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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 is currently a second year Masters student at Western Michigan University. 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.

Leadership

Russell Marcus

Russell Marcus

Director

Associate 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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