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Dr. Sarah Borden
Associate Professor
On faculty since 2001

Phone: 630-752-5888
Fax: 630-752-7777
Email: Sarah.R.Borden@wheaton.edu

Education

Ph.D., Philosophy, Fordham University, 2001
Dissertation: “An Issue in Edith Stein’s Philosophy of the Person: The Relation of Individual and Universal Form in Endliches und ewiges Sein” (mentor: Fr. Joseph Koterski, S.J.)

M.A., Philosophy, Fordham University, 1998

B.A., Philosophy, Wheaton College (IL), 1995
magna cum laude, honors
Honors thesis: “A Study in the Actor-Character Relationship,” on Constantin Stanislavski, Tolstoy and Kant

 
Professional and Personal Interests
Before coming to Wheaton as a freshman, I was intrigued by philosophy. One of my aunts teaches philosophy at the University of Dayton, and short holiday conversations sparked my curiosity. But I had no intention of doing more than a few classes, or maybe a minor - if it proved really interesting. It did. So I followed the introductory course with Arthur Holmes's History of Philosophy course, although the original impetus for signing up was as much because I had a little time and a friend talked me into it, as interest. But before it was half over, I was captivated. Philosophy raised questions that I had (more and less clearly) asked for many years and offered models and structures for reflection. At the end of that year, on the final day of classes, I dropped my IDS major in film and dramatic arts, canceled my slot at a semester film program in LA, and decided that I wanted a Ph.D. in philosophy.

I did both the MA and Ph.D. at Fordham University in Bronx, New York. Fordham's program strongly emphasizes the history of philosophy, and between coursework and exams, I developed an interest in the relationship between medieval and contemporary thought. I am struck by the beauty and elegance of Thomas Aquinas's synthesis of Plato and Aristotle, as well as his concern for the relationship between philosophical and theological pursuits. On the other hand, the philosophical method and approach of phenomenology strike me as, in broad strokes, correct. I wrote my dissertation on Edith Stein, someone who was deeply formed by the early 20th century phenomenological school yet also developed a great love for medieval metaphysics. The work on Stein's thought has deepened both of these interests, and much of my work has centered around questions regarding essences and essential structures, the problem of universals, individual and universal forms, individuality and uniqueness, and the nature of emotions and value.

Courses Taught

  • Phenomenology
  • Historical Seminar: Edith Stein
  • Feminist Philosophy
  • Postmodernism and Christianity
  • History of Philosophy
  • Issues and Worldviews in Philosophy


    Independent Studies Directed
  • Heidegger's Besic Problems in Phenomenology
  • Aristotle and Kierkegaard
  • Phenomenological Psychology
  • Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations
  • "A Phenomenology of Religious Belief: Edith Stein on Believing and Willing"

Membership in Professional Societies

  • American Philosophical Association
  • Society of Christian Philosophers

Research

  • Phenomenology
  • Feminism
  • Thomistic Metaphysics

Papers Published and/or Presented (selected)

    Books
  • "Edith Stein" in the series Outstanding Christian Thinkers, ed. Brian Davies (London: Continuum Publishers, December 2003).

    • Articles
  • “What is Complementarianism?: John Paul II on Women,” under consideration as part of a volume of edited papers tentatively entitled Pope John Paul II and Philosophy: Ethics, Society, and Culture.
  • (under Sarah Borden Sharkey) “Edith Stein and John Paul II on Women,” forthcoming in volume of papers published by The Council for Research in Values in Philosophy.
  • “Edith Stein’s Understanding of Woman,” International Philosophical Quarterly (forthcoming in June 2006).
  • “Edith Stein and Thomas Aquinas on Being and Essence,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly (forthcoming in special edition of the ACPQ on Edith Stein, projected for 2007).
  • “What makes You You?: Edith Stein on Individual Form” in Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. Joyce Berkman (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), pp. 283-300.
  • “Review of Literature in English on Edith Stein” in Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. Joyce Berkman (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), pp. 320-342. 
  • Introduction to Edith Stein’s “The Interiority of the Soul” for a Reconsiderations piece in Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 8:2 (Spring 2005), pp. 178-182.           
  • “Bibliography of Secondary Sources on Edith Stein” for the Baltimore Carmel website:                         www.geocities.com/baltimorecarmel/stein/borden.html.
  • Book notes for International Philosophical Quarterly (March 1999).

    Conferences & Presentations
  • Paper presentation, “Edith Stein’s Thomism” at International St. Thomas Society, December 28, 2006
  • Session leader, “God, Suffering, and Evil” at the Evangelical Church Library Association annual meeting, Evangelical Free Church, Wheaton, IL, October 14, 2006.
  • Philosophy series, “Sex, Gender, and our Vocation in the Contemporary World,” with two public lectures, entitled “Difference, Sameness, and the Vocation of Sex: Theoretical Issues” and “Sex as a Vocational Response to the Contemporary World,” and two luncheon discussions, at University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, April 3-4, 2006.
  • Paper presentation, “John Paul II and Edith Stein on Woman” at Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophical Legacy, Saint Joseph College, March 23, 2006.
  • Paper presentation, “What Might it Mean to Suffer for the Cross: St. Edith Stein on Suffering” at Saint Joseph Abbey Seminary College, March 8, 2006.
  • Paper presentation, “What is Complementarianism?: John Paul II on Women” at Truth, Life & Solidarity: Philosophical Perspectives on the Thought of John Paul II, Boston College, February 25, 2006.
  • Session leader, “Augustine 101,” at the Evangelical Church Library Association annual meeting, Evangelical Free Church, Wheaton, IL, October 15, 2005.
  • Paper presentation, “The Relation of Human Beings to God in Thomas Aquinas’s Thought” at St. Mary’s College, September 28, 2005.
  • Paper presentation, “Edith Stein Encounters Thomas Aquinas” at the Eighth Annual Thomas Aquinas Symposium, Saint Mary’s College, February 19, 2005.
  • Paper presentation, “Being a Person in a Political World: Saint Edith Stein and the Soul” at University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, October 18, 2004.
  • Paper presentation, “Edith Stein’s Understanding of Woman: A Critical Appraisal” at University of St. Thomas’s summer symposium on The Work of John Paul II and the Vocation of the Professional Woman, June 18, 2004.
  • Paper presentation, “Value, Emotions, and Edith Stein” for Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture conference on Formation and Renewal, October 4, 2003.
  • Panel participant, Christian Feminism, Wheaton College, January 27, 2003. 
  • Panel participant/paper presentation, “What makes you you?: Edith Stein on Individual Form” at Society for the Study of Women in Philosophy, New York, NY, December 28, 2000.
  • Paper presentation, “The notion of essence/form in Edith Stein’s later work” for Forschungskolloquium at the Universität zu Köln, December 8, 1999.
  • Panel participant/paper presentation, “Advocacy and Neutrality in the Light of Multiculturalism,” at Marquette University Philosophy Conference on Teaching Philosophy, February 26-28, 1999.
  • Panel participant at New York University’s Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program conference, “Degrees of Truth: Current Controversies Concerning Aquinas,” April 30, 1999.
  • Paper presentation, “Free Persons and Free Actions in Aquinas’ De Veritate,” American Catholic Philosophical Association Roundtable meeting, December 5, 1998.
  • Participant in invited symposium on Edith Stein’s philosophy, Baltimore Carmel, November 14,1998.
  • Paper presentation, “Knowledge or Vitality: Socrates, Gabriel Marcel and the Teaching of  Philosophy,” at Southern Illinois University Graduate Philosophy Conference, November 7, 1998.
  • Panel participant for Edith Stein Symposium, St. John’s University (NY), October 15, 1998.

    Other
  • Refereed manuscript for Duquesne University Press.
  • Refereed articles for International Philosophical Quarterly and Continental Philosophy Review.
  • Editorial board of Conference, a journal of philosophy and theory, the graduate journal of the New York City Consortium, 1996-1998.