Areas of Expertise
I primarily work in Ethics and Environmental Philosophy (both ethical and metaphysical issues).
My approach is informed mostly by 19th and 20th Century European Philosophy (esp. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger, and Friedrich Nietzsche), but I am also interested in the contemporary challenges Bruno Latour and other new materialisms offers for that tradition.
Education
Ph.D. Philosophy
University of Memphis
May 2009
B.A. Philosophy and Honors
University of Rhode Island
2002
Biography
Awards
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholarship to attend the institute "A Fierce Green Fire at 100: Aldo Leopard and the Roots of Environmental Ethics" at Arizona State University, Joan McGregor and Dan Schilling directors, 2009
Graduate Assistant Meritorious Teaching Award, University of Memphis. 2008
Hillary Johnson Memorial Teaching Award, University of Memphis Philosophy Department. 2008
National Finalist, Mellon Fellowship for the Humanities, 2003
Fellow, RI State Council for the Arts Journalism Project, 2003
State Finalist, Rhodes Scholarship Competition, 2002, 2003
Alternate Awardee, Marshall Scholarship Competition, 2002
Grace B. Shearer Award, University of Rhode Island Honors Program, 2002
Phi Beta Kappa, University of Rhode Island, 2001
Affiliations
International Association for Environmental Philosophy
International Society for Environmental Ethics
Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
American Philosophical Association
International Merleau-Ponty Circle
Publications & Presentations
Book:
From Mastery to Mystery: A Phenomenological Foundation for an Environmental Ethic (Ohio University Press, Forthcoming Fall/Winter 2013)
Peer Reviewed Articles:
“From Intrinsic Value to Compassion: A Place-Based Ethic.” Forthcoming with Environmental Ethics.
“Re-Envisioning Nature: The Role of Aesthetics in Environmental Ethics.” Environmental Ethics 33 (2011): 415-36.
“Flesh and Nature: Understanding Merleau-Ponty’s Relational Ontology.” Research in Phenomenology 41 (2011): 327-57.
“Developing Val Plumwood’s Dialogical Ethical Ontology and Its Consequences for a Place-Based Ethic.” Ethics & the Environment 14 (2009): 39-55.
“Animals, Language, and Life: Searching for Animal Attunement with Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty.” Environmental Philosophy 6 (2009): 21-34.
“Reading the Living Signs: a Proposal for a Merleau-Pontian Conception of Species.” Chiasmi International: the Trilingual Journal of Merleau-Ponty Studies 9 (2007): 95-111.
Book Reviews
Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. Environmental Philosophy 8 (2011): 121-137.
Ted Toadvine’s Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy of Nature. Evanston: Northwestern, 2009. Environmental Ethics 34 (2010): 433-6.
