Rate My Professor Nathan Colborne

Dr. Nathan Colborne serves as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at Nipissing University, appointed to a five-year term effective July 1, 2024. He joined the university in 2005 as an Associate Professor of Religions and Cultures. Colborne's administrative career includes roles as Interim Associate Dean of Arts and Science, Chair of the Religions and Cultures Department from 2010-2011 and 2014-2016, Senate Speaker from 2015-2016 and 2019-2021, and Graduate Coordinator for the MA in History. He earned a PhD in Religious Studies from McMaster University, with a dissertation titled "Desire, Discipline, and the Political Body in Michel Foucault and Saint Augustine"; an MA in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University; and a BA in Political Science and Religious Studies from the University of British Columbia.

Colborne's research interests center on the philosophy of the subject and the impact of religion on political and social organization. He investigates how people employ terms like 'religion,' 'holy,' 'sacred,' and 'divine,' as well as religion's functions and enduring relevance in discourse. His publications encompass several articles on sacrificial violence in forming political and religious identity; a forthcoming article in Method and Theory in the Study of Religion critiquing the use of 'religion' in contemporary evolutionary biology; "Violence and Resistance: Towards a Politics without a Scapegoat," published in 2013 in the Toronto Journal of Theology; and a 2010 book review of Anthony Gill's The Political Origins of Religious Liberty in Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. His dissertation manuscript is currently in preparation for publication. Colborne teaches courses such as Religion and Politics, Religion and Violence, The Religious Animal, Fanaticism, and Is God Dead?.