I am an Eric Brown. Some of us are famous enough for Wikipedia, but I haven't been confused with one of those. I am, however, occasionally mistaken for another academic Eric Brown, especially by the campus mail and the online bots. If you're not sure whether you've found the Eric Brown you're looking for, perhaps this little "autobiogeography" will help.
I was born and raised in Ohio, where I met my wife, Amy Ravin. We both grew up in Sylvania, just outside Toledo, the "Glass Capital of the World" (see the RAQs!) and home of the Mud Hens. She went to Northview High School; I went to Southview.
From 1988 to 1997, I studied at the University of Chicago, first in the College and then in the philosophy department. For the first eight of these years, Hyde Park was home: three years in Linn House 713B at Burton-Judson Courts, one year with three friends at 5401 S. Woodlawn Ave., Apt. 1, and four years with Amy at 1159 E. 56th St., Apt. 2.
I was away for several weeks every Summer, though, to teach at debate "institutes" for high school students at American University (in Washington, DC) (1988, 1990), the University of Kentucky (1989-1995), the University of California, Berkeley (1989-1991), and Stanford (1993-1996).
I also spent two terms in 1996 studying in the Classics Faculty at the University of Cambridge and living a few steps away from The Free Press.
In June 1996, when Amy reached the end of her eight years of study at MIT and the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine, we moved to Pittsburgh. Amy joined the residency program in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Magee-Womens Hospital, and for the next four years, our home would be 340 S. Highland Ave., Apt. 5A.
During the first of our Pittsburgh years, I finished up my dissertation in the company of the Program of Classics, Philosophy, and Ancient Science at the University of Pittsburgh. But after earning my PhD in 1997, I joined the philosophy department at Washington University in St. Louis, so years two and three were spent commuting between Shadyside in Pittsburgh and the Skinker-Debaliviere neighborhood of St. Louis. Then, thankfully, Wash U gave me an early sabbatical, so I could spend year four as a visiting scholar in Pitt's philosophy department.
Amy finished her residency in June 2000, and we moved to St. Louis, settling a few miles west of the Arch in University City and then resettling, with two adorable and much adored children, right next door in Clayton, in August 2015.
So despite what the mail clerks and online bots might suppose, I am not the Eric Brown who used to work in Washington University's School of Medicine and now works in private industry, and I am not the Eric Brown who earned a philosophy PhD from Catholic University and now runs a tutoring business, the Eric Brown who earned a philosophy PhD at Boston College and now works at Corvinus University, or the Eric Brown who earned a philosophy PhD at Tulane University and now teaches at the University of Colorado.
I am an associate professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis. I research and teach mainly on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy but also in ethics. (In addition to the philosophy department, I work with Classics, the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities, and Religious Studies.)
If you are trying to find out about some course I teach, or are curious about my research, or would like some advice about college, graduate school, or studying ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, you can use the links in this paragraph or in the menu at the top of the page. If you are simply trying to get in touch with me, send me an email at the address below.
