- My projects start from a question: What lessons can be drawn from History and Philosophy to address our pressing problems?
- My research and teaching sits at the intersection of history, philosophy, and education. As a Historian who specializes in American History, I use history as a site to explore and understand issues of leadership and strategy. As a Philosopher, I bring tools and critical analysis to public policy problems and issues facing organizations and institutions.
- My experience with the COVID -19 pandemic reframed my trajectory, like it did with many. For decades, my research and teaching and writing attended to American History, Political Science, and Philosophy. After lockdown I pivoted to study philosophy of care. Along with the ethics, politics, and economics of care, my courses focus on philosophy and/of education and the place of humor in our lives. I lead a seminar on Philosophy and Humor. This course has been the most requested course in the Division of Social Studies at Bard College, where I currently teach. “Socrates walks into philosophy class and says…” This seminar introduces philosophy while it models and encourages critical thinking practices by a study of philosophical issues related to laughter, comedy, and humor. Historical and contemporary philosophical theories of humor as well as the psychological, political, and moral dimensions of humor sits at the core of the inquiry. The seminar explores jokes, the absurd, the forms and types of humor, as well as the possibilities of humor as a tool of personal, organizational, and political transformation. Examples from the visual, performing, and printed arts run alongside our philosophical texts.
- The Science of Human Connection examines theories that posit relational connection as a foundation of human development, drawing on evidence from psychology, sociology, primatology, neuroscience, and other fields. After an introduction to this evidence, we engage with this question: What gets in the way of human connection? In this part of the course, we will examine the cultural forces that disrupt connection and relationships, and the different ways this disconnection manifests across cultures. Interpersonal conflict, war, ideological division, and other social issues will be examined as manifestations of cultural breaks in relationship. In the final segment of the course, readings and discussion will shift to a final question: How do we reconnect as human beings within cultures that drive us to separate, create divisions and hierarchies among people, and alienate us from one another? Perspectives from psychology, education, the arts, and other fields will be brought to bear on this question as we consider ways to cultivate individual and societal resilience to the forces that breed separation and division.
One core idea of my work as an educator, both before the pandemic and certainly after, is that intellectual growth and critical inquiry can run in parallel with mirth, respect for others, care, play, fun, experimentation, laughter, and joy. The dark, the sad, the tragic, the serious; they are always with us when we think and read and write about humor and care. What we laugh at and why is terribly serious and very important. Humor and Care are important philosophical topics. No joke.
- AI and Society provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), designed to equip students across disciplines with foundational knowledge and practical competencies. Students will critically examine core concepts, methodologies, and ethical dimensions of AI, while exploring its societal, cultural, and professional implications. AI is transforming our relationships with technology and with others, our senses of self, as well as our approaches to health care, banking, democracy, and the criminal justice system. But while AI in its many forms has become ubiquitous and its benefits to society and the individual have grown, its impacts are varied. Concerns about its unintended effects and misuses have become paramount in conversations about the successful integration of AI in society. My work explores the many facets of artificial intelligence: its technology, its potentials, its impact on labor and the economy, its relationship with inequalities, its role in law and governance, its challenges to national security, and what it says about humanity and our collective futures.
- Philosophy of Care takes Care as central to our lives, our practices, our projects, and institutions. What does it mean to care? How do we give and receive good care? I approach questions of care from the perspective of moral and political philosophy. Contemporary philosophies of care, as well as core texts in the philosophy of care will sit at the center of my inquiry. I study the ethics, politics, and economics of care across the lifespan and the connection between care and social institutions. Where do our views of care connect to concerns and issues regarding gender, race, class, technology, age, the specific needs at various stages of the human lifespan, and (dis)ability? How can we understand care as a normative and regulative ideal? One feature of this work examines how an ethics of care might connect to the care and maintenance of our human, technical, and non-human environments.
- An ongoing project, justice across the generations, addresses the moral and political status of children and youth. What would an global, intergenerational and intragenerational theory of justice look like? How might the when of theory figure in questions of distributive and formative justice? I explore how we can understand responsibilities and obligations to the natural environment and the human and non-human animals of the future. I am interested in how we might best support children in times of war and crisis. The project tries to construct concepts can be brought to bear to understand moral and political issues of the past, present, and future. Future work will focus on how do the demands of justice and care function in individual lives and in sustainable societies.
One of the things that has always interested me is what makes people interested in the things, the ideas, and the projects they pursue. To that end, I am interested in public service (I was a scout), discourse ethics, (I was a debater), philosophy of care, (I am a husband, father, son, friend, philosopher, etc.), classical and contemporary theories of citizenship, and ethical issues in society, (I believe citizenship is both a noun and a verb).