Research Interests 

19th Century German Philosophy (esp. Hegel and German Idealism); Early Modern Philosophy (esp. Spinoza); Social & Political Philosophy; Critical Theory

Dissertation Project

My dissertation project, tentatively titled "Substance or Spirit? Hegel, Spinoza, and the Ontology of Social Freedom," examines how the disagreement between Spinoza and Hegel on key metaphysical issues informs their respective social ontologies (especially those concerning history, social structure, and agency) and how these differing theories of the social can enrich and ground critical social theory. 

Papers in Progress 

• A paper on Hegel's theory of social structure and historical progress

• A paper on labor and recognition in Hegel's master-servant dialectic 

• A paper on Spinoza's critical response to Hegel

Future Projects

I also have serious interests in the following topics that I intend to pursue in due course:

• Kant and Herder's philosophy of history 

• Kant's Spinozism

• Foucault's Spinozist Ontology

• Jacobi and the dialectic of enlightenment 

• Marx's metaphysics (causation, structure of social reality, explanation, historical modality)