Summer Program in Philosophy

Ann J. Cahill is Professor of Philosophy at Elon University, and is the author of Overcoming Objectification: A Carnal Ethics (2010, Routledge) and Rethinking Rape (2001, Cornell University Press). Working at the intersection of feminist theory and philosophy of the body, she has published on topics such as miscarriage, beautification, and sexual ethics. Her co-authored article on teaching argumentation won the Lenssen Award, given to the best article on teaching philosophy over a 2-year period, in 2014. She has been working on a variety of pedagogical approaches to improving discussion skills, and is thrilled to be continuing that work at Hamilton College this summer.

Daniel Collette is a visiting professor of philosophy at Marquette University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida where he was recognized by the provost for outstanding teaching. He favors experiential learning and actively seeks innovative ways to integrate these methods into the classroom, including a recent interest in virtual reality. His research focuses on the intersections of ethics, philosophy of religion, epistemology, and political thought in early modernity. While his research and publications are primarily in early modern philosophy, Existentialism was his first “philosophical love” - an affection that remains strong.

Eric Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Santa Clara University. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His main research area is in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. But his initial interest in philosophy arose from studying the history of thought, and so his favorite classes to teach are courses in the history of philosophy; and he strongly believes that the ideas and approaches of “dead philosophers” have much to contribute to the discussions occurring today. Aside from philosophy, he used to work as a session guitarist, with a bent towards jazz-fusion, funk, and the blues.

Chris Bousquet is a graduate student in philosophy at Syracuse University. His interests change by the day, but they include philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of action. At the moment, Chris is thinking about theories of direct reference and rigid designation, the intersection of ineffability and first person authority, as well as causal accounts of intentional action and the problem of causal deviance. Before graduate school, Chris was a researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School and wrote about tech-driven policy for publications including Wired Magazine and the Atlantic. Chris graduated from Hamilton College in 2016.

Mercy Corredor is a PhD candidate in the University of Michigan’s Philosophy Department, where she is writing her dissertation under the supervision of Elizabeth Anderson. Mercy was raised in Miami and attended school in upstate New York at Hamilton College. Her research interests are primarily in ethics, moral epistemology (esp. the moral emotions), and feminist philosophy. She is most concerned with how power corrupts one's ability to cultivate emotional intelligence and how this intersects with one's moral responsibility. She is currently thinking about the function of shame in the #MeToo movement. When not doing philosophy, Mercy enjoys cooking Cuban food, swimming in the ocean, and teaching her dog mostly pointless tricks.

Jackson Kushner is a graduate student in philosophy at Georgia State University. His focus is on political theory and normative ethics, with a special interest in the ideas of moral repair, apology, and coercion. He is currently working on a project — his M.A. thesis — that combines all three of these concepts. Here he argues that there are conditions making it difficult, perhaps even impossible, for states to apologize for their transgressions. Jackson graduated from Georgetown University with honors in philosophy, and before that was an undergraduate philosophy major at Hamilton College. Outside philosophy, he enjoys playing baseball and tennis, as well as cooking and playing the violin.

Russell Marcus is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Hamilton College, where he has taught since 2007. He specializes in philosophy of mathematics and philosophical pedagogy, and is a board member of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers. In addition to articles on mathematics and teaching, he has published three books: a monograph, Autonomy Platonism and the Indispensability Argument (Lexington); a co-edited reader, An Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics (Bloomsbury); and a pair of logic books, Introduction to Formal Logic and Introduction to Formal Logic with Philosophical Applications (Oxford University Press). Before coming to Hamilton College, Russell taught mathematics and computer science in public high schools in New York City and history, math, literature, and writing in a high school in Costa Rica. While in graduate school, he taught mathematics and philosophy as an adjunct instructor in various community colleges and four-year school. At Hamilton, where he has won both teaching and research awards, Russell teaches Logic, Modern Western Philosophy, Infinity, The Language Revolution, and senior seminars on the philosophy of mathematics, intuitions and philosophy, and Wittgenstein. For fun, he likes to play board games, solve all manners of puzzles, hike, watch NY Mets baseball games, and cook (and eat).

Sara Purinton graduated from Hamilton College in 2017 with a concentration in philosophy. In fall 2019, she will start the PhD program in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Her main interests are in ethics and epistemology, and in particular how we conceive of reasons and rationality, and the ways that our understanding of these concepts impacts what counts as rational persuasion and manipulation. When Sara is not studying philosophy, she can be found hiking around the Adirondacks or making art.