Anne Mamary

When I was a child, I wanted to be a magician, and chemistry was the closest thing to magic I could think of to study in college. Years later, I realized that Bryn Mawr College was really Hogwarts, and I wanted to be an alchemist — to find/create the brilliant and golden, the kind and the just in the world. My interest in social justice led me to the Philosophy, Interpretation, and Culture program at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The physical chemistry professor at Bryn Mawr also led the Morris Dancing side (an English folk dance); I didn’t know it at the time, but the oral tradition of the Morris led me to an interest in the poetic, musical, danced, mythological culture in Plato, who wrote on the cusp of Greece’s move from an oral to a written culture. I am still living with Plato’s dialogues and am still dancing the Morris with the B.F. Harridans. It is my hope that a Monmouth College education will facilitate students’ journeys of creation and discovery, both individually and collectively.

Feminist Philosophy

Philosophy of Race and Racism

Post-Colonial Studies

Plato and Mousike (the Arts of the Muses)

Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Environment

A.B. — Chemistry, Bryn Mawr (Pennsylvania) College, 1986

Ph.D. — State University of New York at Binghamton, 1995

Phil 101: Introduction to Philosophy

Phil 201: Logic

Phil 101: Introduction to Philosophy

Phil 201: Logic

Phil 207: Ethics

Phil/Clas 205: Classical and Medieval Philosophy

Phil 307: Modern Philosophy

Phil 225/WOST 225: Philosophy & Feminism

Phil 311: Contemporary Philosophy

Phil 315: Philosophy of Art

Phil 322: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Soul

Phil/Relg 340: Africana Philosophy

Phil/Relg/Estu 310: Environmental Ethics

Critical Animal Studies Faculty Paper/Project of the Year, 2020.

Hatch Award for Excellence in Service, Monmouth College, 2020.

Council of Independent Colleges seminar, “The Verbal Art of Plato,” Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC, 2017

Books Edited:

with Meredith Traxler Drees. Politeia: Essays in Ancient Philosophy in Honor of Anthony Preus (SUNY Press, in progress). 

The Alchemical Harry Potter: Essays on Transfigurations in J.K. Rowling’s Novels. McFarland, See article on College website about teaching Harry Potter. Alumni Isaac Willis ’18, Sean Paulsgrove ’18 and Tamyra Dixon-Rankin ’81 have articles in the anthology.

Hatch Award for Excellence in Service, Monmouth College, 2020.

Council of Independent Colleges seminar, “The Verbal Art of Plato,” Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC, 2017

Recent Publications:

Politeia: Essays in Ancient Philosophy in Honor of Anthony Preus, edited by Anne Mamary and Meredith Traxler Drees, (SUNY Press, forthcoming 2023).

“Don’t Be a Drag, Just Be a Queen: The Female Drama in Plato’s Republic.” Politeia, forthcoming.

“Introduction.” The Alchemical Harry Potter: Essays on Transfiguration in J.K. Rowling’s  Novels, 2021, pp. 1–26.

“Ruddy Stargazers: Centaurs, Philosophers, and a Life Worth Living.” The Alchemical Harry  Potter: Essays on Transfiguration in J.K. Rowling’s Novels, 2021, pp. 265–85.

“Epilogue: Friendship Hallowed, Pure, and Ever-Present.” The Alchemical Harry Potter: Essays on Transfiguration in J.K. Rowling’s Novels, 2021, pp. 287–90.

“How Do You Know His Name is Gabriel?” Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Volume 17, Issue 5, October 2020: 34–62.

“Ruddy Stargazers: Centaurs, Philosophers, and a Life Worth Living.” Plato in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern Times: Selected Papers from the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, edited by John Finamore and Mark Nyvlt, Prometheus Trust, 2020, pp. 117–28.

“How Do You Know His Name is Gabriel? Finding Communion with the Singular Lives of Creatures.” Feeling Animal Death: Being Hosts to Ghosts, edited by Brianne Donaldson and Harrison King, Rowman and Littlefield, 2019, pp. 185–98.

“Geometry in the Humming of the Strings.” The Bright and the Good: The Connection Between  Intellectual and Moral Virtues, edited by Audrey Anton, Rowman and Littlefield, 2018, 3–18.

Podcast Interview:

Potterversity Episode 25: “The Alchemy of Harry Potter”