2023 Faculty and Staff


Course Instructors

James Garrison

James Garrison

Instructor, Language, Games & Logic

Dr. James Garrison serves as assistant professor of philosophy at Baldwin Wallace University. He has previously served as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Puget Sound, Consortium for Faculty Diversity fellow at Scripps College, and teaching fellow at the University of Bristol. He obtained his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna in 2015, after having undertaken exchange fellowships at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Peking University. His teaching and research includes work in ethics, aesthetics, social and political philosophy, and intercultural philosophy. Working under the guidance of Professor Roger Ames at the University of Hawai’i during his graduate studies, he developed his forthcoming book, "Reconsidering the Life of Power" (State University of New York Press).

Alexandra Grundler

Alexandra Grundler

Instructor, The Value of Beauty

Alexandra Grundler works on and teaches Aesthetics and Ethics at Auburn University. She received her PhD in 2021 from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is especially interested in what kinds of habits regarding beauty contribute to life’s overall flourishing. She loves to dance, sing, and spend time in nature.

Rebeccah Leiby

Rebeccah Leiby

Instructor, The State of Nature (Ultimate Survival Mode)

Rebeccah Leiby is the Hoffberger Ethics Fellow with the University of Baltimore’s Hoffberger Center for Ethical Engagement. She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University in 2022, alongside a Graduate Certificate in Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies. Her research is primarily concerned with political philosophy and the unique questions posed by projects of transitional justice, which seek to establish norms for post-conflict social and political stability. A lifelong science fiction enthusiast, Dr. Leiby has recently contributed chapters on political philosophy to The Expanse and Philosophy (2021) and Dune and Philosophy (2022) in The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series. She is fond of – but not particularly skilled at – all manner of video games, especially the Tomb Raider Survival Trilogy, which allows her to live out her wildest fantasy of being a humanities academic who can also do a pull-up.

Tutors

Henry Curcio '21

Henry Curcio '21

Tutor, The State of Nature (Ultimate Survival Mode)

Henry has recently completed a Master at Western Michigan University and is headed to University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Fall to pursue a PhD in philosophy. His philosophical interests intersect in and around Ancient Philosophy. Recently, he has been interested in the role literary devices such as irony, metaphor, and myth play in Plato's dialogues. Along with this, he is interested in the practical import ancient thinkers might have on contemporary social, political, and legal debates. His other interests include cycling, human prehistory, the literary works of Thomas Pynchon, and the music of Steely Dan.

Angela Barnes

Angela Barnes

Tutor, The Value of Beauty

Angela Barnes is a Philosophy PhD student at Arizona State University studying technology and wellbeing. She is researching how the dependencies that we have on our smartphones (among other things) change the way that we interact with the world around us, what that means for our own flourishing, and perhaps most importantly, how we can get out of the trap we are in. In this research she dabbles in Economics and Psychology as well as more traditional Philosophy of Well-Being, Ethics, and Epistemology. She also runs a Philosophy Summer Camp for local high school students. When not at work Angela splits her time investing in her community, and kicking around in the river and the mountains.

Haotian Yang '20

Haotian Yang '20

Tutor, Language, Games and Logic

Haotian is a second year Masters student at NYU department of Philosophy. His philosophical interests include (but are not limited to!) history of Modern Philosophy, German idealism, Ancient Philosophy (especially Aristotle) and Philosophy of Language, especially Wittgenstein. As he completes his degree, Haotian is exploring innovative and effective approaches to teaching philosophy. Through outreach programs, he has taught philosophy lessons on topics in ethics such as the trolly problem, doctrine of double effect and ethics of physician-assisted suicide to high school and college students. Aside from philosophy, Haotian enjoys writing fiction, German films, archery, and experimental cooking.

Grant-Funded Positions

Dave Concepción

Dave Concepción

Pedagogy Resident

Dave Concepción teaches feminist ethics, environmental ethics, first year seminars, and other courses at Ball State University [BSU], including "Stance: An International Undergraduate Philosophy Journal." He has received BSU’s Diversity Advocate Award and Outstanding Faculty Service Award, and is one of only two people to ever receive all four of BSU’s top university-wide teaching awards. National recognitions include the American Association of Philosophy Teachers’ [AAPT] Lenssen Prize for research about the teaching of philosophy and the American Philosophical Association’s [APA] Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs. He is a past president of the AAPT and a past chair of the APA Committee on Teaching. Currently, he is the editor-in-chief of AAPT Studies in Pedagogy. As co-designer of the only national level teacher training in the field of philosophy, he leads workshops around the country to help other philosophy teachers innovate. His current research focuses on inclusive pedagogy.

Heather Stewart

Heather Stewart

Inclusivity Consultant

Heather Stewart (she/they) is an assistant professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University, where they teach courses in feminist philosophy, biomedical ethics, and applied ethics. They currently serve as an OSU College of Arts and Sciences Equity Advocate and are on the American Philosophical Association’s Committee for LGBTQ+ People in the Profession. Their research is primarily on the phenomenon of microaggressions, and their first book, "Microaggressions in Medicine" is in press with Oxford University Press. They are passionate about philosophical pedagogy and mentoring, and have researched and advocated specifically around queer inclusion in philosophy and experiences of low-income and first-generation philosophers.

Leadership

Russell Marcus

Russell Marcus

Director

Professor and Chair of Philosophy, HCSPiP Founder and Director

Catherine Schmitt

Catherine Schmitt

Assistant Director

Hamilton Class of '24, Philosophy and Neuroscience major.

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