CV

EDUCATION

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

Ph.D., Philosophy, 1996; M.A., Philosophy, 1991

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

B.A., Philosophy, 1987

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

Early modern European philosophy (especially Descartes and Spinoza); Medieval philosophy (Jewish, Islamic, and Christian)

AREAS OF COMPETENCE

Continental philosophy; Feminist philosophy; Social and political philosophy; Psychoanalytic thought

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Reading knowledge of French, German, Latin, medieval philosophical Hebrew

PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT

Villanova University

Associate Professor of Philosophy. 2003-

Assistant Professor of Philosophy. 1997-2003. Early modern philosophy (graduate and undergraduate), medieval philosophy, philosophy of time and history, feminist philosophy, ethics, freshman seminars; bachelor’s and doctoral thesis supervision; committee work.

New School University

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Graduate Faculty. Spring 2002. Graduate lecture course, “Imagination and Intellect: Descartes and Spinoza.”

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)

Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy. Academic Year 1996-97.

FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS

Villanova University Summer Research Grant. Summer, 1998; Summer, 2001

Competitive grants for work on my book manuscript on Descartes and Spinoza.

Fellow in Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. November 1994 - December 1995

Research in medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy, concentrating on Gersonides and Averroes.

American Fellow, American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, AY 1992-93

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Dissertation Award, AY 1992-93

Vanderbilt University Dissertation Enhancement Grant. Summer, 1991

Latin study and research at the University of Toronto and Pontifical Institute of Mediæval Studies.

PUBLICATIONS

"Dreaming with Open Eyes: Cartesian Dreams, Spinozan Analyses." In press: Idealistic Studies 2004

“Spinoza’s Debt to Gersonides.” Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 24:1 (2003): 1-25.

“The Question of Pantheism in the Second Objections to Descartes’s Meditations.” In press: American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 2003

“Nature as Metabolic: On Eating in Derrida, Agamben, and Spinoza.” In press: Research in Phenomenology 33 (2003)

“‘By Eternity I Understand’: Eternity According to Spinoza.” Iyyun, The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly 51 (July 2002): 295-324.

“Memory and the Extension of Thinking in Descartes’s Regulae.” International Philosophical Quarterly 42:1 (March 2002): 23-40.

“Etienne Balibar’s Marxist Spinoza.” Philosophy Today 44 (2000 SPEP Supplement): 41-50.

“Descartes’ Critique of the Atheist Geometer.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy XXXVIII, No. 3 (Fall 2000): 429-46.

“Skepticism and Agnoia: Augustine’s Argument in Confessions XI.” In Moral and Political Philosophies in the Middle Ages. Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Medieval Philosophy (Ottawa, 17‑22 August 1992) of the Société internationale pour l’étude de la philosophie médiévale. Ed. B.C. Bazán, E. Andújar, L.G. Sbrocchi. New York and Ottawa: Legas, 1995. 3 vol. Vol. 3: 1299-1310.

Under Review

“Gersonides’s Approach to Emanation and Transcendence: Evidence from the Theory of Intellection”

In Progress

“The Eternity of the Mind in Ethics 5”

Book Project

Dualism and Double-Aspect Monism: Descartes and Spinoza on the Sensible and the Intelligible

PRESENTATIONS

“Spinoza’s Debt to Gersonides: Notes on Knowing.” North American Spinoza Society. Philadelphia, PA, December, 2002.

“Spinozistic Self‑Preservation: Reply to Andrew Youpa.” Colloquium on Ethics and Natural Purpose, APA Eastern Division. Philadelphia, PA, December, 2002.

“Emanation in Gersonides.” Association for Jewish Studies 2002, Los Angeles, December, 2002.

“Gersonides’ Ambivalent Approach to Hierarchy and Transcendence: Evidence from the Theory of Intellection.” Eleventh International Congress of Medieval Philosophy/Quadrennial Meeting of the Société Internationale pour l=Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale (SIEPM). Porto, August 2002.

“Natura Naturans and Natura Naturata: Ontology and Epistemology in Spinoza and Gersonides.” Association for Jewish Studies 2001, Washington, DC. December, 2001.

“Spinoza and Us: On the Human and the Non-Human.” Theorizing 2.0 Series, University of Pennsylvania Kelly Writers’ House, November, 2001.

“The Limits of a Politics of Rationality.” Reply to Idit Dobbs-Weinstein. North American Spinoza Society. San Francisco, CA, March, 2001.

“Occasionalism and Pantheism. Spinoza on the Action of Nature.” Reply to Charles Huenemann. North American Spinoza Society. New York, NY, December, 2000.

“Spinoza with Etienne Balibar.” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Pennsylvania State University, October, 2000.

“Karsten Harries’ Ethics of Architecture: Modernism Rethought.” School of Architecture, Drexel University. Philadelphia, PA. May, 2000.

“Descartes, Atheism, and Pantheism.” Midwest/Southeast Seminar in the History of Early Modern Philosophy. University of Chicago, March, 2000.

“Eternity and Necessity in Spinoza.” Intermountain Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy. Utah State University, March, 2000.

“Spinoza on Eternity.” International Patristic Medieval and Renaissance Conference (PMR), Villanova University, October, 1999.

“Spinoza on the Eternity of the Mind.” Reply to Charles Huenemann. North American Spinoza Society. New Orleans, May, 1999.

“Descartes and Spinoza on Imagination.” Faculty Colloquium, Department of Philosophy, Villanova University. November, 1998.

“Spinoza on Ideas and Sensations.” International PMR Conference, Villanova University. October, 1998.

“Spinoza on Knowing, Individuation, and Causation.” Reply to Frank Lucash. North American Spinoza Society. Chicago, IL. May, 1998.

“Memory in Medieval Philosophy.” Philosophy Department, Hollins College, Roanoke, VA. November, 1997.

“Thomas Aquinas and His Transcendental Interpreters.” Response to John F. X. Knasas. Metaphysical Society of America, Vanderbilt University. March, 1994.

“Augustine on Matter: The Extension of Being and of the Good.” Medieval Association of the Pacific, University of Washington. March, 1994.

“The True and the Good According to Descartes.” Reply to Jeanine Grenberg. Mid-South Philosophy Conference, Memphis State University. February, 1993.

“Aquinas and Descartes on the Principle(s) of Knowing.” XVIIth International PMR Conference, Villanova University. September, 1992.

“Skepticism and Agnoia: Augustine’s Argument in Confessions XI.” Ninth International Congress of Medieval Philosophy/Quadrennial Meeting of the S.I.E.P.M, University of Ottawa. August, 1992.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Persons in the Profession, American Philosophical Association (Eastern), 2003-06

Advisory Committee (Early Modern Philosophy) to the Program Committee, American Philosophical Association (Eastern), 2000-03.

Editorial Board, Epoche

Program Committee, Mid-Atlantic Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy (Spring 2003)

Honors Examiner, Modern Philosophy, Swarthmore College, AY 2000-01 & 2001-02.

Referee for Journal of the History of Philosophy, Hypatia,, Shofar, State University of New York Press

“Heidegger’s Farmhouse.” Guest lecture, Drexel University Department of Architecture, General Lecture Series I, November, 2000.

Panel Organizer, “Spinoza in a Continental Context: Towards a Material Phenomenology,” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, October, 2000.

Brief Review of Descartes, The World and Other Writings, tr. Stephen Gaukroger (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 1999) Isis 91 (June 2000), no.2.

Panel Organizer and Chair, “Spinoza Reconsidered,” International Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Society, Villanova University, October, 1999.

Member, Maimonides-Spinoza Seminar, North American Spinoza Society and the Academy for Jewish Philosophy, Hamilton College, June, 1999

Panel Organizer and Chair, “New Perspectives on Spinoza,” International Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Society, Villanova University, October, 1998.

Session Chair, “The Relations between Medieval and Classical Modern European Philosophy.” Meeting of the Minds. Regional conference of La Société internationale pour l=étude de la philosophie médiévale, Boston College, June, 1996.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy

North American Spinoza Society

Société Internationale pour l=Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale

Association for Jewish Studies

Society for Values in Higher Education

American Philosophical Association