Alumni

How did you get into philosophy?

Many of the questions that drew me to the study of philosophy as an undergraduate had to do with religion, but it was Hud Hudson’s introduction to metaphysics course, “Knowledge and Reality,” that led me to pick philosophy as my major. Those who’ve had Hud as a teacher know that his lectures are exhilarating. After taking his class, I wanted nothing more than to continue exploring philosophy. I remember being similarly enthralled by Phillip Montague’s course on aesthetics, Thomas Downing’s course on the philosophy of language, and courses on ethics with Frances Howard-Snyder, among others. I suppose, then, that my entrée into the discipline had much to do with these teachers.

What have you been up to recently?

Two things, mostly. I recently defended a PhD in religion at Duke University where I wrote a dissertation on the relationship of guns to American evangelical Christianity. To ground my reflections, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork with evangelical Christian handgun owners in central North Carolina. After defending my dissertation, I spent two years at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke. I now serve as Assistant Professor of Religion and Politics at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem where, in addition to teaching, I’m working on revising my dissertation for publication as a book. 

Over the years I’ve also kept up a musical practice as a steel guitarist, releasing instrumental music with ambient/experimental label 12k. I’ve also been collaborating with dancers and choreographers in the context of Michael Kliën’s Lab for Social Choreography at Duke, which has led to some really dynamic performance experiences.

How do you think your background in philosophy helped prepare you for the kind of work you are doing now?

Philosophy is a discipline that champions precision and clarity of thought in speech and in writing. Seeing these values modeled in the classes I took as an undergraduate and being expected to model these values in course papers made for powerful pedagogy. It was the ideal starting point for the work I’m currently engaged in as a teacher and researcher. Even had I not pursued a career in academia, the repeated exposure to this way of thinking, and the expectation to reproduce it in course assignments, was deeply formative for me and would have benefitted me in other career paths.

What advice would you give other students considering philosophy as a field of study?

Go for it. Don’t be overconcerned with whether or not a degree in philosophy is a practical choice. That’s the wrong question, I think—and you have your twenties (and beyond) to figure that stuff out. Philosophy offers you the chance to think deeply and carefully about big questions. It simultaneously cultivates precision and wonder. Other disciplines do too, of course, but perhaps not to the degree that philosophy does. If you’re drawn to it, it’s worth pursuing. It’s an investment—to use an economic metaphor—that pays dividends over a lifetime.