Vanessa Parks Rumble

Vanessa Parks Rumble is an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at Boston College since 1989. She specializes in German Romanticism, Kierkegaard, and psychoanalysis. Her editorial work includes translating and contributing to the 12-volume Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks (Princeton UP, 2007-2020), and she founded/directed the Psychoanalytic Studies Program (2004-2020). She holds a Ph.D. from Emory University.

Research focuses on existential philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, and Kierkegaard’s influence. Recent work explores trauma, religious sacrifice, and ethical subjectivity. Her 2020 article re-examines Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling through a theological lens, while 2015 work connects trauma theory to philosophical concepts of transcendence.

• Awards: 2005 Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Excellence Award; 1999 CASE U.S. Professor Nominee
• Grants: ILA Major Grant (2016, 2011) for conferences on psychoanalysis and trauma theory

Organized major conferences including “Love and Mourning in the Constitution of the Subject” (2016) and “After the Unspeakable: Trauma, Nachträglichkeit” (2012). Active in interdisciplinary initiatives blending philosophy with psychoanalytic studies.