Mary Nickel

Hi, I’m Mary. Nice to meet you.

Mary Nickel is currently an Instructor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. She received her doctoral degree in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Princeton University in 2023. Mary’s research integrates religious ethics and political philosophy. She tends to focus on questions concerning systemic injustice, ethical obligation, and human agency.

Mary’s current project, “Matrices,” focuses on what pregnancy and motherhood can teach us about social agency and collective responsibility. Drawing on thinkers as divergent as Patricia Hill Collins, Philip Pettit, and Saint Paul, Mary shows how our coming to be within and through another person underscores our sociality. For a short overview of her project, watch this three minute video.

Mary has developed courses including: Introduction to Christian Ethics; Politics and the Bible; Understanding Systemic Injustice; Feminist & Womanist Ethics; and Public Theology. She holds a certificate in teaching from Princeton’s McGraw Teaching & Learning Center and received a teaching award from Princeton’s Religion Department in 2020.

In addition to teaching at Princeton University, she also taught in the University of Virginia’s Engagements program as a postdoctoral fellow. Her research has been funded by the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University (as a Laurence S. Rockefeller Fellow), the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning, the Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, and the Lilly Endowment.

Mary also holds an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, an M.A. in Politics & Government from Illinois State University, and a B.A. in Philosophy & Human Rights Studies from Juniata College.