Department of Philosophy and Religion

Dr. Jeffrey S. Durham, Assistant Professor, received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (2004) and his B.A. from  University of Texas at Austin.  His areas of research include Hindu and Buddhist traditions.  He has mastered, among other languages, Sanskrit, classical Tibetan, ancient Egyptian, Greek, Latin, and ancient Mayan.  He has a book, The Immortality Project: Seven Adventures in the Archaeology of Religion, and several articles, including “Sensory Sam€dhi: Textual Transcendence Technologies” and “Rationalization & the Ratnak™˜a Reforms: An Analysis of Early Mah€y€na Protest Tracts,” under review.   Jeffrey will be teaching, in addition to other classes, a 495 seminar “The Immortality Project.”

Dr. Matthew C. Eshleman, Assistant Professor, received his Ph.D. from Duquesne University (2005), his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota.  His area of research interest is history of philosophy, with a special interest in French Philosophy from Descartes to Derrida.  He is developing a book project on Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness.  He has published “The Cartesian Unconscious” History of Philosophy Quarterly, “Sartre and Foucault on Ideal Constraint,” Sartre Studies International, and “Two Dogmas of Sartrean Existentialism,” Philosophy Today, and has presented papers in the US and Canada.  Matthew will be teaching, in addition to other classes, a 495 seminar “French Existentialism.”

Dr. Scott M. James, Assistant Professor, received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland (College Park, 2005), and a B.A. in Philosophy from Connecticut College.   His areas of research interest are normative ethics and meta-ethics, with special interests in the relationship between ethics, cognitive psychology and evolution, and in the concept of beneficence.  He has published “Good Samaritans, Good Humanitarians,” Journal of Applied Philosophy, “Human Evolution and the Possibility of Moral Realism,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and has Making Sense of the Inevitable: A Reader in the Philosophy of Death under review.  Scott will be teaching, in addition to other classes, a 495 seminar “Foundations of Ethics.”

Dr.  Eva D. Kort, Lecturer, received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida (Gainesville, 2001), and a B.A. from Indiana University.  Her area of research interest is applied ethics with the interest in the application of the concept of personal identity.  She has published “Stillingfleet and Locke on Substance, Essence, and Articles of Faith,” Locke Studies, “Indecent Bodily Exposure: A Reply,” Professional Ethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal and has presented papers across the US.  Eva will be teaching PAR 101, Invitation to Philosophical Thinking, and PAR 110, Logic.