Fields
Philosophy of religion, Christian philosophy, Jewish philosophy, continental philosophy, embodied cognition, philosophy of childhood, critical race theory, gender studies
Teaching
Philosophy of Religion, Religion & Rationality, Science & Religion, Maimonides: Guide of the Perplexed, Modern & Contemporary Jewish Thought, Philosophy of Race & Religion, Classics of Christian Thought, Capstone Seminar
University Affiliation
Secondary appointment in the Department of Philosophy; affiliated faculty in Jewish Studies, Center for Bioethics & Health Law, and Global Studies Center
Media
"Embodied Phenomenology: Merleau-Ponty, Habit & Race." Duquesne University “Philosophy is for Beginners” Series. October 6, 2023.
“Roundtable with religious leaders and scholars on declining church attendees” Talk Pittsburgh (KDKA/CBS), July 10, 2023.
“Vice News Tonight. Season 6. Episode 62.” Vice Nov. 3, 2022. 7:00-16:20.
Interviewed & cited by Michael Wereschagin, “Battle for Catholic vote inflames Pa. governor’s race,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oct. 30, 2022.
“White Christian Nationalism” podcast interview with Chris Potter at wesa.fm (Pittsburgh NPR affiliate), Aug. 15, 2022. Print Version.
Plenary Speaking Engagements
“The Impact of Spirituality & Religion on Behavioral Health & Clinical Practice.” Department of Psychiatry DEI Education & Training Workgroup. Pittsburgh, PA. May 31, 2024.
“A Phenomenology of Religio-Racial Habituation: A Merleau-Pontyian Approach,” May 21, 2024. Society of Phenomenology and the Human Sciences & The Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenology. Pittsburgh, PA.
“Space & Time in Kant’s Anthropological Account of White Supremacy,” Friday, March 22, 2024. Duquesne University Department of Philosophy Graduate Program.
“Clarifying Stereotypes & Misperceptions about Religions & Religious Identities.” University of Pittsburgh, Faculty & Staff Development Program: Diversity & Inclusion Certificate Program. Nov. 29, 2023.
“Reckoning with Race: The History & Persistence of White Supremacy in the Church.” East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Oct. 30, 2022 & January 29, 2023.
“Whiteness, Christian Nationalism & American Legal History.” University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Law. Nov. 14, 2022.
“Religious Freedom, Christian Nationalism & White Supremacy: Intersections, Disparities, and Implications, Then and Now.” March 29-30, 2022. “Religion and Race” Symposium. University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA.
“After Deconstruction: Decolonizing Christian Habits.” The Commonwealth. Pittsburgh, PA March 27, 2022.
“I the People; The Logic of Racial Practice.” Joint Book Duet. Humanities Center. University of Pittsburgh. March 23, 2022.
“Faith is Subjectivity: The Performative & Habituated Aspects of Doing Faith.” Graduate program in philosophy, San Jose State University, April 16, 2021.
“Why Religious Practices? Embodied Cognition and Habit.” At “The Work of the People: Henderson Summer Leadership Conference,” Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, June 4, 2018.
- PhD, Duquesne University (2014)
Education & Training
Religion, Race & Marginalization. Co-Authored with Sameer Yadav. Cambridge University Press (under contract)
“Netanyahu’s Genocidal Religious Rhetoric Isn’t Just an Appeal to the Israeli Right—He Has Another Constituency in Mind.” Religion Dispatches, Nov. 19, 2023.
“The ‘Promised Land’ in Christian Nationalist Rhetoric: The Persistent Vision of Christianity as a Religion of Conquest.” In George Yancy, In Sheep’s Clothing: The Idolatry of White Christian Nationalism. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023
The Logic of Racial Practice: Explorations in the Habituation of Racism (editor), Lexington Books, 2021.
“The Embodied Practices of Whiteness: Unpacking One’s White Supremacist Education.” in The Logic of Racial Practice (Lexington, 2021)
Book Review Essay: “Mara H. Benjamin. The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018.” Journal of Jewish Identities, 13, no. 1 (July 2020): 127–30.
“What Hand Transplantation Teaches Us about Embodiment,” AMA Journal of Ethics Special Issue: “Conceptualizing Quality of Life in Reconstructive Transplant Ethics” 21, no. 11 (Nov. 2019): E996–1002.
“The Tree of Life: Wisdom in the Aftermath of Terror.” Philosophy in the Contemporary World, 25, no 1 (2019): 107-20.
“How Levinas Can (and Cannot) Help Us with Political Apology in the Context of Systemic Racism.” Religions 9, no. 11 (2018): 1-22.
“Merleau-Ponty on Embodied Cognition: A Phenomenological Interpretation of Spinal Cord Epidural Stimulation and Paralysis,” Essays in Philosophy 17, no. 2 (July 2016): 69–93.
Philosophy of Childhood Today: Exploring the Boundaries, coedited with David Kennedy (Lexington, 2016)
Childlike Peace in Merleau-Ponty and Levinas: Intersubjectivity as Dialectical Spiral (Lexington, 2016).
“Merleau-Ponty on Children and Childhood,” Childhood & Philosophy 11, no. 22 (2015), 1-20.
“Levinas and the Parent-Child Relation: A Merleau-Pontyian Critique of Appropriating Levinas to Developmental Psychology,” The Humanistic Psychologist, 43, no. 2 (2015).
“Emmanuel Levinas, Radical Orthodoxy, and an Ontology of Originary Peace.” Journal of Religious Ethics 42, no. 3 (2014): 516-39.
“Al-Farabi’s Religious Inclusivism: Prolegomena for Dialogue between Islam and the West.” Kinesis 39, no. 1 (Spring 2012).
“Kierkegaard’s View of Religious Pluralism in Concluding Unscientific Postscript.” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 3, no. 1 (2011).
“Derridean Hospitality in an Age of Political Xenophobia.” The American Future (2010).
Media
"Embodied Phenomenology: Merleau-Ponty, Habit & Race." Duquesne University “Philosophy is for Beginners” Series. October 6, 2023.
“Roundtable with religious leaders and scholars on declining church attendees” Talk Pittsburgh (KDKA/CBS), July 10, 2023.
“Vice News Tonight. Season 6. Episode 62.” Vice Nov. 3, 2022. 7:00-16:20.
Interviewed & cited by Michael Wereschagin, “Battle for Catholic vote inflames Pa. governor’s race,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oct. 30, 2022.
“White Christian Nationalism” podcast interview with Chris Potter at wesa.fm (Pittsburgh NPR affiliate), Aug. 15, 2022. Print Version.
Plenary Speaking Engagements
“The Impact of Spirituality & Religion on Behavioral Health & Clinical Practice.” Department of Psychiatry DEI Education & Training Workgroup. Pittsburgh, PA. May 31, 2024.
“A Phenomenology of Religio-Racial Habituation: A Merleau-Pontyian Approach,” May 21, 2024. Society of Phenomenology and the Human Sciences & The Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenology. Pittsburgh, PA.
“Space & Time in Kant’s Anthropological Account of White Supremacy,” Friday, March 22, 2024. Duquesne University Department of Philosophy Graduate Program.
“Clarifying Stereotypes & Misperceptions about Religions & Religious Identities.” University of Pittsburgh, Faculty & Staff Development Program: Diversity & Inclusion Certificate Program. Nov. 29, 2023.
“Reckoning with Race: The History & Persistence of White Supremacy in the Church.” East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Oct. 30, 2022 & January 29, 2023.
“Whiteness, Christian Nationalism & American Legal History.” University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Law. Nov. 14, 2022.
“Religious Freedom, Christian Nationalism & White Supremacy: Intersections, Disparities, and Implications, Then and Now.” March 29-30, 2022. “Religion and Race” Symposium. University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA.
“After Deconstruction: Decolonizing Christian Habits.” The Commonwealth. Pittsburgh, PA March 27, 2022.
“I the People; The Logic of Racial Practice.” Joint Book Duet. Humanities Center. University of Pittsburgh. March 23, 2022.
“Faith is Subjectivity: The Performative & Habituated Aspects of Doing Faith.” Graduate program in philosophy, San Jose State University, April 16, 2021.
“Why Religious Practices? Embodied Cognition and Habit.” At “The Work of the People: Henderson Summer Leadership Conference,” Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, June 4, 2018.