Supervisors:
Professor Mark Edwards and Dr. Brendan Harris.
College:
Hertford College.
Biography:
I am originally from Bloomington, Illinois. Before coming to Oxford, I earned my B.A. in philosophy and theology at Indiana Wesleyan University and my M.A. in philosophy at the University of Chicago. When not working on research or teaching, I spend my time walking around Oxfordshire, cooking with and for friends, attending the odd lecture, and helping out around Pusey House.
Current Research Interests:
My research so far has been in selected topics in philosophical theology (divine love, divine foreknowledge, creation), patristics (Dionysius the Areopagite and John Philoponus), ancient philosophy (the late Neoplatonists), and Christian value theory (pacifism, martyrdom, resources within the Christian tradition to enrich contemporary ethical discussions).
I am especially interested in questions having to do with individuality or particularity, such as whether and how one can be loved for oneself and how God can intend to create specific individuals rather than merely individuals matching generic criteria. My doctoral thesis concerns the way in which three Byzantine thinkers—Proclus, Philoponus, and Dionysius—understand the relationship between the divine ideas for creatures and the creatures made according to those ideas. My hope is that their thought can be brought to bear on certain issues in contemporary (especially analytic) philosophical theology.
I have additional interests in personalism, virtue ethics, the relationship between Christian faith and history/historical claims, Tolkien, and certain “continental” philosophical figures such as Derrida, Bergson, and Merleau-Ponty. I have yet, however, to delve deeply into these areas for research purposes.
