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 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.