I am an Assistant Professor at Southern Utah University. My research focuses on 19th and 20th century European philosophy, aesthetics, and moral philosophy.

Within the post-Kantian period, I have interests in Schiller, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Adorno, and in the movements of Idealism, Romanticism, and the Frankfurt School. I have also recently begun studying Lou Salomé’s wide-ranging intellectual output, especially her work on love, the erotic, and literature.

In moral philosophy, I’m kicking around a couple of projects. In one, I delineate a phenomenon I call narrative estrangement, and argue for its relevance for questions about the narrative unity of a life. In another, I offer an account of ‘difficult people’, and the challenges they raise for interpersonal exchange.

In aesthetics, I am writing papers about: the role of the unthinkable in well-structured aesthetic agency; ‘strong aesthetic individualism’ as a theory of aesthetic value (and flourishing); emotional hardcore music; and outfits.

Prior to coming to SUU, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Providence College (2021-23) and a Future Faculty Teaching Fellow at Butler University (2020-21). I completed my Ph.D. in the Department of Philosophy at Indiana University in December 2021. Before that, I completed an MA at University College Dublin.

I am the Assistant Director of the North American Division of the Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Along with Colin Marshall, I am also an organizer of the Online Schopenhauer Working Group. I am also organizing the American Society for Aesthetics group sessions at the 2025 (all virtual) APA. Stay tuned for a CFP!

PhilPeople

*In the picture above, I am unfortunately fifty years late for Adorno’s office hours.