Faculty
Dr. Nathan Oaklander, David M. French Distinguished Professor
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Office: French Hall 540C Phone: (810) 762-3381 E-mail: lno@umflint.edu Website As a defender of the Russellian theory of time, Professor Oaklander is an internationally recognized expert in the Philosophy of Time and the David M. French Distinguished Professor at the University of Michigan-Flint. He received a B.A. (1967), M.A. (1970), and a Ph. D (1973) from the University of Iowa where he studied with Gustav Bergmann (a member of the Vienna Circle). His dissertation was "The Ontology of C. D. Broad’s The Mind and its Place in Nature." He has been teaching at the University of Michigan-Flint since 1972. While Prof. Oaklander specializes in the Philosophy of Time and Metaphysics, he has also published articles on Nietzsche, Sartre, the Philosophy of Religion, Early Modern Philosophy, and Personal Identity. His latest publications include a co-edited (with Ernâni Magalhães) anthology Presentism: Essential Readings (Lexington Books, A Division of Roman and Littlefield, 2010); a four volume major work The Philosophy of Time: Critical Concepts in Philosophy (Routledge, 2008), and "McTaggart’s Paradox and Crisp’s Presentism," in Philosophia 38.2 (2010). In addition, one of his writings was translated in Italian as Tempo e identità (Rome: Armando Editore, 2009). Prof. Oaklander’s current research interests are in the philosophy of time and ontology. He is currently engaged in several research projects. Primarily, he is working on a book to be titled C. D. Broad’s Philosophy of Time (Routledge). C. D. Broad was a Cambridge philosopher whose changing views on time during the first half of the twentieth century was influential in structuring the debate. For many years, Prof. Oaklander has been associated with the B-theory of time (after McTaggart’s B-series of earlier/later than events), but over several years, and especially recently in his forthcoming article "A-B- and R-Theories of Time: A Debate," he has been developing the R-theory (after Bertrand Russell) that not only takes temporal relations to be the fundamental temporal reality (as does the B-theory), but offers a different analysis of temporal relations, the facts that they enter into, and the relation of temporal relational facts to time. In Spring and Summer terms of 2011, he gave presentations in Urbino, Italy, at a conference, "Defending Realism: Ontological and Epistemological Investigations," where he read a paper titled "Defending Realism." He also gave the keynote address, "A-, B- and R-theories of Time: A Debate," at a workshop on "Cosmological Time and Conscious Time" at the Van Leer Institute Jerusalem, Israel. This fall he will be giving a keynote paper on C. D. Broad’s Philosophy of Time at a conference on "Time and Explanation" at eidos—the Centre in Metaphysics of the University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Prof. Oaklander’s future research involves co-authoring papers on Hans Reichenbach’s token-reflexive account of tense (with Francesco Orilia of the University of Macerata, Italy), Presentism and Experience (with V. Alan White of the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc), a book on time (with Erwin Tegtmeier of the University of Mannheim, Germany), and a paper on Timeless Exemplification and the Question of Unexemplified Universals. |
Dr. Jami L Anderson, Associate Professor; Department Chair
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Office: French Hall 544C Phone: (810) 762-3046 E-mail: jamia@umflint.edu Jami L Anderson was an undergraduate in the Honors Program at Arizona State University. From August 1986 to June 1987, she studied at the University of Tübingen, West Germany. She received her B.A. in Philosophy with Honors in 1989. Her thesis, "Philosophical Anarchism Reconsidered," was supervised by Jeffrie G. Murphy and Richard Dagger. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California School of Philosophy in 1995. Her dissertation is titled, "Annulling Crimes: A Hegelian Theory of Retribution;" her advisors were Sharon Lloyd and John Dreher. Her publication and teaching interests are in philosophy of law and social theory, in particular gender theory, race theory and disability studies. She is currently working on co-editing a book titled The Philosophy of Autism. She is also working on an article critically assessing arguments that advocate curing autism in light of arguments made by disability rights scholars that such "cures" are, at best, misguided or, worse, immoral. Additionally, she is working on an article critically assessing the claim that children’s rights to open futures obligates parents to take part in actions that are eugencidal, such as embryonic selection choices. She was the Director of the Women’s and Studies Program at the University of Michigan-Flint from April, 2004-July, 2008. She has been the Chair of the Philosophy Department of the University of Michigan-Flint since August 2006. |
Dr. Simon Cushing, Associate Professor
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Office: French Hall 544B E-mail: simoncu@umflint.edu Website After receiving a B.A. and M.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University, Dr. Cushing earned a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, where his dissertation was "Citizenship, Political Obligation, and the "Right-Based” Social Contract Tradition.” He specializes in Social Philosophy (including Race and Gender studies), Political Philosophy (especially Nationalism and Social Contract theories), and Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics. In addition to co-editing an anthology on The Philosophy of Autism with Dr. Anderson, he is currently writing an article to be titled "Plantinga’s Freedom is Indefensible.” Dr. Cushing’s most recent publications include "Evil, Freedom and the Heaven Dilemma" in Challenging Evil: Time, Society and Changing Concepts of the Meaning of Evil, and "Don’t Fear the Reaper: An Epicurean Answer to Puzzles About Death and Injustice” in Layers of Dying and Death. |
Dr. Aderemi Artis, Assistant Professor
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Office: French Hall 544E E-mail: aartis@umflint.edu Aderemi Artis received his BA with Honors in Philosophy from Davidson College, after which he completed an MA and PhD in Philosophy from Princeton University. His dissertation was entitled “Francis Bacon and the Scientific Reformation,” in which he explored the relationships between scientific methodology and reformed theology in the works of Francis Bacon. He specializes in Early Modern European History of Ideas and Analytic Metaphysics. |
Dr. Benedicte Veillet, Assistant Professor
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Office: French Hall 540F Phone: (810) 762-3380 veillet@umflint.edu Bénédicte wrote her dissertation—“Concepts, Consciousness and Content”—at the University of Maryland, College Park and received her PhD in 2008. Her research interests are in the philosophy of mind and in the philosophical foundations of psychology and the cognitive sciences. She is currently working on papers concerning phenomenally conscious experiences (“what it’s like” to see red, feel pain, etc.), our ways of thinking about these experiences, and the nature of their representational content. |
Dr. Stevens Wandmacher, Lecturer IV
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Office: French Hall 544D Phone: (810) 762-3380 wandmach@umflint.edu Dr. Wandmacher received a Ph.D. in philosophy at Michigan State University in 2003, where his dissertation was "The Social Contract Tradition: Patriarchy, Artifice, and Reason." His primary interests include reason and its role in political and ethical theories. He teaches a range of courses from the introductory level through upper division. In addition, he is both the UM-Flint Chair for the Lecturer Employee Organization and the Interim Director of the Student Veteran Resource Center. |
Anthony Givhan, Lecturer I
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Office: French Hall 540F Phone: (810) 762-3380 E-mail: givhant@umflint.edu Website Tony Givhan received a B.S. in political science and a M.A. in philosophy at Western Michigan University. He also received a M.R.E. in religious education from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. Tony is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University in the philosophy of science, writing a dissertation on the role of values in scientific theory choice, focusing on the debate over the biological status of race. His other interests include the philosophy of religion, especially the relationship between science, religion and philosophy, and he teaches courses in critical thinking, the philosophy of religion and ethics. |
Ryan Millsap, Lecturer I
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Office: French Hall 540E Phone: (810) 762-3380 E-mail: millryan@umflint.edu Ryan received a B.A. in philosophy and psychology from Iowa State University and an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Maryland. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in philosophy at Maryland, writing a dissertation entitled "Practical Reasons and Means-End Transmission," which explores one way of thinking about how what we ought to do is related to the reasons that we have. His primary interests are in metaethics, specifically practical reasons and related logical issues. He also enjoys thinking about topics related to moral psychology, free will, and anything for which he can write out a formal proof. |
Ronald Warren, Lecturer I
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Office: French Hall 540F Phone: (810) 762-3380 rkwarren@umflint.edu |
Emeritus Faculty
Dr. Kendall B. Cox, Assistant Professor Emeritus |
Dr. Charles E. M. Dunlop, David M. French Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Website |
Dr. Richard Gull, Professor Emeritus |
Dr. Paul K. Peterson, Associate Professor Emeritus |
Staff
Zea Miller, Senior Secretary
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Office: French Hall 544 Phone: (810) 762-3380 E-mail: zeam@umflint.edu Zea Miller earned a BA in French and International Studies from UM-Flint in 2006. He spent the summer semesters of 2002 and 2004 abroad at the American University of Paris. Afterwards, from 2007 to 2010, he worked in San Francisco and published a novel titled Amnesic Nostalgia. Miller returned in 2010 to UM-Flint to pursue a MA in English Literature and Language. His research interests include desire, structure/agency, paradox, and structuralism. His article “The Subjective Paradoxes of the Unobserved and the ‘Structurally Agential/Free Slave’ in Clotel, or The President’s Daughter” is under review. He is currently working on an article tentatively titled “The Extralegal Detective on the Lawless Moor,” which discusses Sherlock Holmes and the displacement of the police in The Hound of the Baskervilles. |