Susanna G. Rizzo

Associate Professor
Associate Professor of Liberal Arts

  • Biography

    Dr Susanna G. Rizzo is Associate Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame Australia. She holds a Dottore in Lettere Classiche (indirizzo Storico-Filologico-Religioso) from the University of Napoli ‘Federico II’ (Italy); a MA in International Relations (University of Wollongong); a PhD in History (University of Wollongong); and a Diploma of Educational Studies (College of Teachers, University of London).  Her thesis for the Dottore in Letter Classiche was on the Community of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Title: 'The Essene Community of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls'); and her doctoral thesis was on the contribution of Christianity to the development of West Papuan nationalism (Title: From Paradise Lost to Promised Land: Christianity and the rise of West Papuan Nationalism).

    Before joining the University of Notre Dame Susanna Rizzo was Dean of Campion College Australia, the only Liberal Arts College in Australia. She has published in various academic journals in politics, history and philosophy. She is currently writing a co-authored book with Professor Gregory Melleuish of the University of Wollongong titled Understanding Piety and Theology in the Culture of the West: The Poetic Life (forthcoming Routledge). Besides knowledge of ancient languages (Ancient Greek, Latin and Biblical Hebrew), Susanna Rizzo speaks fluently Italian and has advanced proficiency in French and Spanish.

  • Teaching areas

    Susanna Rizzo is currently teaching courses in History and International Relations at the School of Arts and Sciences; and courses in Liberal Arts Education, Biblical Hebrew, New Testament Greek, and Philosophy at the School of Philosophy and Theology.
    She is also Coordinator of the Spanish Program and of the Honours Program at the School of Arts and Sciences.

  • Research interests and current projects

    Research interests are in the disciplines of history, ancient philosophy, continental philosophy, world politics, history and philosophy of religion, Biblical Studies, Judaism of the Second Temple, and Liberal Arts Education.

    Current research projects
    Examination of the interplay between piety and theology in Western Civilisation.
    The emergence of Apocalyptic-Eschatological Thought in Middle Judaic Contexts.
    The Spirituality of Lucius Annaeus Seneca
    Sovereignty in a Post-Political Era.

  • Research supervision

    Susanna is currently supervising several HDR students in History, Biblical Studies and International Relations.

  • Books

    Susanna Rizzo & Gregory Melleuish, Understanding Piety and Theology in the Culture of the West: The Poetic Life (forthcoming Routledge).

    Susanna G. Rizzo, Falene. Series Poeti Contemporanei. Cultura Duemila Editrice, Ragusa, 1993. (In Italian)

  • Book chapters

    Susanna G. Rizzo, ‘The Problem of αρετή in Plato’s Paideia’. In Education through the Liberal Arts, edited by G. Caban, 67-76. Warrane Monograph Series 21, 2010.

    Susanna G. Rizzo, ‘Women and Colonial/Imperialist policies and practices in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific’. In Encyclopaedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, vol. II, 13-17.Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2004.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    • Susanna Rizzo & Gregory Melleuish, ‘ In Search of the Origins of the Western Mind: McGilchrist and the Axial Age’, (Forthcoming, Histories, 2020)
    • Greg Melleuish and Susanna Rizzo, 'Philosophy of History: Change, Stability and the Tragic Human Condition'. Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 13, no. 3 (2017): 292-311.
    • Susanna Rizzo & Gregory Melleuish, ‘Are Secular Politics Possible?’, Budhi. A Journal of Ideas and Culture 20, no. 3 (2016): 22-56.
    • Susanna Rizzo & Gregory Melleuish, ‘Plasticity, Finitude and the Imagination: Why there can never be a Fixed Natural Social and Political Order’, Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 11, no.1 (2015): 221- 238.
    • Susanna G. Rizzo, ‘Born in Translation: The Discursive Origins of the West’, Conour Court Quarterly 9 (2014): 63-84.
    • Susanna G. Rizzo & Gregory Melleuish, ‘From Secular Temporality to Postsecular Timelessness: Trekking the Past’s Future and the Future’s Past’, Telos 163 (2013): 39-60.
    • Susanna G. Rizzo, ‘Does Europe Really Exist?’, Policy 28, no.1 (2012): 17-18.
    • Susanna G. Rizzo, ‘The Religious Foundations of Secular Hermeneutics and Epistemology: Debunking the Secularisation Myth’. In God, Freedom and Nature: Proceedings of the CIS Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture, edited by Laura R. Buchanan and R.A. Chapman, 6-14. Boston: Body & Soul, 2012.

  • Conference papers

    • ‘Ancient and Modern Populism’ (co-authored with Gregory Melleuish), Symposium, Institute of Ethics & Society, The University of Notre Dame, 31 May 2017 rope’, L’Aquila (Italy), 5-8 September 2014.
    • ‘The Limits of Naturalism’ (with Gregory Melleuish - UoW),Telos in Australia Seminar, Melbourne, April 2014.
    • ‘The Noble Lie: Secular Sovereignty and the Post-Secular Challenge’, Seventh Annual Telos Conference on ‘Religion and Politics in a Post-Secular World’, New York, 16-17 February 2013.
    • 'Occasus Oriens: the Discursive Origins of the West’, Telos Conference on ‘The West: Its Legacy and Future’, L’Aquila (Italy), 7 – 9 September 2012.
    • ‘The Paradigm of the Postsecular: the Return of the Idols?’, Symposium ‘Shifting Paradigms: The Twilight of the Secular and the Return of the Idols?’ Centre for the Study of Western Tradition, Campion College Australia, 7 December 2011.
    • ‘The Post-Secular Historical Paradigm’ (with Prof. Gregory Melleuish), International Conference Sacred Modernities: Rethinking Modernity in the Post-Secular Age, Oxford Brookes University (UK), 17-19 September 2009.
    • ‘Re-Framing the Paradigm of the Secular’ workshop New Approaches to Religion and Public Life (convened by the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics of Charles Sturt University), Australian National University (Canberra), 6-7 December 2008.
    • ‘The Religious Foundations of Secular Hermeneutics and Epistemology: Debunking the Secularisation Myth’, Biennial CIS Conference God, Freedom and Nature, Sydney, 4-5 October 2008.

  • Professional affiliations

    The Australasian Society for Classical Studies

  • Industry engagement

    Nominee for the 2007 OCTAL Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning, University of Wollongong.