Teaching
My courses confront pressing ethical and political issues by drawing on the history of philosophy with a focus on continental thought. As a teacher, I play the role of the skeptic, often leading my students into a space of initial undecidability. I assure them that if they dwell with a challenge long enough, it will not necessarily become easier, but their discomfort with complexity will transform into pleasure as their own thinking becomes more complex.
Universität Hamburg | Department of Philosophy
Advanced Undergraduate & Graduate Courses
Existential Ontology and Ethics
Developing an ethics that encompasses Being-in-Solitude and Being-with-Others. What is our responsibility to the other in both isolation and in the process of coming together?
image: Les otages © Jean Fautrier
Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy
The development of European philosophy against the backdrop of world wars. Can theory respond to historical crisis & trauma?
image: Shalekhet © Menashe Kadishman
Environmental Ethics
Comparing ethical frameworks with a focus on a Marxist-Feminist approach to sustainability. Why is saving the planet about power relations?
image: the Bakken oil region, NASA’s Terra satellite
The Ego & The Skin
Feminist and psychoanalytic perspectives on the formation of subjectivity through touch. How do we first come to grasp our skin as our own? How can we reclaim our own skin when this sense of self has been violated?
Repetition & Revolutions
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Philosophy of History with a focus on responses to Hegel and Marx. Does history repeat itself?
Image: © Donatien Mary
The Comedy of Politics
A course in political philosophy and aesthetics with a focus on political satire. Can art seriously challenge political corruption?
Villanova University | Departments of Philosophy & Ethics
Undergraduate Courses
Introduction to Ethics
Comparing major ethical frameworks with a focus on Catholic Virtue Ethics. What virtues are required for the challenges of the 21st century?
image: The Welcoming Hands © Louise Bourgeois
Introduction to Philosophy
Tracing the history of Western philosophy through dialogues, soliloquies, and manifestos. How can philosophy represent the needs and desires of our self and community?
Rachel Aumiller 