetoric of Violence: A New Historicist Analysis

Sheffield: Sheffield University Press, 1996.

The Politics of Biblical Studies as an Academic Discipline, an anthology of essays on the power relations, rhetorics and practices of biblical studies, with co-editor Jacques Berlinerblau, Sheffield University Press, forthcoming.

Accursed Women: Bataille, Excess and Femininity, with co-author Diane Duncan, to be submitted to MacFarland Press, in process.

ARTICLES AND REVIEWS:

“Queering the Book of Ruth: Lesbian Voices Unsilenced ,” accepted for publication in Semeia, forthcoming in 2002, special edition on “Silenced Voices in Biblical Studies,” edited by Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger.

“My Papa was called Bubba but his Real Name was Leroy: Class, Violence and the Personal Voice in Biblical Criticism,” The Personal Voice in Biblical Criticism, edited by Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger, Westminster John Knox Press, forthcoming in 2002.

“Kinky Friedman,” in Twenty-first Century American Writers, DLB Press, forthcoming in 2001.

“Violent Femmes and S and M: Queering Samson and Delilah,” accepted for publication in Queer Readings of the Bible, edited by Ken Stone, to be co-published by Sheffield University Press and Pilgrim Press, forthcoming in 2001.

“Lady of the Earth and Moon: Goddess Imagery in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” in Songs of the New South: Writing Contemporary Louisiana, edited by Suzanne Disheroon Green and Lisa Abney, Greenwood Press, 2001.

“Disney’s Pocahontas and Joshua’s Rahab in Postcolonial Perspective,” in Culture, Entertainment and the Bible, edited by George Aichele and Athalaya Brenner, Sheffield University Press, 2000; first presented in the Semiotics and Exegesis Section, American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society for Biblical Literature (SBL) National Conference, Orlando, November 1998.

“The Symbolism of the Crone,’ in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories, Routledge, 1999.

“Tiamat as Literary Image: Eating Disorders and the Forces of Social Control,” in Beyond the Pleasure Dome: Writing and Addiction, volume edited by Sue Vice, Timothy Armstrong and Matthew Campbell, Sheffield Academic Press, 1994, from the proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Literature and Addiction, Sheffield University (U.K.), April 1991.

Book review in January 1993 issue of Interpretation, on The Chronicler in His Age. by Peter R. Ackroyd.

Book review in summer 1992 issue of Interpretation, on The Pleasure of her Text: Feminist Readings of Biblical and Historical Texts, edited by Alice Bach.

“Inclusion, Exclusion and Marginality in the Book of Joshua,” JSOT 55 (1992), pp.15-23, Sheffield; reprinted in Historical Books, Sheffield University Press, Sheffield, 1996.

PAPERS:

“Freud’s Prometheus and Hestia,” with co-author Diane Duncan, Valdosta State Women’s Studies Conference, Valdosta, GA, March 2001; also presented as Faculty Colloquium, Philosophy and Religious Studies Department, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, February 2001.

“Feminist Studies in Religion and Engagement with the Religious Studies Department,” University of Wisconsin System Women’s Studies Conference, Madison, WI, November 2000.

“Afro-Caribbean Water Goddess as ldeal Mother in Two Recent Novels by Women,” Conference on The Bonds Between Women and Water, Duluth, MN, September 2000.

“My Papa was called Bubba but his Real Name was Leroy: Class, Violence and the Personal Voice in Biblical Criticism,” invited paper on Autobiographical Criticism for the Semiotics and Exegesis Section, Society for Biblical Literature Annual Conference in Nashville, November 2000.

“Twin Advice from Ann and Abby: How they Have and Have Not Changed over the Decades,” invited paper,

Special Session on Advice Writing, South Central Modern Language Association, San Antonio, 2000.

Respondent to The Bible and the New Historicism Session, Society for Biblical Literature National Conference in Boston, November 1999 (with research assistant/student Jennifer Hale).

“Identity and the Clitoris in Nawal el Sadaawi,” Special Session on Muslim Women’s Voices: The Intersection of Islam and Gender, South Central Modern Language Association, Memphis, October 1999.

“Pattern of Women’s Spirituality in Two Recent Novels: Toni Morrison’s Paradise and Rebecca Wells’ Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” presented at the conference: Writing To/For/About Women, Millsaps College, Jackson, MS, May 1999.

“The Book of Ruth as the Backbone of Fried Green Tomatoes,” Upper Midwest AAR/SBL, St. Paul, MN, April 1999.

“Eating Fried Green Tomatoes with Ruth and Naomi: Hollywood, Lesbianism and the Bible,” Religion and Film Section, AAR/SBL National Conference, Orlando, November 1998.

“The Lesbian Erotic and the Vision of Community in Fried Green Tomatoes,” Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities Section, South Central Modern Language Association, New Orleans, November 1998; Special Topic: The Erotic.

“The Disorder of Things: Is a Post-Modern Reconfiguration of the Humanities Possible?” invited paper for the South Central Modern Language Association, San Antonio, October 1996.

“Co-opting the Female Body,” Religion, Peace and War Section, AAR/SBL National Conference, New Orleans, November 1996.

“Images of Gender, Nature, and Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Cultural Studies Symposium, Manhattan, KS, March 1996.

“Primordial Combat or Sacred Marriage: New Year’s Rituals in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Text and Presentation Conference, Gainesville, FL, March 1996.

“Dismembering the Goddess-Body: Tiamat in Babylonian Myth,” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Ames, IA, June 1994.

“Public Execution in Joshua: A Foucauldian Reading,” Upper Midwest Regional SBL Conference, Minneapolis, MN, April 1994.

“The Uses of Violence: A Foucauldian Reading of the Ancient Assyrian Palace Reliefs,” International Association for Word and Image Studies, Third International Congress, Carleton University Centre for Rhetorical Studies, Ottawa, Ontario, August 1993.

“Inclusion, Exclusion and Marginality in the Book of Joshua,” article published in JSOT 55 (1992), pp.15-23, Sheffield.

“The Politics of Class, Gender and Ethnicity in Characterization: The Case of Rahab,” 1992 SBL National Conference, San Francisco, November 1992.

“Foucault’s ‘Spectacle of the Scaffold’ and the Achan Incident in Joshua 7,” Southwest Regional SBL Conference, Ft. Worth, TX, March 1992.

“Fear of the Other,” AAR/SBL National Conference in Kansas City, November 1991.

‘Holy War/Bloody Murder: the Rhetoric of Violence in the Ancient Near East,” Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities Section, South Central Modern Language Association, Fort Worth, TX, October 1991.

“A Feminist Reading of the Book of Joshua,” Southwest Biblical Studies Seminar, Dallas, October 1991.

“The ‘New Historicism’ and the Field of Biblical Studies,” Department of Religious Studies Colloquy, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, November 1991.

“Circulation of Social Energy: the Implications of the ‘New Historicism’ for Biblical Studies,” International SBL meeting, Rome, July 1991.

“‘All Israel’ as Literary Trope: Inclusion, Exclusion and Marginality in the Book of Joshua,” Literary Criticism Section, Southwest Regional SBL Conference, Dallas, March 1991.

“The Rhetoric of Violence: The Use of Assyrian War Oracle Language in the Conquest Narrative,” Rhetorical Criticism Section, SBL National Conference, New Orleans, November 1990.

“Deconstructing the Conquest Narrative,” presented at the Cambridge University Seminar on Interpretation and Change, May 1989.

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY:

German, French, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ugaritic, Akkadian and some Spanish.

HONORS, GRANTS AND AWARDS:

Outstanding Teaching, 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001.

Guest Lecturers, Artists and Other Professionals Grant to bring New York artist Christina Biaggi to campus, Project Title: “Finding the Goddess Within and Without, by sculptor and writer Christina Biaggi.”

Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Collaboration Grant with student Olaf Lind, Summer 2001, Project Title: “Theories of Ritual: The Socio-Political Dimension.”

Small Research Grant for writing article: “Kinky Friedman,” in Twenty-first Century American Writers, DLB Press, 2001.

Network for Excellence in Teaching Grant, for Women’s Studies Workshop, January 2001.

University Research and Creative Activity Grant, for The Prostitute in the Hebrew Bible: Metaphor and Reality, Fall 2000.

Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Collaboration Grant with student Jennifer Hale, August 2000, Project Title: “The Feminine Face of New Orleans Voodoo.”

Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Collaboration Grant with student Larry Troyer, August 2000, Project Title: “The Role and Meaning of Snakes in New Orleans Voodoo.”

Honorable Mention Prize for Arts and Humanities Category, UWEC Student Research Day, with student researcher Jennifer Hale on “The New Historicism and New Orleans Voodoo,” April 2000.

Grant for Presentation of Research Results with research assistant/student Jennifer Hale, for Response to the New Historicism Panel at SBL National Conference, Boston, November 1999.

Fulbright Travel Grant and Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Cultus grant, 1976-77.

W.F. and Marion Michael Scholarship, for outstanding academic achievement in the German department, University of Texas, 1974-75.

Alpha Lambda Delta, academic honor society, admitted 1974.

ACADEMIC ORGANIZATIONS:

Presider of Section on The New Historicism in Mediterranean Antiquity, at the International Conference of the SBL, Rome, Italy, July 2001.

SBL Committee on the Status of Women, term beginning January 2001.

Secretary for 2001 and Chair Elect for 2002, Southwestern Literature Section of South Central Modern Language Association.

Chair, Women’s Caucus, South Central Modern Language Association, 1999-2000.

Co-chair of SBL Consultation on the Bible and the New Historicism, 1998-2000.

Organizer and Chair of Special Session, “Muslim Women’s Voices: The Intersection of Islam and Gender,” South Central Modern Language Association, 1999 Conference in Memphis, TN.

Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities Section, South Central Modern Language Association, 1997 Conference in Dallas, TX; Special Topic: “Religion, Literature and Mythos.”

Organizer and Chair of Special Session, “Passion and Transgression in Word and Image: The Body at the Borders,” South Central Modern Language Association, 1996 Conference in San Antonio, TX.

Chair of Literature and the Body Section, South Central Modern Language Association, 1995 Conference in Houston, TX, and the 1994 Conference in New Orleans, LA.

Presider for Gender, Narrative and Spirituality Section, 1994 National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Ames, IA.

Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities Section, South Central Modern Language Association, 1993 Conference in Austin, TX; Special Topic: “The Em-BODY-ment of Culture.”

Presider for Reading, Rhetoric and the Hebrew Bible Section, 1993 SBL National Conference in Washington, D.C.; Special Topic: “Rhetoric of the Body in the Hebrew Bible.

Organizer and Chair, 1992 Forum in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas, an interdisciplinary panel discussion on the topic of “Current Issues in Gender, Culture and Religion.”

UNIVERSITY SERVICE:

Chair of Faculty Search Committee: position in History of Christianity, 2000-2001.

Faculty Search Committee member: position in World Religions 1998-1999.

Faculty Search Committee member: position in Feminist Philosophy 1999-2000.

Steering Committee, Women’s Studies Program, 2000-the present.

Faculty Senate, 1999-2001.

Faculty Senate Committees:

Executive Committee, 2000-2001

Physical Plant Planning Committee, 1999-2001

Nominating Committee, 2000-2001

Panel on Diversity, Resident Assistants Training, Towers Dorm, January 2000.

Workshop Session on Religion, Resident Assistants Training, Towers Dorm, January 2000.

Faculty Advisor of the Year nomination from the Network of Unitarian Universalist Students, 1998-9 (continuing as advisor 1999-2001).

Faculty Advisor for the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Student Group, 1999-2001.

Faculty Advisor for Talisman (Religious Studies) Society, 1997-2000.

Steering Committee, Equality, the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered Faculty and Staff Organization.

“Winger” (faculty sponsor) for one of the wings in the student dormitories, since 1997.

COMMUNITY SERVICE:

Worship Leader for Sunday Service, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, September 23, 2001.

“Winter Solstice: Celtic Holiday,” Interview on Wisconsin Public Radio with Jack Beaver, December 21, 2000.

“Biblical Views of Singleness,” lecture and discussion for the Single Divorced and Widowed Christians of

Eau Claire, March 2001.

Program Committee, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, since 1997.

Chair, Subcommittee on Planning Intergenerational Services, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, since 1998.

Worship Leader for Winter Solstice Services, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, 1999 and 2000.

Worship Leader for Samhain Services, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, 1999 and 2000.

“Afro-Caribbean Spirituality,” as Guest Speaker/Preacher, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, February 13, 2000.

Participant: Panel on Spirituality at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, December 13, 1998.

Guest Bible Study Teacher (adult religious education) at Lake Street United Methodist Church, 1998 Carpenter’s Bench Series: “God Hears the Cry of the Oppressed: Study of Joshua and Judges.”

Workshop on “Balance, Harmony, Transformation” for Back of the Moon Women’s Retreat Center, Augusta, WI, August 30,1998.

Workshop on “The Goddess” for Back of the Moon Women’s Retreat Center, Augusta, WI, June 13, 1998.

Writing occasional column called “Oh My Goddess” for Back of the Moon newsletter.

“Earth-Centered Spirituality,” as a Guest Preacher/Speaker for Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, February 22, 1998.

“The Wisdom of the World’s Religions,” as a Guest Preacher/Speaker for Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Eau Claire, October 12, 1997.

Volunteer for Cause for Paws (provide temporary care and find homes for homeless animals).

COURSES CURRENTLY TAUGHT AT UWEC:

RELS 490 Seminar: Afro-Caribbean Religions (2001)

RELS 100 Introduction to World Religions

RELS 230 Old Testament/Hebrew Bible

RELS 240 New Testament/Christian Origins

RELS 340 Islam

RELS 490 Seminar: Religion and Violence (1997)

RELS 353 Emancipating Eve and Adam: Women in Western Religions

RELS 351 Women in World Religions

RELS 348 Religious Themes in Literature

WS 301 Examining Women’s Studies

Independent and Directed Studies: Classical Hebrew (language), Koine Greek (language), Feminist Topics in the New Testament, Religious Themes in Ethnic Literatures, Religious Themes in Jewish Literature, Medieval Women Mystics in Christianity, African Elements in Santeria, Prophetic Preaching and Social Justice in the Civil Rights Movement, New Orleans Voodoo.

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW UWEC PROGRAMS AND COURSES:

Seminar: Afro-Caribbean Religions, scheduled for Fall 2000;

Religion and the Body (new class currently being developed);

Love and Sex in the Ancient Near East (new class currently being developed);

Religious Themes in Literature (RELS 348) redesigned to meet diversity requirement;

Participation with a team of faculty members working on a proposal for a Women’s Studies major, (Currently UWEC has only a minor.)

Participation with a team of faculty members working on a proposal for an interdisciplinary Middle Eastern Studies minor.

INTRODUCTORY AND LOWER DIVISION COURSES TAUGHT AT OTHER UNIVERSITIES:

Introduction to World Religions (Southern Methodist, Iowa State, Christopher Newport Universities)

Introduction to Hebrew Bible (Southern Methodist University and University of Dallas)

Critical Thinking (Christopher Newport University)

Introduction to Women’s Studies (Iowa State University)

Introduction to Bible, including both Hebrew Bible and New Testament (Iowa State University)

History and Religion of Ancient Israel (College of William and Mary)

Christian Origins (College of William and Mary)

Freshman Seminar: Men and Women in the Bible (College of William and Mary)

SEMINARS AND UPPER DIVISION COURSES TAUGHT AT OTHER UNIVERSITIES:

Bible as Literature (University of Texas at Dallas)

Asian Conceptions of Cosmic Order (University of Texas at Dallas)

Conceptions of Human Nature (University of Texas at Dallas)

Basic Judaism (University of Texas at Dallas)

Female and Male in Religion and Culture (Southern Methodist University and Iowa State University)

Torah Seminar (College of William and Mary)

Synoptic Gospels Seminar (College of William and Mary)

Letters of Paul Seminar (College of William and Mary)

Liberation Theologies (senior independent study at College of William and Mary)

Topics in Jewish Studies: Women and Judaism (independent study at University of Texas at Dallas)

Topics in Jewish Studies: “Lilith” in the Rabbinical Writings (independent study at Southern Methodist

University)

Social Scientific Approaches to Native American Religions (independent study at Southern Methodist

University)

Women and Religion in History: The Burning of “Witches” in the Middle Ages (independent study at

Iowa State University)

Goddesses and Nature in Indigenous Tribal Religions (independent study at Iowa State University)