Curriculum Vitae
AOS Ethics, Social & Political Philosophy
AOC Philosophy of Mind, Bioethics, Environmental Ethics, Logic/Critical Thinking
EDUCATION
Ph.D. 2012 Philosophy University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A. 2008 Philosophy University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A. 2005 Philosophy Davidson College, PBK, cum laude
PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT
Assistant Professor University of Alabama, Birmingham 2016-
Assistant Professor Emory & Henry College 2012-2016
Visiting Assistant Instructor Beloit College 2011-2012
TEDx
Missing Adventures: Diversity and Children's Literature
PUBLICATIONS
“Glowing Plants on Kickstarter: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology” (2016)
(with Christine Fleet) National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
"The Pervasive Whiteness of Children's Literature: Collective Harms and Consumer Obligations"
Social Theory and Practice (2016) 42 (2), pp. 367-388.
“Filial Obligations”
Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy (2015) ISSN 2161-0002, http://www.iep.utm.edu
“Foundations I, Liberal Arts, and Ethics”
in Human Foundations: Some Central Human Questions (2015), 6th edition (Joseph T. Reiff and Adam Wells, eds.)
"Shifting the Concept of Nudge"
Journal of Medical Ethics (2013) 39 (8), pp. 497-498.
Review: The Tyranny of Utility
Economics and Philosophy (2013) 29 (2), pp. 289-295.
"A Theory of Filial Obligations"
Social Theory and Practice (2012) 38 (4), pp. 717-737.
“To Nudge or Not to Nudge” (with Daniel M. Hausman)
Journal of Political Philosophy (2010) 18 (1) pp. 123-136.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Teacher of the Year (2017)
Awarded by the Washington County (VA) Chamber of Commerce to outstanding teacher in the community.
Outstanding Faculty Award (2016)
Awarded by Emory & Henry College student body vote to the faculty member who demonstrates excellence in teaching and mentorship, in and beyond the classroom.
Teagle Foundation $25,000 Planning Grant (2014)
Award provides for the development of the Aristotle Center for Science in the Humanities, an online resource featuring professional development tools to help connect science and humanities in undergraduate education.
Transylvania Workshop Participant (2014)
Workshop invites 15 liberal arts professors from around the country to participate in salon-style discussion of the role of liberal arts and how to improve undergraduate education.
GCAT Consortium Workshop Participant (2014)
Workshop invites small, interdisciplinary teams to develop synthetic biology courses or projects and provides lab materials for participating schools.
Teaching Fellow (2010)
Award recognizes fifteen UW College of Letters & Sciences Teaching Assistants for achieving outstanding success as students and teachers.
Honored Instructors Award (2009)
This award, sponsored by UW Housing, recognizes invaluable contributions to student learning and is given on the basis of student nominations.
Early Excellence in Teaching Award (dept. nominee) (2006)
Award recognizes outstanding and inspirational achievement on the part of Teaching Assistants within their first two years.
PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS
"The Big Idea: Why Should You Get To Be A Parent? The Case Against Unlicensed Rearing"
University of Alabama at Birmingham, November 2017
“The Big Idea: Why your parents shouldn’t pay for college”
University of Alabama at Birmingham, November 2016
“Diversity and Inclusion: Who Are We Liberating?”
Transylvania Seminar for Liberal Arts in the Twenty-First Century, July 2016
“Philosophy and Religion on Free Will and Responsibility”
Emory & Henry College, March 2015 (with Dr. Adam Wells)
“#YesAllWomen @Emory&Henry”
Emory & Henry College, February 2015 (with Drs. Kelly Bremner, Christine Fleet, Shelley Koch)
“Philosophy and Religion on Sex and Marriage”
Emory & Henry College, February 2015 (with Dr. Adam Wells)
“Co-Teaching as a Model for Examining the ESLI of Genomics and Medicine”
Juniata College, January 2015 (with Dr. Christine Fleet)
"The Family Versus Educational Equality of Opportunity"
Association for Political Theory at Vanderbilt University, October 2013
“Narrowing the Realm of Parental Partiality”
Shapiro Graduate Philosophy Conference at Brown, November 2010
“Narrowing the Realm of Parental Partiality”
Midwest Regional Graduate Philosophy Conference, October 2010
“Narrowing the Realm of Parental Partiality”
Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, August 2010
“In Defense of Trumping Principles”
2010 Wisconsin Philosophical Association Meeting, April 2010
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Referee, Journal of Political Philosophy
Referee, Social Theory and Practice
Referee, Journal of Medical Ethics
Referee, Political Studies
Referee, Theoria
Co-Founder of Philosophy TV (philostv.com)
Philosophy TV features split-screen conversations between philosophers discussing topics of current philosophical interests.
COLLEGE SERVICE
Co-Director: Aristotle Center for Science in the Humanities (2015- )
(E&H College)
Chair: Diversity and Inclusion Task Force (2015- )
(E&H College, Honors Program)
Member: Faculty Advisory Committee (2014- )
(E&H College)
Program Director: PPE Major (2013- )
(E&H College)
Faculty Advisor: Sigma Upsilon Nu (2013- )
(E&H College)
Faculty Advisor: Hermesian Society (2013-2015)
(E&H College)
Faculty Supervisor: VFIC Ethics Bowl (2013, 2014, 2015)
(E&H College)
Member: Academic Standards Committee (2013- )
(E&H College)
Critical Thinking Proficiency Director (2012- )
(E&H College)
Design and assess critical thinking requirements each student mustsatisfy as part of the CORE curriculum.
TEACHING* – FULL RESPONSIBILITY
Aesthetics
An introduction to philosophical questions in aesthetics, including the definition of art and the aesthetic experience and the intersection of aesthetics with other areas of philosophy, including ethics and philosophy of mind.
Biomedical Ethics (Health Care Ethics)
An introduction to topics in biomedical ethics, including issues in the professional-patient relationship, termination of life, reproductive rights and technologies, allocation of scarce resources and public policy.
Contemporary Moral Issues
An introduction to topics in applied ethics, including debates over parent licensing, animal rights, abortion, school choice, torture, and famine relief.
Contemporary Problems of Justice
A survey of principles of justice and their implications for contemporary issues in American politics, including education, taxation, healthcare, and foreign policy.
Environmental Ethics
A survey of topics in environmental ethics, including the moral status of non-human animals, plants, ecosystems, and future generations of humans.
Ethics
A survey of topics in meta-ethics, ethical theory, and applied ethics.
History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
An examination of the development of thought on topics including ethics, epistemology, free will, and political philosophy.
Introduction to Philosophy
An introduction to areas of philosophy, including epistemology, philosophy of science, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and ethics.
Logic
The formal characteristics of logical truth and inference.
Philosophy of Religion
A survey of topics in philosophy of religion, including the problem of evil, religious pluralism, immortality, and prayer.
Reason in Communication
The principles of sound reasoning, focusing on the logic of language, deductive logic (using both Venn diagrams and modern symbolic forms), and inductive logic.
Techniques of Reason
Introduction to informal logic with a focus on common and predictable errors in human reasoning and strategies for avoiding those errors.
* Courses in philosophy only. Information about core curriculum courses available upon request.
TEACHING – TEACHING ASSISTANT
Contemporary Moral Issues (3x: Hausman, Brighouse, Card)
An introduction to topics in applied ethics, including debates over abortion, surrogate motherhood, capital punishment, hate crimes, and same-sex marriage.
Environmental Ethics (Anderson)
A survey of ethical theories in handling such wrongs as harm to the land, to posterity, to endangered species, and to the ecosystem itself.
Ethical Issues in Healthcare (Fost)
Ethical issues apparently created by new biomedical technologies, such as genetic screening, prenatal diagnosis, prolongation of life, treatment of severe birth defects, behavior modification, and transplantation.
Introduction to Philosophy (Gibson 2x, Shapiro)
A general survey of fundamental issues in philosophy, including philosophy of religion, ethics, philosophy of mind, and epistemology.
Reason in Communication (Stencil)
A study of argument in familiar contexts, with an emphasis upon developing critical skills in comprehending, evaluating, and engaging in contemporary forms of reasoning, with special attention to the uses of argument in mass communication media.
GRADUATE COURSEWORK
Courses taken in Ethics
Metaethics, (Shafer-Landau)
Ethics of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer (Card)
Kant’s Ethics and Kantian Ethics (Card)
Courses taken in Social/Political Philosophy
Equality (Brighouse)
Real and Ideal Theory (Brighouse)
Equality: Sociological and Philosophical Perspectives (Brighouse and Wright)*
Courses taken in Philosophy of Mind
Approaches to the Study of Cognition (Shapiro)
Embodied Cognition (Shapiro)
Personal Identity (Sidelle)
Consciousness (Gibson)
Other Courses
Philosophy of Language (Sidelle)
Frege and Russell (Gibson)
Aesthetics (Soll)
Evidence and Evolution (Sober)
* denotes audited class