An image of the Salve Regina crest over a blue background.

Dr. Claire Koen

  • Visiting assistant professor
Office Location:

Marian Hall, Room 201

Areas of Expertise

Early Christianity (especially Egyptian Monasticism and Christianity in Nubia and Axum), Second Temple Judaism, development of demonologies, Eastern Christianities, Coptic studies, papyrology

Education

  • B.A., Marian University (2008)
  • M.T.S., Boston College School of Theology and Ministry (2017)
  • Th.M., Boston College School of Theology and Ministry (2018)
  • Ph.D., Fordham University (2025)

What's My Why?

My research focuses on the Greek and Coptic Egyptian monastic writings of the 2nd-6th centuries, with a particular focus on the emergence of the trope of the “Ethiopian demon.” I’m interested in how projects of evangelism intersected both with inherited cultural prejudices, and with the fraught sociopolitical contexts of Roman Egypt. How should scholars of religion and persons of faith approach the writings (such as the sermons of Shenoute of Atripe, the Life of Paul of Tamma and the Coptic Life of Aaron) that emerged from these complex entanglements? Can texts that preserve cultural prejudices towards darker-skinned persons still communicate genuine spiritual teachings? And if they can, how ought scholarly and faith communities go about distilling the profitable?

Professional Experience

I recently defended my dissertation, "Color Symbolism and the Construction of Demonologies in Early Egyptian Christianities: An Early Christian Technique of Identity Formation," at Fordham University. I was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Dissertation Completion Fellowship in Orthodox Christian Studies from the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. In addition to my main area of research, I also convene an AI and theology working group, an interdisciplinary group of Orthodox Christian, Catholic and Protestant scholars considering existential questions raised by the emergence of artificial intelligence.

Selected Publications

“A Dark-Skinned Demon in the Life of Paul of Tamma,” in Gender, Identity and Authority in Late Antiquity (Rutledge, forthcoming).

“Receipt for the Date-Palm Tax” (VM 695) in Newly-Edited Ostraca Upsaliensia from the Petemenophis & Sons Archive, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, 2024.