Summer Program in Philosophy

Randall Curren is Professor and Co-Chair of Philosophy and Professor of Education (secondary) at the University of Rochester. He was the Ginny and Robert Loughlin Founders’ Circle Member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2012-2013) and held concurrent research professorships at the Royal Institute of Philosophy (London) and the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham (England) in 2013-2015. His recent and forthcoming works include Patriotic Education in a Global Age, with historian Charles Dorn (University of Chicago Press, 2018), Living Well Now and in the Future: Why Sustainability Matters, with geologist Ellen Metzger (MIT Press, 2017; Beijing Normal University Press, 2021, in Chinese), and the Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Education (2022). His current projects are focused on well-being in education and education for civic friendship.

Michael Randall Barnes is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at Western University. In Fall 2022, Prof. Barnes will join the Humanising Machine Intelligence project (and the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory (MINT) Lab) at the Australian National University. Michael received his PhD from Georgetown University in 2019, and a teaching degree from the University of Toronto in 2012. His interests in philosophy range from philosophy of language to applied ethics, and his main work now concerns the complexities of online speech. Michael has published articles in various academic journals, is a contributor to a number of anthologies, and is the co-author of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on 'Hate Speech.'

Ashley Pryor (Geiger) is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar (Ph.D. Philosophy, The Pennsylvania State University, 2000), who lives and works in Toledo, Ohio. Her current scholarship is focused on articulating a conceptual ground for community-engaged arts. “The Holding Project” a collaboration with artists Barbara Miner, MFA and Lee Fearnside, has been widely exhibited in Northwest, Ohio in partnership with the Toledo Lucas County Library. Pryor will be presenting the Holding Project to the International Visual Literacy Association in Finland in August 2022. Along with her interdisciplinary scholarship in the humanities, Pryor has participated in three Artists Labs through The Kolaj Institute, her collage work was recently exhibited in Birr, Ireland, and August, and the Limner and Manifest Galleries. Her works have appeared in numerous online print publications. She was the recipient of the 2021 Arts Commission Merit award to support her work bringing collage arts to incarcerated people at the Toledo Correctional Institution through the Inside/Out Prison Exchange Program. Pryor was the recipient of the 2021 Edith Rathbun Award for Community Engagement. A long time practitioner of improvisation, Pryor regularly integrates improvisational games into her teaching in the humanities and is currently writing an article on the subject.

Anthony Weston is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Elon University, where his work and teaching centered on the transformative possibilities of philosophy as a form of inventiveness and imagination. His signature courses included “Millennial Imagination”, “Environmental Visions”, and Philosophy of Pedagogy, along with “Life in the Universe” (co-taught with an astronomer). He was an affiliated faculty member in Environmental Studies and taught in the Honors and General Studies programs as well. In 2002 he was honored as Elon’s Teacher of the Year and in 2007 as Scholar of the Year. Alongside his continuing writing projects, much of his current work is on designing and building a nearby agrarian intentional community, Common Ground Ecovillage. His other interests include hiking, singing, astronomy, strategy games, and – lately – grandfathering.

Kimberly Van Orman in an instructional consultant with the Institute for Teaching, Learning and Academic Leadership at the University at Albany, focusing on effective course design, critical thinking, fostering student engagement and helping students with deep learning practices, including Team-Based Learning (TBL). Dr. Van Orman has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University at Albany and has taught philosophy at institutions including the University at Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institution, Siena College and Bennington College.

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.

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.

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.