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I am an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and the Chair of the Philosophy Department. I earned a PhD in philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis in Spring 2015. Although I am interested in most philosophical issues, my primary research is in ancient philosophy, ethics, and the connection between the two. 

With Sarah Malanowski, I recently completed Why It's OK to be a Gamer (Routledge). The book provides a virtue-theoretic defense of the gamer lifestyle. It guards gaming against common objections, such as being violent, addictive, and a waste of time. We are now developing an edited collection titled Virtue Theory and Video Games: Level Up Your Character (Routledge, anticipated 2026) that looks at virtue theory and video games in a little more detail. Before that I coauthored Plato's Pragmatism: Rethinking the Relationship between Ethics and Epistemology with Tyler Paytas (Routledge, 2021). I intend to develop a philosophical interpretation of Plato's normative theory in the Laws in the near future. For a more detailed account, take a look at the Research link or CV.

Before entering WUSTL, I earned an MA in Philosophy at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a BA in Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). While at UNI, I was a varsity member of their NCAA Division 1 wrestling team. Besides wrestling, I also enjoy other grappling sports such as Judo and BJJ, playing video games, was lucky enough to have the world's greatest dog, and am now blessed with the two greatest cat--what luck!

The links on the side will lead you to more information about my research, C.V., and there are pictures of animals.

You can contact me at NichBaima [at] Gmail [dot] com