Dissertation Defenses
2023/24
Morgan Elbot - “Thinking in Relation to Method: Metaphilosophical Reflections on Philosophy’s Orientation to Methodology"
2022/23
Matt Fee - "The Ontology of Structure: Deleuze and Differential Realism"
2021/22
Reese Faust - “Dworkin, Dignity, and the Body: Constructing a Critical, Carnal Legal Hermeneutic”
Corey Reed - "Black-Male Imagos and Counternarrative Resistance: An Africana Existentialist Framework for Black-Male Analysis"
Sarah Marshall - "Legacies of the Death Penalty: Sacrifice, Survival, and the Possibility of Justice"
Zachariah Neemeh - “The Cultural Mind"
2020/21
Christian S. Kronsted - "An Enactivist Model of Improvisational Dance"
William Andrew Britton - "The Primacy of Ethics: Kant, Deleuze, Levinas"
Jasmine Wallace - "Fugitive Gestures: The Persistence of Black Meaning and Black Life in an Anti-Black World"
Michael Ardoline - "Difference and Necessity: Dispositionalism, Deleuze, and the Finite Genesis of Transfinite Truths"
Edward Lenzo - “Difference and Demand: Toward a Levinasian Psychopathology”
2019/20
Christina Friedlaender - "Shared Agency and Structural Oppression: The Ethics of Social Reality Management"
Jonathan Wurtz - "Childhood as a Philosophical Means to a Political End: Liberalism, Stability, and the Deficiency Model of Childhood"
Ben Curtis - "Class Consciousness and Political Agency: A Conceptual Reconstruction for the 21st Century"
Jim Zubko - "Ways of Being, Seen and Unseen: Concepts, Practices and the Emergence of Trans Ways of Life"
Samaiyah Jones Scott - "Anti-Black Racism, Shared Responsibility, and the Role of African Americans"
Kevin Ryan - "Making in the Moment: The Dynamic Cognition of Musicians-In-Action"
2018/19
Tailer Ransom - "Artifacts, Others, and Temporality: An Enactive and Phenomenological Approach to Material Agency"
John Torrey - "Social Recognition as a Problem for Black Rectificatory Justice"
2017/18
Benjamin Aguda - "Scaling-Up with Radically Embodied Cognition"
Clifton Granby - "More than Just Testimony"
Christopher Lucibella - "Y'All Talkin' To Me? Essays on the Epistemology of Collective Testimony"
Bilge Akbalik - "Transcendental Idealism and Material Reality: Metaphysics of Scientific Objectivity in Husserl, Deleuze, and Kant"
2016/17
William Allen - "Liberalism and Racial Justice"
Michael Butler - "Appearances of Self-Hood: Merleau-Ponty, Enactivism, and Instituted Self-Consciousness"
Daniel Larkin - "A Madness to the Method: A Defense of Divine Inspiration in the Case of Socrates"
Jordan Liz - "The Nature of Difference: An Archaeology of Racial Medical Knowledge"
Desirée Ramacus-Bushnell - "The Limits of Forgiveness and the Merits of Resentment"
2015/16
Stefano Vincini - "Developmental Phenomenology: Epistemic Grounding, Infant Imitation, and Pairing"
Marygrace Hemme - "Time and Narrative as Subjects-in-process through Julia Kristeva's Feminine Genius"
Corey L. Barnes - "Un-Lockeing the Beauty which Prejudice has Overlaid: On Alain Locke's Philosophical Anthropology, Value Theory, and the Movement Towards Cosmopolitanism"
2014/15
Joshua Dohmen - "Moving toward Interaction: Epistemic Injustice, Julia Kristeva, and Disability"
Sarah Vincent - "Empathy's Significance for the Moral Status of Nonhuman Animals"
2013/14
Jennie Latta - "Being and Person: An Introduction to Edith Stein's Finite and Eternal Being
Paul Hammond - "Deleuze on Individual and Collective Action"
Justin Sledge - "Freedom, Solidarity, Revolution: Toward a Marxist Ethics"
Nicolás Garrera - "Ethics as Experience: Elements for a Comprehensive Phenomenological Ethics"
2012/13
Matt Bower - "The Birth of the World: An Exploration in Husserl's Genetic Phenomenology"
2011/12
Michael Burroughs - "Ideal Adults, Deficient Children: The Discourse on the Child in Western Philosophy"
Heidi Samuelson - "Out of Joint: The Nexus of Madness and Time-Consciousness"
Cheri Carr - "Deleuze's Critical Philosophy: The Differential Theory of the Faculties"
Arsalan Memon - "The Problem of Perception, Radical Reflection, and the Body: Towards Understanding Merleau-Ponty's Post-Kantian Transcendental Philosophy"
PhD Graduate Placement
Jasmine Wallace (PhD 2021)
Dissertation: "Fugitive Gestures: The Persistence of Black Meaning and Black Life
in an Anti-Black World"
Position: Assistant Professor, Penn State University
Corey Reed (PhD 2022)
Dissertation: "Black-Male Imagos and Counternarrative Resistance: An Africana Existentialist
Framework for Black-Male Analysis"
Position: Assistant Professor, Butler University
Reese Faust (PhD 2022)
Dissertation: “Dworkin, Dignity, and the Body: Constructing a Critical, Carnal Legal
Hermeneutic”
Position: Lecturer, Howard University
Michael Ardoline (PhD 2021)
Dissertation: "Difference and Necessity: Dispositionalism, Deleuze, and the Finite
Genesis of Transfinite Truths"
Position: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Louisiana State University.
Previous positionz: Post-doctoral fellow, Louisiana State University Ethics institute,
Embedding Ethics in STEM, Post-doctoral fellow, Laurentian University, Gilles Deleuze
and Cosmology Research Group, and Instructor, Slippery Rock University
Christian Kronsted (PhD 2021)
Dissertation: "An Enactivist Model of Improvisational Dance"
Position: Assistant Professor of Practice at Merrimack College
Christina Friedlaender (PhD 2020)
Dissertation: "Shared Agency and Structural Oppression: The Ethics of Social Reality
Management"
Position: Assistant Teaching Professor, Seatle University
Jonathan Wurtz (PhD 2020)
Dissertation: "Childhood as a Philosophical Means to a Political End: Liberalism,
Stability, and the Deficiency Model of Childhood"
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Guam
Tailer Ransom (PhD 2019)
Dissertation: "Artifacts, Others, and Temporality: An Enactive and Phenomenological
Approach to Material Agency"
Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Georgia Southern University
Previous Position: Adjunct Professor, Mississippi State University
John Torrey (PhD 2019)
Position: Assistant Professor, SUNY Buffalo State
Previous position: Visiting Assistant Professor, SUNY Buffalo State (since fall 2018)
Chris Lucibella (PhD 2018)
Dissertation: "Y'All Talkin' To Me? Essays on the Epistemology of Collective Testimony"
Sought and secured non-academic position
Benjamin Aguda (PhD 2017)
Dissertation: "Scaling-Up with Radically Embodied Cognition"
Position: Instructor, Department of History and Philosophy, University of New Orleans
(2018)
Dan Larkin (PhD 2017)
Dissertation: "A Madness to the Method: A Defense of Divine Inspiration in the Case
of Socrates"
Position: Associate Professor of Philosophy, Georgia Southern University (since fall
2018)
Previous position: Instructor and Undergraduate Advisor, University of Memphis (AY
2017/18)
Jordan Liz (PhD 2017)
Dissertation: "The Nature of Difference: An Archaeology of Racial Medical Knowledge"
Position: Associate Professor of Philosophy, San Jose State University (since fall
2018)
Previous position: Lecturer, Georgetown University (AY 2017/18)
Clifton Granby (PhD 2017)
Dissertation: "More than Just Testimony"
Position: Assistant Professor of Ethics and Philosophy, Yale Divinity School (since
2016)
Michael Butler (PhD 2017)
Dissertation: "Appearances of Self-Hood: Merleau-Ponty, Enactivism, and Instituted
Self-Consciousness"
Position: Lecturer, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (since fall 2017)
Marygrace Hemme (PhD 2016)
Dissertation: "Time and Narrative as Subjects-in-process through Julia Kristeva's
Feminine Genius"
Position: Instructional Assistant Professor, Illinois State University (since fall
2017)
Corey L. Barnes (PhD 2016)
Dissertation: "Un-Lockeing the Beauty which Prejudice has Overlaid: On Alain Locke's
Philosophical Anthropology, Value Theory, and the Movement Towards Cosmopolitanism"
Position: Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
Previous positions: Lecturer, Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago (AY 2016/17), Assistant Professor, University of San Diego (Fall 2017)
Stefano Vincini (PhD 2016)
Dissertation: "Developmental Phenomenology: Epistemic Grounding, Infant Imitation,
and Pairing"
Position: Ernst Mach Fellow, University of Vienna, Austria
Previous position: Post-doctoral fellow, Institute of Philosophical Research, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (since fall 2016)
Josh Dohmen (PhD 2015)
Dissertation: "Moving toward Interaction: Epistemic Injustice, Julia Kristeva, and
Disability"
Position: Assistant Professor, Mississippi University for Women (since fall 2018)
Previous positions: Lecturer, University of West Georgia (since fall 2016), Visiting
Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas-Little Rock (AY 2015/16)
Sarah Vincent (PhD 2015)
Dissertation: "Empathy's Significance for the Moral Status of Nonhuman Animals"
Position: Associate Teaching Professor, Florida State University (since fall 2018)
Previous positions: Post-doctoral fellow, University of North Florida (fall 2016–fall
2018), Post-doctoral fellow, York University, Toronto (fall 2015)
William Allen (PhD expected 2016)
Position: Lecturer, Morgan State University (since fall 2014)
Paul Hammond (PhD 2014; † December 1, 2015)
Dissertation: "'There Was Already Quite a Crowd:' Deleuze on Action, Multiplicity,
and Sociality"
Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Beloit College
Previous position: Adjunct Professor, Nicolet Area Technical College (fall 2014)
Justin Sledge (PhD 2014)
Position: Adjunct Professor, Wayne State University and Adjunct Professor, Lawrence
Technological University (since fall 2014)
Nicolás Garrera-Tolbert (PhD 2014)Dissertation: "Ethics as Experience: Elements for a Comprehensive Phenomenological
Ethics"
Position: DAAD Postdoctoral Scholarship, University of Bonn
Previous position: Post-doctoral fellow, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná
Jennie Latta (PhD 2014)
Dissertation: "Being and Person: An Introduction to Edith Stein's Finite and Eternal
Being"
Sought and secured non-academic position
Matt Bower (PhD 2013)
Dissertation: "The Birth of the World: An Exploration in Husserl's Genetic Phenomenology"
Position: Lecturer, Texas State University (since fall 2015)
Previous positions: Lecturer, University of Central Florida (2014); Visiting Assistant
Professor, Beloit College (spring 2014); Humboldt Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship,
Ruhr University Bochum (fall 2013)
Cheri Carr (PhD 2012)
Dissertation: "Deleuze's Critical Philosophy: The Differential Theory of the Faculties"
Position: Associate Professor, LaGuardia Community College (since 2014)
Previous positions: Adjunct Professor, University of Memphis (fall 2012-fall 2013)
Arsalan Memon (PhD 2012)
Dissertation: "The Problem of Perception, Radical Reflection, and the Body: Towards
Understanding Merleau-Ponty's Post-Kantian Transcendental Philosophy"
Position: Assistant Professor and Department Chair at Lewis University
Previous position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Lewis University (since 2014)
Michael Burroughs (PhD 2012)
Dissertation: "Ideal Adults, Deficient Children: The Discourse on the Child in Western
Philosophy"
Position: Director of the Kegley Institute of Ethics and Assistant Professor of Philosophy,
California State University, Bakersfield (since 2017)
Previous positions: Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Assistant Director of the Rock
Ethics Institute, Penn State University (2013-2017); Visiting Lecturer and Outreach
Coordinator, Parr Ethics Center, UNC-Chapel Hill (2012)
Kristin Gissberg (PhD 2012)
Dissertation: "Hegel's Temporal Subjectivities: Time and Difference in Hegel's Thought"
Non-academic position
Heidi Samuelson (PhD 2012)
Dissertation: "Out of Joint: The Nexus of Madness and Time-Consciousness"
Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Sweet Briar College (since 2015)
Previous positions: Technical Writer, ASRC Space and Defense; Editorial Assistant,
Southern Journal of Philosophy
Gabrielle Beckles (PhD 2011)
Position: senior lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University (equivalent to the
US rank of Associate Professor)
Previous position: Lecturer in Womanist Theology, Philosophy, and Culture, Canterbury
Christ Church University, UK (since 2015)
Tina Fernandes Botts (PhD 2011)
Dissertation: "The Hermeneutics of Equal Protection Analysis"
Position: Assistant Professor, California State University-Fresno
Previous positions: Visiting Assistant Professor & Consortium for Faculty Diversity
in Liberal Arts Colleges Postdoctoral Fellow, Oberlin College (since 2015); Fellow
in Law and Philosophy, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; Assistant Professor, UNC-Charlotte
Timothy Golden (PhD 2011)
Dissertation: Onto-Theology, Subjectivity, and the Alchemy of Transcendence
Position: Professor of Philosophy, Director of Legal Studies, and Director of the
Donald Blake Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Culture at Walla Walla University
Previous Position: Professor, Walla Walla University (since fall 2015)
Tamara Haywood (PhD 2011)
Dissertation: "The Vindication Project of Alain Locke"
Position: non-academic employment
Previous position: Lecturer at Loyola Marymount University
Çiğdem Yazıcı (PhD 2010)
Dissertation: "The Idea of Historicality in Heidegger's Account of Work of Art"
Position: Associate Professor at Üsküdar University, Turkey
Previous position: Assistant Professor, Koç University (since 2010)
Janae Sholtz (PhD 2009)
Dissertation: "The Transformative Potential of Art, Creating a People in Heidegger
and Deleuze"
Position: Associate Professor and Coordinator of Women's and Gender Studies at Alvernia
University
Previous position: Assistant Professor, Alvernia University (since 2010)
Bryan Bannon (PhD 2008)
Dissertation: "Developing a Theoretical Framework for an Ethical Understanding of
Nature through the Phenomenologies of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty"
Position: Associate Professor and Director of the Environmental Studies and Sustainability
Program at Merrimack College
Previous positions: Associate Professor, Merrimack College (since 2014)
David Scott (PhD 2008)
Dissertation: "The Naïveté of Thought: The 'Critique' of Phenomenology in the Philosophy
of Gilles Delouse"
Position: Associate Professor, Copping State University (since 2008)
Suzanne Antley (PhD 2007)
Dissertation: "Collective Utterances and Meaning in Legislative Utterances"
Sought and secured non-academic position
Kristie Dotson (PhD 2007)
Dissertation: "On Epistemic Partiality in Testimony"
Position: Professor of Philosophy, Michigan State University (since 2008) and Senior
Fellow, Columbia Law School (since 2014)
Previous position: Assistant Professor, Purdue University (2007)
Erinn Gilson (PhD 2007)
Dissertation: "From Resemblance to Resonance: The Production of Thought in Deleuze's
Ontology"
Position: Associate Professor at Skidmore College
Previous positions: Assistant Professor, University of North Florida (since 2010)
David Gougelet (PhD 2007)
Dissertation: "Life Invested: Biopower's Taming of Chance and Difference in Foucault"
Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Simpson College (since 2010)
Previous positions: Visiting Assistant Professor, American University (2007-2010)
Debbie Zeller (PhD 2006)
Position: Instructor at Cleveland State University
Sister Mary Bernard (PhD 2006; † February 5, 2017)
Dissertation: "The Relationship between Intentionality and the Concept of God in Malebranche's
'Vision of God'"
Sought and secured non-academic position
Bethany Dunn (PhD 2006)
Dissertation: "Rethinking Hobbesian Power: A Critical Engagement with Arendt, Foucault,
and Agamben"
Position: non-academic employment
Previous position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Vassar College (since 2007)
Jill Hernandez (PhD 2006)
Position: Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at
Central Washington University (since 2020)
Previous position: Associate Professor and Associate Dean, University of Texas-San
Antonio (since 2007)
Kris Sealy (PhD 2006)
Dissertation: "Positionality and Transcendence in Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Paul Sartre"
Position: Associate Professor, Fairfield University (since 2006)
Marda Kaiser (PhD 2005)
Dissertation: "Apertures of Language in Derrida and Foucault: The Aporia and Archive
as Passage to Thinking Otherwise"
Position: Adjunct Professor, University of Memphis
Heath Massey (PhD 2005)
Dissertation: "The Persistence of the Past: Bergson and Heidegger on Time"
Position: Associate Professor, Beloit College (since 2005)
Steve Tammelleo (PhD 2005)
Dissertation: "Constructing a Social Ontology of Ethnic Identity"
Position: Assistant Professor, University of San Diego (since 2013)
Previous position: Assistant Professor, Lake Forest College (since 2005)
Anika Simpson (PhD 2004)
Dissertation: "Ethics from the Standpoint of Race and Gender: Sartre, Fanon and Feminist
Standpoint Theory"
Position: Associate Professor, Morgan State University
Donna Dale-Marcano (PhD 2004)
Dissertation: "Sartre and the Social Construction of Race"
Position: Associate Professor, Trinity College (since 2005)
Athena Colman (PhD 2003)
Dissertation: "Subjectivity, Embodiment, and Meaning in Merleau-Ponty"
Position: Associate Professor, Brock University
Previous position: Assistant Professor, Lewis University
Chris Fox (PhD 2003)
Dissertation: "Structure of the Holy: Religion in Hegel and Levinas"
Position: Associate Professor, Newman University (since 2004)
Previous position: Instructor, Emporia State University (2003)
Kathryn Sophia Belle (formerly Kathryn T. Gines) (PhD 2003)
Dissertation: "From Political Space to Political Agency: Arendt, Sartre, and Fanon
on Race and Revolutionary Violence"
Position: Associate Professor, Penn State University (since 2008)
Previous position: Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University
Valentine Moulard (PhD 2003)
Dissertation: "Virtual Unconscious and Transcendental Time: Bergson and Deleuze's
New Ontology of Experience"
Sought and secured non-academic position
Brad Stone (PhD 2003)
Dissertation: "Dominions and Domains: Machination, Discipline, and Power in Heidegger
and Foucault"
Position: Professor, Loyola Marymount University (since 2003)
Karin Fry (PhD 2002)
Dissertation: "In the Spirit of Kant: Political Judgment in Arendt and Lyotard"
Position: Professor and Chair at Georgia Southern University
Previous position: Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point (since
2002)
Stacy Keltner (PhD 2002)
Dissertation: "Existential Social Theory and the Philosophy of History: Toward a Dialectic
of Political Judgment in the work of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre"
Position: Professor and Coordinator of Gender and Women's Studies at Kennesaw State
University
Ann Murphy (PhD 2002)
Dissertation: "Ethics in History: Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Foucault on Historicity
and Ethics"
Position: Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico
Previous position: Assistant Professor, Fordham University
Josh Glasgow (PhD 2001)
Dissertation: "Value In Kant's Ethics: In Defense of a Value-based Deontology"
Position: Associate Professor, Sonoma State University (since 2014)
Previous positions: Lecturer, Sonoma State University (since 2009); Visiting Associate
Professor, UC Berkeley (2008); Senior Lecturer (tenured, continuing), Victoria University
of Wellington (2007); Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington (2005); Visiting
Assistant Professor, Occidental College (2004); Lecturer, California State University,
Bakersfield (2001)
Randy Kagle (PhD 2001)
Dissertation: "A Narrative of Aufklärung: Kant's Doctrine of Moral Progress Toward
Perpetual Peace"
Position: Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of Philosophy
at Minnesota State University
Previous position: Professor, Minnesota State University, Moorhead (since 2003)
Robert Barnard (PhD 2000)
Dissertation: "The Naturalist's Dilemma: Logic and Ontological Naturalisms"
Position: Associate Professor, University of Mississippi
Rex Gilliland (PhD 2000)
Dissertation: "Heidegger's Concept of Freedom: His Confrontation with the Ethics of
Kant and Schelling"
Position: Associate Professor, Southern Connecticut State University
Max Maloney (PhD 2000)
Dissertation: "Subjectivity as Saintliness in the Ethical Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas"
Position: Professor, Christian Brothers University
Maria Cimitile (PhD 1999
Dissertation: "The Truth in Mimesis: Phenomenological Transformation in Gadamer, Heidegger,
Irigaray"
Position: Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs and
Professor, Grand Valley State University
Claire Katz (PhD 1999)
Dissertation: "Eros, Dwelling, Ethics: The Face of the Feminine and the Judaic in
the Work of Emmanuel Levinas"
Position: Murry and Celeste Fasken Chair in Distinguished Teaching and Professor of
Philosophy, Texas A&M University (since 2006)
Previous positions: Associate Professor,Pennsylvania State University (since 2000); Assistant
Professor, Washington College (1999)
Zeynep Direk (PhD 1998)
Dissertation: "The Renovation of the Notion of Experience in Derrida's Philosophy"
Position: Professor at Koç University, Turkey
Previous position: Professor, Universite de Galatasaray (since 1999)
Amy Morgenstern (PhD 1998)
Dissertation: "Plato's Umschlag: The Turn Away From the Nothing in Plato's Sophist"
Position: Blue Stars Admissions Consulting (non-academic)
Previous position: Assistant Professor, Wright State University
Mary Bloodsworth-Lugo (PhD 1997)
Dissertation: "Irigaray's Figures of Sexual Difference: Embodiment, Ambiguity, and
'Race'"
Position: Professor, Washington State University (since 1997)
John Drabinski (PhD 1996)
Dissertation: "Difference and Sense: The Problem of Relation in the Work of Emmanuel
Levinas"
Position: Charles Hamilton Houston 1915 Professor of Black Studies, Amherst College
Previous positions: Visiting Assistant Professor, Hampshire College
Mitchell Haney (PhD 1996)
Dissertation: "Re-Thinking the Archangel and the Prole: The Structure of Moral Normatively"
Position: Associate Professor, University of North Florida
Ted Toadvine (PhD 1996)
Dissertation: "Contradiction, Expression, and Chiasm: The Development of Intersubjectivity
in Maurice Mzerleau-Ponty"
Position: Nancy Tuana Director of the Rock Ethics Institute and Associate Professor
at Penn State University
Previous positions: Associate Professor, University of Oregon (since 2003)
Herman Stark (PhD 1995)
Dissertation: "Rationality without Rules"
Position: Associate Professor, South Suburban College, Chicago
Kevin Thompson (PhD 1995)
Dissertation: "The Logical Structure of Civil Society in Hegel's Grundlinien der Philosophie
des Rechts"
Position: Professor, DePaul University (since 2003)
Previous positions: Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale
(since 1999); Visiting Assistant Professor, Washington University, St. Louis (1998); Visiting
Assistant Professor, Arkansas State University (1997); William F. Dietrich Research
Fellow, Florida Atlantic University (since 1994)
MA Graduate Placement
George Andrews (MA 2018): Johns Hopkins University (Political Theory)
Thomas Mann (MA 2017): Johns Hopkins University (Political Theory)
Tyler Colwell (MA 2016): Marquette University
Jonathan Wurtz (MA 2015): University of Memphis
Sarah Vincent (MA 2013): University of Memphis
Chris Lucibella (MA 2013): University of Memphis
Maia Huff-Owen (MA 2013): Université Paris - Sorbonne
Alice Everly (MA 2013): McGill University
D.J. Hobbs (MA 2013): Marquette University
Jasmine Wallace (MA 2013): Villanova University