Fall 2012

The department has the pleasure to welcome two new faculty members:

Marius Stan, who joins us from Caltech, where he was a Mellon postdoctoral fellow from 2009 to 2012, and a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science (2011). His current research covers three related fields. One is Kant's natural philosophy, where he is making a case for a Leibnizian heritage alongside its well-known Newtonian elements. Another, related endeavor is to uncover the impact of Leibniz's philosophy of physics, and its complex interaction with Newtonianism after 1716. In addition, Marius researches the philosophical foundations of Enlightenment science. This year, he will be teaching in the Perspectives on Western Culture program; for advanced undergraduates, he will be teaching Bioethics, and Philosophy of Space and Time.

Micah Lott, who joins us from the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong, Bangladesh, where he taught ethics and political philosophy. Before teaching at AUW, Micah completed his Ph.D. in the philosophy department at the University of Chicago. His main interests are in Aristotelian and Kantian ethics. He has defended and developed the "natural goodness" approach to moral philosophy found in the work of thinkers such as Philippa Foot and Michael Thompson. His current focus is on neo-Aristotelian accounts of justice and obligation, and the relation of such an accounts to neo-Kantian and contractualist views.

We are also welcoming new part time faculty: Elisabeta Sarca, Kevin Berry, Rocco Sacconaghi, and Bruce Taub.

Finally, we welcome the following new doctoral students:

Martin Bernales, who comes to us from the Alberto Hurtado University in Santiago, Chile. He has been admitted to practice law in Chile, but gone on to pursue philosophy of law and political philosophy.

Hessam Dehghani who comes to us from Iran, though his studies include extensive work in the United Kingdom. His interests range from structural linguistics and contemporary philosophy of language into Islamic thought and philosophy of religion. Andrea Cimino, who comes to us from Italy, but spent a semester in our department two academic years ago. He is interested in contemporary continental philosophy.

Zachary Tigert, who comes to us from Seattle University and the University of Oregon. His studies have concentrated in modern German thought and in existential psychology.

Tyler Viale, who comes to us from Florida. He has particular interests in medieval philosophy, Catholic philosophy and the history of philosophy.

Fall 2011

The department has the pleasure to welcome Professor Rémi Brague, from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Ludwig-Maximilian Universität of Munich, as the Gadamer Visiting Professor during Fall 11. He will be giving, from September 15 to October 26 a grad/undergrad course on "Aquinas' doctrine of Providence" and a grad seminar on "The legitimacy of mankind".

The department has the pleasure to welcome a new faculty member: Prof. Jonathan Trejo-Mathys. He joins us from the Justitia Amplificata Centre for Advanced Studies at the J.W. Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, Germany, where he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2010-11 after completing his Ph.D. at Northwestern University in December 2009. His dissertation, “Inheritance, Sovereignty, and Promise: Authority and Obligation in an Age of Global Transformations”, was written under the direction of Cristina Lafont. His current research interests lie in social and political philosophy and contemporary philosophical work informed by the interdisciplinary tradition of the Frankfurt School. In particular, his work seeks to engage intersections between normative political philosophy and international relations theory. He has additional historical interests in the development of political thought, and in classical German and American philosophy insofar as they relate to sociopolitical issues. He has published or has forthcoming articles in journals such as Contemporary Pragmatism, Philosophy and Social Criticism and Constellations. He recently co-organized an international conference on “Domination Across Borders” held at the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in Bad Homburg, Germany in July 2011. This year he will teach in the interdisciplinary Perspectives in Western Culture program, offer an elective on topics in modern political philosophy and in addition give a graduate seminar on ethics, globalization and Critical Theory.

The department also welcomes two new part-time instructors to the department. Dr. Martin Black has his doctorate from Boston University and specializes in ancient philosophy. He will be teaching two sections of Philosophy of the Person. Dr. Hege Finholt has just completed her work at Boston University with a dissertation reconsidering the idea of the sovereign nation state. She will also be teaching two sections of Philosophy of the Person. As Dr. Black comes from Australia and Dr. Finholt from Norway, they will add to the international character of the department. In addition, our Ph.D. graduate David Lang will be teaching PL 577 Symbolic Logic.

The department is also pleased to welcome 11 new doctoral students:

Jonathan Conley received a BS from Towson Univiversity in 2003 and an MA degree from Boston College in 2008. Jonathan’s research interests are Phenomenology, Philosophy of Technology, and the History of Philosophy.

Marina Denischik received a BS from Roosevelt Univiversity in 2006 and an MA degree from Loyola-Chicago in 2011. Marina’s research interests are Continental philosophy, social and political philosophy, Greek, medieval, modern and contemporary philosophy with a focus on classical Greek thought, German Idealism, and Phenomenology.

David Ellis received a BA from University of West Georgia in 2007 and an MA degree from Boston College in 2011. David is interested in Ancient Greek philosophy as the source of reflection on philosophy as a way of living and teaching. He has a particular interest in Plotinus.

Gregory Floyd received a BA from the University of Notre Dame in 2007 and an MA degree from Boston College in 2011. Gregory would like to explore possible applications of Bernard Lonergan’s cognitional philosophy to contemporary Continental debates within the field.

Emmanuel Gurumombe, S.J. received a BA from Arrupe College in 1998, an MA in Philosophy from University of Zimbabwe in 2000 and an MA in Theology from Heythrop in 2007. Fr. Gurumombe is interested in researching the interplay between Ethics and Economic Development.

Fidele Ingiyimbere, S.J. received an MA in Philosophy from UCAS-Institut Catholique de Yaounde in 2003, a BA in Theology from Hekima College in 2005, and a LIC in Theology from Boston College in 2011. Fr. Ingiyimbere is interested in the philosophical foundation of human rights.

Peter Li received a BA from the University of Tulsa in 2011. Peter is interested primarily in German idealism and political philosophy.

Robert Minto received a BA from Dordt College in 2011. Robert is interested in modern philosophy, especially Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and in social theory.

Matthew Mohorovich received a BA from the College of the Holy Cross in 2008, received a Thomas J. Watson fellowship and conducted research abroad from 2008-2009, and received his MA from The New School for Social Research in 2011. Matthew's research interests are Political Philosophy, German Idealism, Genocide studies, and Philosophy of Music..

Matthew Ray received a BA from Tulane University in 2006 and an MA from Tulane in 2010. Matt is interested in the relationship between Aristotelian and modern science, in Ancient philosophy in general, and in Kant's rational theology.

Kevin Rothman received a BA from Univ of Massachusetts in 1997, an MS from Florida International University in 2004 and an MA from Yeshiva Univ in 2009. Kevin is interested in Jewish thought after Nietzsche, especially Rosenzweig.

Fall 2010

Vincent DeVendra recevied a BA from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2010. Vincent's research interests are medieval scholastic philosophy, ancient Greek philosophy, and epistemology.

Reham Elnory received an MA in Islamic Philosophy from the American University in Cairo in 2007, and an MA in Modern European Philosophy from Middlesex University in 2011. Her research interests are ancient Greek philosophy (Plato), phenomenology, contemporary French thought, and Islamic mystical philosophy.

Willy Moka-Mubelo received an MA in philosophy from Saint Peter Canisius Faculty of Philosophy in Kimwenza in 2001, a BA in theology from Hekima College in Nairobi, Kenya in 2006, and a STL (Licentiate in Sacred Theology) and MA in Social Ethics from Santa Clara University, California in 2010. His research interests are political philosophy (Human Rights and the Rule of Law) and Social Ethics.

Paul Van Rooy received a BA from John Carroll University in 2003 and an MA from Boston College in 2005. His research interests are social and political philosophy, ethics and meta-ethics.

Amelia M. Wirts received her BA in philosophy from University of Oregon in 2009. She is interested in political philosophy, feminism, and philosophy of law.

Fall 2009

The department has the great pleasure of welcoming a faculty member:

Andrea Staiti was born in Milan, Italy and joins us from Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg (Germany), where he received his doctorate in February of 2009. He wrote his dissertation, entitled “Das Leben am Ursprung. Geistigkeit, Leben und geschichtliche Welt in der Transzendentalphänomenologie Husserls” (The Life at the Origin: Mentality, Life and Historical World in Husserl’s Transcendental Phenomenology) under the direction of Hans-Helmuth Gander at the Husserl Archive. The dissertation has been accepted for publication by the publisher Ergon in Würzburg and will appear early in 2010. In the past few years Prof. Staiti had the opportunity to present his work in several international conferences (among others in Germany, Finland, France). This year he will offer a graduate seminar on Edmund Husserl's seminal text, Ideen II (Ideas II), as well as an elective course on 19th and 20th century philosophy. He will also teach in the interdisciplinary Perspectives in Western Culture Program. He is currently at conducting research on Husserl’s idea of a scientific philosophy and its import in the current philosophical debate. Apart from philosophy, he loves music and rugby.

The department is also pleased to welcome ten new doctoral students:

Anthony Anderson received a BA in Mathematics from Carleton College in Northfield, MN. His research interests are German Idealism (Kant, Hegel), Continental Philosophy, Plato, Psychoanalysis (Freud, Jung), Philosophy of Religion, Physics, Sociobiology.

Emmanuel Bueya received a BA in Theology from Hekima College in Nairobi, Kenya and Emmanuel received an MA in Philosophy from Saint Peter Canisius Faculty of Philosophy in Kimwenza. His research interests are African ideologies, Democratization and regime change, Ethics of war and peacemaking, interstate and intrastate Conflict, and postcolonial Theories.

Colin Connors received a BA in Philosophy from St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH and is continuing in the doctoral program having entered Boston College in the MA program last year. His research interests are Metaphysics Infinite Divisibility, Problem of Universals and Individuation, and causation among various ancient, medieval, and early modern Philosophers.

Teresa Fenichel received a BA in Philosophy from Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and Teresa received an MA in Philosophy from The New School for Social Research in New York. Her research interests are Psychoanalysis and Philosophy, Deconstruction, Philosophy and Literature.

Michael Frost graduated from Boston College and is continuing in the doctoral program. His research interests are post-Hegelian philosophies of science, thinkers such as Lonergan, Kuhn and Lakatos, and Plato vis-à-vis the thought of Hegel.

Gustavo Gomez Perez received a BA and an MA in Philosophy from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Columbia. His research interests are in Aesthetics, Phenomenology and Philosophy of Language.

Timo Helenius received a BA and MA in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. His research interests are in the question of culture and the modes of human existence.

Sharon Joyce received a BA and MA in Philosophy from Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium and Sharon received an MA in Architecture from Yale University in New Haven, CT. Her research interests are Metaphysics, Hegel, Nietzsche, intersubjectivity and objectivity, Epistemology, Aesthetics, environmental philosophy and phenomenology of space, Philosophy of religion, philosophical anthropology.

Frances Maughan-Brown received a BA in Philosophy and Classical Studies from University of Cape Town in South Africa. Her research interests are in Ethics, the philosophy of narrative and imagination.

Santiago Ramos received a BA in Philosophy and English from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, MO. His research interests are in Medieval philosophy, aesthetics and philosophy of art, and Continental philosophy.

Fall 2008

The department has the great pleasure of welcoming new faculty:

Daniel McKaughan joins us as assistant professor, having completed his Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame (July 2007), where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and, subsequently, a Sorin Postdoctoral Fellow. His main areas of research are in philosophy of science, epistemology, and philosophy of religion and his published or forthcoming articles address philosophical issues in the historical foundations of molecular biology, American pragmatism, and science and values. He taught a graduate seminar on science and ethics at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences and will be teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the department, including Perspectives IV (New Scientific Visions), philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, science and religion, and analytic epistemology.

Charles Oduke, S.J. joins us as assistant professor. He is a graduate of BC Ph.D. program in 2005, and has been teaching on a tenure track faculty position at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, NY since then. He will be teaching in our Pulse Program, and will also be give electives in African Philosophy, self-knowledge, and cosmopolis.

Holly VandeWall joins us as adjunct assistant professor. She, too, comes from the program in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame. Her background is in chemistry as well as philosophy, and has specialties in the philosophy of biology and environmental philosophy. She will be teaching in our undergraduate Perspectives program, both New Scientific Visions and Perspectives 1.

Rev. Augustinus de Paulo joins us as adjunct assistant professor. He did his doctorate at the Gregorian University in Rome, and his work is in the influence of Augustine on Heidegger. He will be teaching in our undergraduate Perspectives program, both Perspectives 1, as well as Modernism and the Arts.

Günter Figal joined the department in the Fall of 2008 as a Gadamer Distinguished Visiting Professor. Figal teaches at the Univerity of Freiburg-im-Brisgau, Germany, and has published over 20 books on Gadamer, Heidegger, hermeneutics, and social and political philosophy. He is offering at BC a graduate seminar on "Being and Space" as well as a course on "Aesthetics as Phenomenology.

The department is pleased to welcome eight new doctoral students:

Evan D. Clarke, BA University of Toronto; MA University of Guelph

Ian M. Corbin, BA Gordon College, Political Studies; MA Yale Divinity, Philosophy of Religion

James Stuart Forestell, BA St. Thomas University, Fredericton, Canada, Phil.; MA University of Warwick, UK, Continental Philosophy

Peter C. Hanly, BA, MA Boston University, Music; MA Boston College, Philosophy

James P. Oldfield, BA Gordon College, Philosophy

Sharon Eve Rabinoff, BA University of Guelph; MA St. John’s College, Santa Fe, NM, Philosophy

John D. Rogove, BA New York University, Classics; MA Boston College, Philosophy; MA Université de Paris IV, France, Philosophy

Amber Lee Simpson, BA University of Toronto, Philosophy; MA Univ of Essex, Colchester, UK, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis; MA New School, NY, Philosophy

Spring 2008

William Desmond will be the new Gadamer Distinguished Visiting Professor, following in the footsteps of Profs. Jean Greisch, Axel Honneth, Rudolf Bernet, Jean-Luc Marion and Hans-Georg Gadamer himself. William Desmond is professor of philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and Visiting David Cook Chair in Philosophy at Villanova University. His interests are in metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of religion. He has studied and taught in the Ireland and the United States, as well as teaching in Belgium. He is past President of the Hegel Society of America, as well as of the Metaphysical Society of America. He is currently President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. He is the author of many books, including the award winning Being and the Between. Among his other books are Ethics and the Between (2001), Hegel's God: A Counterfeit Double? (2003), and Art, Origins, Otherness: Between Philosophy and Art (2003); Is There a Sabbath for Thought? Between Religion and Philosophy (2005). God and the Between was recently published and forms the basis of the doctoral seminar on the philosophy of God he is giving at Boston College. He is also giving an undergraduate seminar on the philosophy of art.

Fall 2007

Pr. Jeffrey Bloechl joins us as associate professor, having previously been in the department of philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross, where he was also Edward Bennett Williams Fellow. In addition to his teaching, he has held research fellowships in Belgium, Australia, and the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA. He studied philosophy, theology amd psychology at the Catholic University of America and the Catholic University of Louvain (Ph.D., 1996). He has lectured and taught widely in the areas 20th century French and German philosophy, especially phenomenology and psychoanalysis, and philosophy of religion. A prominent interpreter of the thought of Emmanuel Levinas, he is the series editor of "Levinas Studies. An Annual Review" (Duquesne University Press). He will be teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the department, and a year-long course in the Perspectives program.

The department welcomes the eight new doctoral students:

Mathew M. Daley has a bachelor's degree from St. John's University, Santa Fe. He is interested in philosophy of language, especially as explored by Heidegger and Derrida and the phenomenological tradition.

Anna Djintcharadze received her bachelor's from University of Montreal, and has an MA in philosophy from the Hochschule fuer Philosophie in Munich, Germany and has an MA in theology from the Institute de Formation Theologique de Montreal. Her interests are in ancient and medieval philosophy, especially Neoplatonism and the 13th century.

Shane M. Ewegen is continuing in the Ph.D. program, having received his MA from BC last year. He holds a bachelor's degree from University of Colorado at Denver. His interests are in Plato, Heidegger, Gadamer and Derrida.

Sarit Larry holds a bachelor's degree from the American College of Greece and Tel Aviv University. Her interests are phenomenology, political thought and their intersection.

Misael Enrique Meza Rueda, S.J. holds a BA and MA in philosophy from Uinversidad de las Salle, Bogota, Columbia, and an M.Div. from Pontifica Uinversidad Javeriana, Bogota, Columbia. His interests are in political philosophy, Kant, and Lonergan.

Joshy Varghese Paramthottu, CMI holds a BA and MA in English language and literature from MG University, Hottayam, Kerala, India and Madras University, Chennai, India. He also has received an MA in philosophy from Dkarmaram Vidya Kshetram University, Bangalore, India. His interest are in existentialism and phenomenology.

Elizabeth B. Purcell is continuing in the Ph.D. program, having received her MA from BC last year. Her bachelor's degree is from the University of Dallas. Her interests are in Satre, aesthetics, Arendt, Lonergan, and philosophy of science.

James L. Taylor III received a bachelor's degree from Gordon College and an MA in philosophy from Loyola Marymount University. His interests are in Ricoeur, Foucaults, Heidegger, and Gadamer.

Fall 2006

Thomas Miles joins us as adjunct professor, having completed his Ph.D. at the University of Texas (June, 2005), where he received Distinguished Teaching awards for two consecutive years. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Soren Kierkegaard Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark, during 2005. He received a masters degree from Cambridge University, England in 1998 and his bachelor's degree from Yale University. His areas of specialty are ethics and 19th and 20th century Continental Philosophy. He already has several articles at press on Kierkegaard, Hume, ethics and reason. He will be teaching courses in our Core Philosophy Program this coming year.

Jean Greisch will be the Gadamer Distinguished Visiting Professor, following in the footsteps of Profs. Axel Honneth, Rudolf Bernet, Jean-Luc Marion and Hans-Georg Gadamer himself. Prof. Greisch is member of the Philosophy Faculty of the Institute Catholique de Paris. He has published a dozen books and hundreds of articles, especially in hermeneutics and the phenomenology of language. http://www.umr8547.ens.fr/Productions/Greisch.html
He will be offering two courses that will run for seven weeks (September 5 - October 19): PL 816 "Truth and Understanding," (Wednesdays only, 3:00-5:30 p.m.); and PL 598 "Who are We? The Problem of Philosophical Anthropology," (T W Th 12:00-1:30 p.m.), which is intended to shift the classical question about human existence toward a more intersubjective focus.

The department welcomes the six new doctoral students:

William Britt received a BA from Yale University. He is interested in 19th/20th century continental and its relationship to Christian belief/practice especially Nietzsche, Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida.

Fr. Roy Pereira, S.J. was in the Master's program and has been accepted into the Ph.D. program. His area is Philosophy of Science with special reference to the Mind-Body issue.

Mark Thomas received a BA from Notre Dame. Mark is interested in the continental philosophy of religion, specifically Hegel's philosophy of religion and the relationship of religion with phenomenology and post modern thought.

Jessica Williams received a BA from New College of Florida. She intends to focus her studies in contemporary continental philosophy. Her areas of interest include phenomenology, existentialism, German Idealism, post structuralism and postmodern/postcolonial studies.

Jeffrey Witt received a BA from Wheaton College. He is interested in the development of late medieval philosophy, i.e. the transmutation of Thomism through the 14th century, its revival in the 16th century, and its arrival into the modern period.

Christopher Yates received a BA from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and received an M.A. degree from the University of Memphis. He is specifically interested in 19th and 20th century French and German thought. This would include phenomenology, deconstruction, archival approaches, and the parallel developments in philosophies of religion.

Fall 2005

John Sallis assumes the Frederick J. Adelmann, S.J. Chair in Philosophy. Prof. Sallis comes to Boston College from Pennsylvania State University, where he held the Edwin Erle Sparks Professorship in Philosophy; he has held chairs also at Vanderbilt University and at Loyola University of Chicago and served as Chairperson of the Philosophy Department at Duquesne University. Prof. Sallis is the author of 15 books ranging from Ancient Philosophy to Modern and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. He is best known for his writings on Plato, on Kant and German Idealism, on Phenomenological and Post-Phenomenological Philosophy, on Aesthetics, and for his systematic work on Imagination. Prof. Sallis is also the editor of the journal Research in Phenomenology and of the book series Studies in Continental Thought, published by Indiana University Press. In the fall semester of 2005 he is offering courses on Plato’s Phaedo and on Philosophy and Painting. In the spring semester of 2006 he will offer a course on German Idealism.

Axel Honneth, professor of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt and director of the Institute for Social Research (founded by Max Horkheimer), is currently a visiting professor at Boston College. His major books are The Critique of Power (MIT Press, 1993) and Struggle for Recognition (Polity Press, 1996) and with Nancy Fraser, Redistribution or Recognition? (Verso, 2003). He recently gave the Tanner lectures on Human Values at UC Berkeley which will be published as Reification: a Recognition-Theoretical View (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). His main areas of research are social and moral philosophy and theory of society. Prof. Axel Honneth is teaching two courses this fall in the department, “Horkheimer and Adorno” and “Intersubjectivity from Hegel to Present.

Jean-Luc Solère begins as visiting professor at Boston College in the spring semester of 2005. Prof. Solère comes to us from his positions as Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Free University of Brussels, and the Catholic University of Louvain. He has also taught at universities in France, Quebec, Colombia. Prof. Solère’s scholarship has focused on the areas of early modern and late medieval philosophy, having published books and articles on figures as Descartes, Arnauld, Malebranche, Bayle, Aquinas, Cajetan, Eckhart, Plato, Augustine, Neo-Platonism, Ockham, Henry of Ghent, and on such topics as nature, causality, time, reason, skepticism, consciousness, intentionality, the theory of forms, magnitude, and the changing relationships between philosophy and theology. His interests extend into the influences of modern and pre-modern philosophy on twentieth century thinkers. The courses that Prof. Solère will be offering in Spring 2005 "Medieval Philosophy" (PL 407), as well as a graduate level seminar on "Passions, Pleasure and Happiness in Modern Philosophy" (PL 705). In coming semesters Prof. Solère will offer courses on Spinoza’s Ethics; Time: Ontology and Subjectivity; The Concept of Representation; and The Mind and Body in Medieval Thought.