Kathleen Kirsch, PhD

Assistant Professor of Classics and Catholic Studies
Director of the Summer Latin Institute

School of Arts & Sciences

About Me

A Minnesota native and the oldest of five, my education and formation inspired in me a love of truth and a desire to learn. As an educator, I strive to pass on those gifts. In addition to my scholarship and teaching, I love to sing, hike, bake, discover new cuisines, and live up to my vocation to be the glory of God as a (wo)man fully alive (cf. St. Irenaeus). In my travels, I’ve visited or lived in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Spain.

Why I’m At Mary

I firmly believe in the mutual complementarity of natural and divine revelation and I see the purpose of education as the liberation of the mind for a more profound encounter with truth. With a joint appointment in Classics and Catholic Studies, I enable students to explore the dialogue between classical/pagan and Romano-Christian literature and culture.

Expertise

My specialty is fourth-century Christian Latin poetry, especially the work of Prudentius. In my research, I show how he articulated his faith in language and imagery comprehensible to his contemporaries. In this way, he engaged in a “New Evangelization” in his era. My secondary research area is manuscript studies, especially paleography and textual criticism.

Kirsch, Kathleen M. (2024) “Shaping Christianity in Calagurris: Prudentius’s Renouatio of Ambrose in Peristephanon 1.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 32.2.

Kirsch, Kathleen M. (2023). "Imagining Holiness: Legitimized Interior Warfare in Prudentius’ Psychomachia." In Religious Modes of (De-)Legitimizing Violence in Antiquity: Proceedings of the International Conference, Mainz (Germany), September 2019. Hamburger Studien zu Gesellschaften und Kulturen der Vormoderne.

Kirsch, Kathleen M. (2023). “How καθ' ὅλον Should a Catholic Studies Program Aspire to Be?” LOGOS: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, Supplement.

Kirsch, Kathleen M. (2020). Considering the Monsters of Prudentius’s Psychomachia. Journal of Late Antiquity, 13(2), 220-233.

Education

PhD: Catholic University of America, 2019
MA: Catholic University of America, 2014
BA: Ave Maria University, 2011