Maryanne Confoy has completed a BA Melbourne; post graduate studies at Boston College, and Harvard Graduate School of Education; a PhD in Theology and Education from Boston College.

At present she lectures in Practical Theology at the Jesuit Theological College and is a past President of the United Faculty of Theology in Melbourne, Victoria. She is Visiting Professor at the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College, USA.

Publications include:

• articles over the years in the area of spirituality, religious education, pastoral and feminist theology.

• In 1992 she was a contributing editor to a collection of essays by leading Australian women theologians and academics: Freedom & Entrapment: Women Thinking Theology, and

a book entitled, Morris West: A Writer and a Spirituality, 1997. Both published by HarperCollins.

• Completion of an authorized biography of Morris West, Morris West: Literary Maverick published in March 2005, by John Wiley & Sons.

• An entry in the four volume: Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global women's Issues and Knowledge, General Editors, Cheris Karamarae & Dale Spender, "Spirituality: Sexuality" pp. 1883 - 1885, 2000.

• A chapter, "The Contemporary Search For Meaning In Suffering" in Bruce Rumbold (ed) Spirituality and Pastoral Care, Oxford University Press, 2002, and "Mysticism: God's Initiative and Our Response" in Groome & Horell (eds.) Horizons & Hopes: The Future of Religious Education, Paulist Press, 2003.

• She is also Book Review Editor of Pacifica, a journal of theological studies for Australia and New Zealand.

Other activities:

• lectured, given workshops and engaged in consultancy work in Australia, New Zealand, in the USA, Ireland, in the Pacific Islands, China, Bangladesh, India, and several Latin American countries.

• Director of Kilbride Centre for Spirituality and Personal Development in Albert Park, Victoria an ecumenical and community based initiative.