Graduate Students'
Background Information & Research Interests

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PhD Students

Krista Allen

"Use of Language as a Measure of Animal Intelligence," Dec. 2009

Berger's "Why Look at Animals" Oct. 2009

William Barnes

James Bodington

Dan Briggs

"Hegel on Spinoza and the Dangers of Neo-Spinozist Politics," Villanova University annual graduate conference, Villanova, PA, April 2011

"Indebtedness and the Gift: Heidegger and Derrida on Presents," Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference, Forest Grove, OR, April 2007

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Susanne Claxton

Kaitlyn Creasy

"A Reconciliation of Value Monist and Value Pluralist Aspects of Nietzsche's System of Values," New York University Undergraduate Research Conference in the College of Arts and Sciences, New York, NY, 2010.

“Taoist Influences on Heidegger’s Philosophy,” Dean’s Circle Research Colloquium in the General Studies Program at New York University, New York, NY, 2008.

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Jaime Denison

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Laura Guererro

Stephen Harris

2011. “Does Anātman Rationally Entail Altruism? On Bodhicaryāvatāra 8: 101-103,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics. Vol. 18, 92-123.

2010. “Antifoundationalism and the Commitment to Reducing Suffering in Rorty and Madhyamaka Buddhism,” Contemporary Pragmatism. Vol. 7:2, 71-89.

“The Classification of Indian Buddhist Ethics.” Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Annual Meeting. Honolulu, HI. May 25-28, 2011.

“The Ethics of Seclusion and Engagement in Early Buddhism: Continuities with the Engaged Buddhism Movement.” Tenth East-West Philosophers’ Conference. Honolulu, HI. May 16-24, 2011.

“Tantric Logic and Saṃsāric Fuel in Mahāyāna Moral Theory.” Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, APA Eastern Division Meeting. Boston, MA. Dec 27-30, 2010.

"Does Anātman Rationally Entail Altruism? Another Consideration of Śāntideva’s Abhidharmika Argument," APA Pacific Division Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, April 2009

"Making the Most of Traditions and Persons: Classical Confucian Person Making and Implications for Models of Disability," UNM Philosophy Student Conference, Albuquerque, NM, April 2009

Tara Kennedy

"Ethos as Abode: The Heideggerian Ground of Ethics," APA Pacific Division Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, April 2009

"The Problem of Wilderness," UNM Philosophy Student Conference, Albuquerque, NM, April 2006

Kevin Lavelle

Jeremy Martin

Siobhán McLoughlin

“Three Forms of Freedom in Plato,” in Conversations Platonic and Neoplatonic: Intellect, Soul, and Nature. Edited by Robert M. Berchman and John F. Finamore, 39‑47. St. Augustin, Germany: Academia Verlag, 2010.

“Gripping the Golden Cord: Freedom and Determinism in Plato’s Laws,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 3, no.1 (2008).

Book review of The Metaphysics of Beauty, by Nick Zangwill in De Philosophia XVII, no. 1‑2 (2001‑2002).

“Gripping the Golden Cord: Freedom and Determinism in Plato’s Laws,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, APA Eastern Division Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, December 2008

“Gripping the Golden Cord: Freedom and Determinism in Plato’s Laws,” North Texas Philosophical Association Meeting, Denton, TX, April 11, 2008

“Freedom, Death and Divinization in Plato,” International Society for Neoplatonic Studies Conference, New Orleans, LA, June 19, 2008

“Beyond Comparative Philosophy,” Southwest Symposium, University of New Mexico, April 2nd, 2004

Working Dissertation Title/Topic: Plato and the Freedom of Reason

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Justin Messmore

Ethan Mills

“Engaged Buddhist Metaphysics: Buddhadāsa on Dependent Origination.” Indian Ethics: Classical Traditions and Contemporary Challenges: Volume II. Eds. Purushottama Bilimoria and Joseph Prabhu. Springer Publishing, Forthcoming

“What’s So Bad about Determinism and Skepticism?” In: Philip K. Dick and Philosophy. Ed. D. E. Wittkower. Chicago: Open Court, Forthcoming.

“Book Review of Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism by Adrian Kuzminski.” Forthcoming in Ancient Philosophy. Volume 32, Number 1(Spring 2012).

“Book Review of Ancient Scepticism by Harald Thorsrud.” Forthcoming in Ancient Philosophy. Volume 31, Number 2 (Fall 2011).

"From Comparative to Cross-­‐Cultural Philosophy." Comparative Philosophy Today and Tomorrow: Proceedings from the 2007 Uehiro CrossCurrents Philosophy Conference. Eds. Sarah A Mattice, Geoff Ashton and Joshua P. Kimber. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009.

"Truthiness of the Appearances." Stephen Colbert and Philosophy: I Am Philosophy (And So Can You!) Ed. Aaron Allen Schiller. Chicago: Open Court, 2009.

“Book Review of Buddhism, Knowledge and Liberation: A Philosophical Study. By David Burton.” Philosophy East and West, Volume 57, Number 4 (October 2007) 593-­‐595.

“Book Review of Being Benevolence: The Social Ethics of Engaged Buddhism. By Sallie B. King.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Volume 13 (2006).

“Cultivation of Moral Concern in Theravada Buddhism: Toward a Theory of the Relation Between Tranquility and Insight,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Volume 11 (2004).

“Religiosity Without Belief: Nāgārjuna’s Buddhist Skepticism.” Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Annual Conference, Honolulu, HI. May 26-­‐28, 2011.

“The Ethics of Skepticism: What We Can Learn from Nāgārjuna, Sextus and Jayarāśi.” The Tenth East-­‐West Philosophers’ Conference, Honolulu, HI. May 16-­‐24, 2011.

“Is Skepticism Inevitable?” American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting, Minneapolis, MN. March 30-­‐ April 3, 2011.

“Jayarāśi’s Skepticism: How to Stop Worrying and Love a Life without Philosophy.” American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting, Boston, MA. December 27-­‐30, 2010.

“Materialism, Skepticism and the Alleged Spirituality of Indian Philosophy.” Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Annual Conference, Asilomar, CA, June 14-­‐17, 2009.

“Nāgārjuna, Jayarāśi and the Distinctive Character of Indian Skepticism,” American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, April 8-­‐12, 2009

“Engaged Buddhist Metaphysics: Buddhadasa on Dependent Origination," Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Annual Conference, Asilomar, CA, June 8-­‐11, 2008

“Is Epistemology Possible?: Jayarāśi and the Buddhist Logicians on the Very Idea of a Pramāṇa,” American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Pasadena, CA, March 19-­‐23, 2008

Krupa Patel

Phillip W. Schoenberg

Rorty’s Ironic Atheism: Towards a Neo-Pragmatic Philosophy of Religion,” 12th Annual Meeting on Pragmatism, November, 9 – 13, 2009, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Comments on “The Proto-Morality of Life: Primary Recognition in Axel Honneth’s Reading of Phenomenology of Spirit,” American Philosophical Association (APA) Pacific Division Meeting, March 31 – April 3, 2010, San Francisco, CA.

Comments on “Self-Awareness, Self-Understanding, and Self-interpretation,” American Philosophical Association (APA) Pacific Division Meeting, April 8 – 12, 2009, Vancouver, BC.

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Zachary Shank

Pioter Shmugliakov

"The Ontology of the Cinematic Medium and the Modern Horror Genre" in Reality, Trauma, and the Inner Grammar of Photography, ed. Aim Deuelle Luski (Tel Aviv: Resling, 2011) Forthcoming
Petia Ptah, ЬЯТЪЫ (Impossible yet Meaningful Combination of Letters): poems in Russian, (Moscow: Argo-Risk, 2011) Forthcoming

Petia Ptah, I've Cheated a Polygraph/I Worked on a Truth Machine: poems in Hebrew, (Tel Aviv: Emda, 2010)

"Heidegger's Modernism: What Does the Overcoming of Aesthetics Really Amount to?," Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy, Denver University, Colorado (May, 2011)

"Drug(s)," Beyond the Liberal Horizon: The fourth Lexical Conference on Political Thought, The Minerva Humanities Center at Tel Aviv University (January, 2010)

“The Medium-Essentialism and Stanley Cavell’s Aesthetics of Acknowledgment,” Possibility – Graduate Students Conference, Department of Philosophy, Tel-Aviv University (July, 2007)

“Lotus and Pharmakon: The Drug Problem in Dialectic of Enlightenment,” Annual Conference of Israel’s Philosophical Society, Bar-Ilan University (February, 2007)

"The Ontology of the Cinematic Medium and the Modern Horror Genre," Pain Flesh and Blood – An Interdisciplinary Conference, Ben-Gurion University at the Negev (April, 2006)






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Gino Signoracci

“Marxism and Eastern Thought: Toward a philosophy of perpetual revolution?” Marxist Literary Group Summer Institute on Culture and Society: “What Is Revolution?” University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, IL, June 2011.

“Vivekānanda’s Vedānta: Monism, ethics, and prospects for contemporary philosophy.” Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Annual Conference: “Sustainability and Interdependence.” University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, May 2011.

“Transformative Philosophy East and West: Vedāntic and Buddhist Resources for the Critique of Political Economy.” 10th East West Philosophers’ Conference: “Value and Values: Economics and Justice in an Age of Global Interdependence.” East-West Center, Honolulu, HI, May 2011.

“On Western Hostility to Eastern Philosophy: Liberation over social action?” 9th Annual Student Conference: “Life, Death, and Liberation: A Conference of Comparative Philosophy.” University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, April 2011.

“God-to-come and Divinology: Not the way out of the spectral dilemma.” 10th Annual Philosophy Conference: “The Return of Metaphysics.” Villanova University, Villanova, PA, April 2011.

“The Ethic of Identity in Advaita Vedānta and its Relevance for Contemporary Philosophy.” 8th Annual Student Conference: “Agency, Freedom, and Ethics.” University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, February 2010.

Kristian Simcox

Carolyn Thomas

Tanya Whitehouse

presentation on legislation, New Mexico State University, spring 2010;

presentation on philosophy of art, Texas Tech University, spring 2001

MA Students

Michael Barron

Mark Behrmann

Michael F. Brett X

Corbin Casarez

selected for anthology seeking publication, "Vulnerability, Addiction, and Recovery"

National Honors Conference, "Faith and Learning in Higher Education"

Dawn Catanach

"The Philosopher and the Philologist: Heidegger, Tolkein and Poetic Language," The Grey Book, Volume 2, 2006
"The Problem of Eowyn: A Look at the Ethics and Values in Middle-Earth," The Grey Book, Volume 1, 2005

"The Philosopher and the Philologist: Heidegger, Tolkein, and Poetic Language," Southwest/Texas Pop Culture and American Culture Associations (SW/TX PCA/ACA) annual conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 14-17, 2007

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Hugh Alexander Curtas

“The Fifth Avenue Anti-Stuffed Shirt and Flying Trapeze Club: A Reading of George Cukor’s Holiday,” American Society for Aesthetics Graduate E-Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, Spring/Summer 2011;
"Belief in Doubt: A Reading of Montaigne's Essays," UNM Best Student Essays, 2009;
"The Critical Subject: A Poet in Philosopher's Clothing," UNM Best Student Essays, 2006

“Dasein’s Collective Struggle: The Generation in Being and Time §74,” presented at Life, Death, and Liberation: A Conference in Comparative Philosophy, 9th Annual Philosophy Student Conference, 15-16 April 2011, UNM
"The Nature in Man; or, So Many Walking Monsters," presented at Mapping the Field(s) through Time and Space: Earth and Environment across the Disciplines, UNM, Spring 2010

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Russell J. Duvernoy

Signs of Life: Heidegger and Animals in Being and Time, UNM Earth Day Conference Spring 2010.

Jennifer O. Gammage

"Martin Heidegger and the Pedagogic Relationship," University of New Mexico's Fourth Annual National Ronald E. McNair Research and Leadership Conference, October 2010

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William L. Gannon

"Ethics of Animal Use," Journal of Mammalogy 90(6): 1495-1497 (2008), Review of, Sandoe, P., and S. B. Christiansen.
"Speaking the Right Language: The Scientific Method as a Framework for a Continuous Quality Improvement Program Within Academic Medical Research Compliance Units," Academic Medicine 83:941-948 (2008), Nolte K. B., D. M. Stewart, K. C. O’Hair, W. L. Gannon, M. S. Briggs, A. M. Barron, J. Pointer, R. S. Larson.
"Guidelines for the Use of Wild Mammals in Research by the American Society of Mammalogists," Journal of Mammalogy 88:809-823 (2007), Gannon, W. L., R. S. Sikes, and the Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists.
Additional information here.


Presentations: Please see CV at referenced website.

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John Garletts

Brian Gatsch

“Pain‑free Livestock: The Problem of Utilitarianism and the Science of Suffering” Eighth Annual Philosophy Student Conference at the University of New Mexico

Tyler Innis

Patrick Kelly

Previous Degree: BA in History, University of Washington

Philosophical Interests: Indian and Buddhist Philosophy (esp. Nagarjuna), Zen and Cha'n, Kyoto School, Comparative Philosophy, Nietzsche, Philosophy of Language, Virtue Ethics, Pre‑Socratics

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Kris Miranda

“Superhuman: Cultivating Transcendence on the Bodhisattva Path, and Nietzschean Considerations Thereof.” UNM Best Student Essays, Spring 2011.

Austin Morrell

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Gabrelle Saurage

“Hölderlin: Schiller’s Futural Poet” presented at both UNM Philosophy Student Conference, Albuquerque, NM 2011 and the Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy in Denver, CO 2011.

Albert Schapiro

An Other Testament: On Typology. Forthcoming from Salt Press (2011).
“The Four Discourses of Mormonism.” BYU Studies 50.1 (2011): 4-24.
“Prolegomena to Any Future Study of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon.” Claremont Journal of Mormon Studies 1.1 (April 2011): 53-69.
“On the Poetics of Self-Knowledge: Poetry in Parley Pratt’s Autobiography.” Journal of Mormon History 37.1 (Winter 2011): 173-178.
“Mormonism and the Enlightenment: In Response to John-Charles Duffy.” Square Two 3.3 (Fall 2010).
“Towards a Pauline Theory of Gender: Rereading Romans 1:26-27.” Journal of Philosophy and Scripture 7 (2010): 9-19.
"René Girard and Mormon Scripture: A Response.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 43.3 (Fall 2010).
“Towards a Pauline Theory of Gender: Rereading Romans 1:26-27.” Journal of Philosophy and Scripture 7 (2010).
"Of Revolution’s Embrace: A Review of Craig Livingston’s ‘From Above and Below,’” The Mormon Worker 8 (March 2010): 7, 10-11.
“The Romance of Materialism: Notes on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.” The Mormon Review: Books and Culture from an LDS Perspective 1.6 (September 2009): 1-4.
“Taking Grace for Granted: A Roundabout Review of Adam Miller’s Immanent Grace,” Element: The Journal of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology 4.2 (Fall 2008).
"Plato in Context: The Republic and Allegory,” Stvdia Antiqva 4.1 (Winter 2005): 15-29.
“Free From All Men: Stoic Influence in the Writings of Saint Paul.” The Dualist 9.1 (Spring 2004): 29-41.
“Plato Among and Against the Post-Modernists.” Aporia 13 (Fall 2003): 1-7.

“Typology and Messianism in the (Book of) Mormon Experience.” Paper presentation at the annual conference of the American Historical Association, “Communities and Networks,” Chicago, January 5-8, 2012.
“Immortality or Eternal Life? On the Religious Significance of Atheist Living.” Paper presentation at “What Is Life? Philosophy, Theology, and Science,” Kraków, Poland, June 24-28, 2011.
“Playing with the Economy: On Badiou’s Lack of a Theory of Political Economy.” Paper presentation at “Badiou, Business, Ethics,” Centre for Philosophy and Political Economy, University of Leicester, May 26-28, 2011.
“Philosophy’s Return and Liberation’s Prospects: On Alain Badiou.” Paper presentation at the annual University of New Mexico Philosophy Student Conference, “Life, Death, and Liberation: A Conference on Comparative Philosophy,” University of New Mexico, April 15-16, 2011.
‘I Speak in Tongues More than All of You’: Badiou and Agamben on Glossolalia.” Paper presentation at Postmodernism, Culture, and Religion 4, “The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion,” Syracuse University, April 7-9, 2011.
“Mormon Theologians are Ordinary Latter-day Saints: On the Neuroses Consequent to being a Mormon in Academia.” Paper presentation at the biannual Faith and Knowledge Conference for LDS Graduate Students in Religion, “The Intellectual Prospects of Mormonism,” Duke University, February 11-12, 2011.
“Reading the Unwriteable: On the Interpretation of Job 19:23-25a.” Paper presentation at a conference hosted by Greg Kofford Books and BYU’s Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding, “Mormon Scriptural Theology,” Brigham Young University, October 4, 2010.
“Remnants of Revelation: On the Canonical Reading of D&C 42.” Paper presentation at a culminating conference for a seminar hosted by the Mormon Theology Seminar and BYU’s Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding, “Embracing the Law: A Seminar Reading of D&C 42,” Southern Virginia University, September, 2010.
“Sartre, Althusser, and the PCF.” Invited lecture presented to the Revolutionary Student Union at Utah Valley University, August 4, 2010.
“Of ‘Eternal’ Gender: Saint Paul on Sexuality.” Paper presentation at the annual conference of the Mormon Scholars in the Humanities, “The Family and Human Relationships in History, Literature, Art, and Philosophy,” Claremont Graduate University, May 21-22, 2010.
“To the Point: Politics and Philosophy in Alain Badiou.” Invited lecture presented to the Revolutionary Student Union at Utah Valley University, April 1, 2010.
“Subjectivity and Truth: Towards a Basic Mormon ‘Anthropology.’” Paper presentation at the annual conference of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, “The Measure of Their Creation—Theological Anthropology,” Utah Valley University, March 25-27, 2010.
“The Four Discourses of Mormonism: Towards the Thinking of a Uniquely Mormon Hermeneutics.” Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the Association for Mormon Letters, “‘One Eternal Round’: Mormon Literature Past, Present, and Future,” Utah Valley University, February 27, 2010.
“Jacques Rancière: Democracy and Aesthetics.” Invited lecture presented to the Revolutionary Student Union at Utah Valley University, February 3, 2010.
“Giorgio Agamben as a Subtractive Thinker.” Invited lecture presented to the Revolutionary Student Union at Utah Valley University, November 12, 2009.
“‘A Wellcome Messenger’: The Development of Parley P. Pratt’s Theology of Death.” Paper presentation at the concluding symposium of the 2009 Summer Fellows Seminar, “Parley and Orson Pratt and the Formation of Mormon Thought,” Brigham Young University, July 2, 2009.
“Omnipotent Weakness: Toward a Mormon Doctrine of God’s Omnipotence.” Paper presentation at the annual conference of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, “Upon All Nations—Religious Pluralism,” Claremont Graduate University, May 22, 2009.
“Alfred Hitchcock in the Legacy Theater: Mormonism, Film, and ‘Religious’ Criticism.” Paper presentation at the annual conference of the Mormon Scholars in the Humanities, “Religions and the Practices of Criticism,” Brigham Young University, May 8, 2009.
“Nephi, Isaiah, and Europe.” Paper presentation at a culminating conference for a seminar hosted by the Mormon Theology Seminar, BYU’s Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding, and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Studies, “Reading Nephi Reading Isaiah: 2 Nephi 26-27,” Brigham Young University, April 15, 2009.
"Faith, Hope, and Charity: Alma and Joseph Smith.” Paper presentation at a culminating conference for a seminar hosted by the Mormon Theology Seminar and BYU’s Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding, “An Experiment Upon the Word: Reading Alma 32,” Brigham Young University, September 19, 2008.
“Thinking the Mormon Hermeneutical Situation: Four Mormon Discourses and the Place of a Uniquely Mormon Hermeneutics.” Paper presentation at the annual conference of the Mormon Scholars in the Humanities, “Interpretation: Latter-day Saint Perspectives,” Southern Virginia University, May 16, 2008.
“Penser le Livre de Mormon: Towards a Hermeneutics of Conversion.” Paper presentation at an undergraduate philosophy and religion conference hosted by Prof. James E. Faulconer, Brigham Young University, April, 2004.
"Free From All Men: Stoic Influence in the Writings of Saint Paul.” Lecture given as part of the Student Society for Ancient Studies Student Lecture Series, Brigham Young University, February, 2004.
“Plato and Greek Religion: Reading Three Allegories in The Republic.” Lecture given as part of the Student Society for Ancient Studies Student Lecture Series, Brigham Young University, October, 2003.
"Plato and Pythagorean Religion." Paper presentation at an undergraduate philosophy conference, Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University), October, 2003.