Philosophy Department Faculty

Edward Averill, Professor Emeritus (Ph.D., M.S., University of California at Santa Barbara; B.A. Harvard), has been at Texas Tech since 1980. His areas of specialization are philosophical psychology, philosophy of language, and metaphysics. Professor Averill's publications include: "The Primary-Secondary Quality Distinction," Philosophical Review (1982), "Color and the Anthropocentric Problem," Journal of Philosophy (1985), "The Relational Nature of Color," Philosophical Review (1992), and "Towards a Projectivist Account of Color," Journal of Philosophy (2005). Email: edward.averill@ttu.edu, more information: Dr. Averill's CV

Jacob Beck, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. Harvard; B.A. University of Pennsylvania), joined the faculty in August, 2008. His work centers on issues at the intersection of philosophy and cognitive science, though he also maintains interests in several other areas of philosophy, including philosophy of language, philosophy of science, epistemology, and ethics. He is currently working on questions about the nature and structure of cognition. Email: jacob.beck@ttu.edu. Webpage: http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/jabeck/

Professor Beck is on leave for 2009-2010.

Howard Curzer, Professor (Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin; M.A., B.A. in Mathematics, Wesleyan University), taught at the University of Houston before coming to Texas Tech in 1985. His areas of specialty are ancient philosophy, virtue ethics, and biomedical ethics. His publications include Ethical Theory and Moral Problems (Wadsworth, 1999), "Aristotle's Painful Path to Virtue," Journal of the History of Philosophy (2002), "The Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research," Journal of Medicine and Philosophy (2004), "How Good People Do Bad Things: Aristotle on the Misdeeds of the Virtuous," Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy (2005), and "Admirable Immorality, Dirty Hands, Ticking Bombs, and Torturing Innocents," Southern Journal of Philosophy (2006). He is currently working on a book tentatively entitled "Aristotle's Account of Virtue". Email: howard.curzer@ttu.edu, more information:  Dr. Curzer's webpage.

Francesca di Poppa, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh; B.A., University of Pisa), is mainly interested in history of modern philosophy, in particular the causation debate and the development of modern notions of man and the world. She is also interested in ancient philosophy (especially Aristotle), Scholasticism and history of science. She is currently working on the notion of causation in Descartes and Spinoza.Email: fdipoppa@gmail.com

David Miguel Gray, Visiting Assistant Professor (Ph.D. Harvard; M.A. Harvard; B.A. Columbia University), is joining the faculty in August, 2008.  His work focuses primarily on self-knowledge, phenomenology (cognitive phenomenology in particular), philosophical issues in psychopathology, and issues in philosophy of race and African-American philosophy. E-mail:

Darren Hudson Hick, Visiting Assistant Professor (Ph.D, University of Maryland; M.Phil, University of Wales, Lampeter; B.A., Trent University), specializes in aesthetics, ethics, and metaphysics, with a current focus on problems in intellectual property. His research has appeared in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Contemporary Aesthetics, the Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA, and the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal. Email: darrenhick@hotmail.com, Webpage: www.typetoken.com.

Christopher Hom, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of California, Irvine LPS), joined the department in Fall 2007. He specializes in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and philosophical logic. His article “The Semantics of Racial Epithets” is forthcoming in the Journal of Philosophy. He is currently working on a book entitled Hating and Necessity: The Semantics of Racial Epithets. Email: christopher.hom@ttu.edu.  Webpage: http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/chom/

Sungsu Kim, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison), specializes in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology. His publications include "Supervenience and Causation: A Probabilistic Approach," Synthese (2000), "Physical Process Theories and Token-Probabilistic Causation," Erkenntnis (2001), and "Testing Multiple Realizability: A Discussion of Bechtel and Mundale," Philosophy of Science (2002). Email: sungsu.kim@ttu.edu, Webpage: http://www.philosophy.ttu.edu/kim/

Daniel Nathan, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago; A.B., University of Michigan), writes and teaches in the areas in the areas of aesthetics, ethics, and philosophy of law. His work has appeared in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Erkenntnis, and Public Affairs Quarterly; his most recent papers include: "A Paradox in Intentionalism," British Journal of Aesthetics (2005) and "Art, Meaning, and Artist's Meaning," in Kieran (ed.), Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Art (2006). Currently, he is working on problems of interpretation in legal philosophy and aesthetics. Email: daniel.nathan@ttu.edu, More information: Dr. Nathan's profile

Joseph Ransdell, Professor Emeritus (Ph.D., Columbia University; B.A., San Francisco State), writes chiefly on the philosophy of the American philosopher Charles Peirce, especially his semiotic or theory of representation. He also has a special interest in Plato, in early modern philosophy, and in theory of meaning and representation generally.

Anna Christina Ribeiro, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Maryland; M.A., B.Phil., Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; B.A. Hunter College) taught previously at Furman University in South Carolina before coming to Texas Tech in 2006. Her area of specialization is aesthetics, particularly the philosophies of literature and film, and she has a strong secondary interest inphilosophy of psychology. Her "Intending to Repeat: A Definition of Poetry" appears in the Spring 2007 issue of the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Among other projects, she is currently editing a Companion to Aesthetics for Continuum Books. Email: annachristina.ribeiro@gmail.com, Webpage: http://sites.google.com/site/annachristinaribeiro.

Professor Ribeiro is on leave for 2009-2010.

Walter Schaller, Associate Professor (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison; M.A. in Political Science, University of California-Berkeley) taught previously at Wheaton (Mass.) College and the University of Kentucky. His primary interests are in political philosophy and ethics. Professor Schaller has published articles on Kant's ethics, utilitarianism, and the relationship between virtues and duties in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Ratio, Dialogue, and History of Philosophy Quarterly. His recent articles include: "Is Liberal Neutrality Insufficiently Egalitarian?," Journal of Philosophy (2004) and "Liberal Neutrality and Liberty of Conscience," Law and Philosophy (2005). Email: walter.schaller@ttu.edu, Phone: (806) 742-3277. webpage: http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/wschalle/home.htm

Jeremy Schwartz, Visiting Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, B.A., University of Chicago), started teaching at Texas Tech in the Spring of 2009. He works on Kant, moral philosophy, and practical reason. His article “Do Hypothetical Imperatives Require Categorical Imperatives?” is forthcoming in the European Journal of Philosophy. He is also interested in ancient philosophy, especially Plato. His current work focuses on questions about the nature of rational agency.

Mark Webb, Associate Professor and Chairman (Ph.D., Syracuse; M.A., B.A., and M.A. in Classical Humanities, Texas Tech) He specializes in epistemology and philosophy of religion. He is currently working in the epistemology of religious experience, especially as it applies to non-Western religious experiences. Professor Webb's articles have appeared in The Journal of Philosophy, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Religious Studies, The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, and Hypatia, and most recently "An Eliminativist Theory of Religion,"  in Sophia. Email: mark.webb@ttu.edu, Phone: (806) 742-0373 ext. 339, Webpage: http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/mawebb/

Ron Rainger, Professor of History.  Dr. Rainger teaches courses primarily in the history of American science and technology, and in the past year has developed new courses on American Culture in the Nuclear Age and Religion and Science. He received the President's Excellence in Teaching Award for 2001-2002, and is currently the Graduate Advisor for the Department of History.

Frederick Suppe, Professor and Chair of Classical and Modern Languages and Literature (Ph.D., A.M., University of Michigan; A.B. in mathematics, University of California at Riverside) His work focuses on scientific modeling. Research and teaching interests include philosophy of science, epistemology, logic, philosophic theology, philosophy of gender, and history of science. Email: fsuppe@ttacs.ttu.edu