Rate My Professor Renee Kohler-Ryan

Professor Renee Kohler-Ryan serves as Dean of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the Sydney campus of the University of Notre Dame Australia, where she has been since 2011. She also holds positions as Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic and Registrar, and Director of the Institute for Ethics and Society. Previously, she worked as a researcher and academic assistant at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, having earned her PhD in Philosophy there under the supervision of Professor William Desmond, along with a Master in Philosophy (Licentiate) and a BA in Liberal Arts (Philosophy) from the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, USA, and Rome, Italy. Her doctoral dissertation, "From Head to Foot Set in our Place: Sacred Space as the Expression of Religious Experience and Imagination," reflects her early scholarly focus.

Kohler-Ryan's academic interests encompass philosophical aesthetics of art and architecture, the history of philosophy particularly in the medieval period, political philosophy, the Catholic intellectual tradition including literature, ethics, and philosophy of culture. She teaches courses such as aesthetics, philosophy of the human person, political philosophy, medieval philosophy, faith and reason, pilgrimage, and moral philosophy. Among her key publications are the books *Companions in the Between: Augustine, Desmond, and their Communities of Love* (Wipf and Stock, 2020) and editor of *Living the Catholic Tradition: Philosophical and Theological Considerations* (Franciscan University Press, 2019), with a forthcoming *Companion to Edith Stein's Essays on Woman* (Rowman & Littlefield, 2026). Selected chapters include "Why Secularism is No Option for a Christian Citizen: Augustine’s Analysis of Love in the City" in *Love in Christian Legal Thought* (Routledge, 2021) and "Longing for the True and the Beautiful: An Augustinian Approach to Teacher Formation" in *Formation for Teachers in Catholic Schools* (Springer, 2021). Journal articles feature "‘The Hour of Woman’ and Edith Stein: Catholic New Feminist Responses to Essentialism" in *Religions* (2020) and "Trees in the Garden: Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, and the Order of Justice" in *Australian Feminist Law Journal* (2013). She received the Distinguished Service Medal from the University of Notre Dame Australia in 2023 and the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Initiatives that Enhance Student Learning in 2013 as part of the Core Curriculum Teaching Team. Kohler-Ryan contributes to educational governance as a board member of Mary Aikenhead Educational Ministries, member of the Mission and Identity Committee for Sydney Catholic Schools, and the Reference Group for Studies in Catholic Thought reporting to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. She served as a delegate to the Plenary Council of Australia and as a non-bishop member for Oceania in the Synod on Synodality (2023-2024). She designed the Graduate Certificate in Catholic Thought for teacher formation in Studies in Catholic Thought.