Ann W. Astell

Ann Winifred Astell (born January 28, 1952) is an American literary scholar and theologian. A 2001 Guggenheim Fellow, she specializes in literature and religion, has worked as a professor at Purdue University and at University of Notre Dame, and has served as president of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (2011–2012) and Colloquium on Violence & Religion (2011–2015). Biography Ann Winifred Astell was born in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, on January 28, 1952, She attended Jefferson High School, where she was salutatorian and won a local Associated Press student writing contest two times in a row. She later obtained her BS (1974) in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) and took a break from higher education to teach language arts at religious school in the Milwaukee area. for "a study of medieval asceticism, mysticism, and aesthetics".

Although she had originally taught and written on literature and English studies at Purdue, she had switched to teaching theological subjects after joining Notre Dame. She served as president of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (2011–2012) and Colloquium on Violence & Religion (2011–2015). Lay Sanctity, Medieval and Modern (2000) (with Bonnie Wheeler) Joan of Arc and Spirituality (2003; New Middle Ages Series) (with J. A. Jackson) Levinas and Medieval Literature (2009) (with Sandor Goodhart) Sacrifice, Scripture, and Substitution in Ancient Judaism and Christianity (2011) (with Dorsey Armstrong and Howell D. Chickering) Magistra Doctissima (2013) Saving Fear in Christian Spirituality (2020)

Authored books Job, Boethius, and Epic Truth (1994) The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages (1994) Chaucer and the Universe of Learning (1996) Political Allegory in Late Medieval England (1999) Joan of Arc and Sacrificial Authorship (2003) Eating Beauty (2006)