CV

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Education

Ph.D.                Purdue University, Philosophy (August 2011)

Dissertation: “Aristotelian Forms: Form, Soul, and Mind.” Dissertation advisor: Dr. Patricia Curd.

M.A.                Balamand University, Applied Orthodox Theology (2016)

Thesis: “The Life of Prayer in Communist Prisons: The Refashioning of the Image of Man.” Thesis Advisor Rev. Dr. David Hester.

M.A.                Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, English (2002)

Thesis: “Dialogical Writing in Philosophy and Literature. A Study on Plato's Crito and Gorgias and Peacock's Nightmare Abbey.” Thesis Advisor: Dr. Mark Gifford.

M.A.                University of Bucharest, Communication Studies (1997)

Thesis: “The Communication between Master and Disciple: Study on the Paltinis Diary.” Thesis Advisor: Dr. Mihai Dinu.

B.A.                 University of Bucharest, Philosophy (4 years of undergraduate studies, 1996-2000, no thesis).

B.A.                 University of Bucharest, Journalism (1996)

                        Thesis: “The Journalistic Work of Mihai Eminescu”

Specialization: St Stephen Course of Studies in Orthodox Theology (2014)

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Affiliations:

Research Scholar           Northwestern University Research Initiative for the Study of Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought, Northwestern University, USA

Research Fellow            Fagaras Research Institute, Romania

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Areas of Specialty:

Ancient Philosophy, Personhood, Dostoevsky, Ethics

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Areas of Competence:

Metaphysics, Philosophy and Theology

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Publications:

Journal Articles and Book Chapters:

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• "The Problem of Evil and Fr. Zosima's Responsibility before All." Review Of Ecumenical Studies, vol 16 (2024), p. 121-134.

• “Socrates and Alyosha Karamazov; Victimhood Between Separation and Communion.” Depictions, 4, 2024.

• “Dostoevsky in Romanian Culture: at the Crossroads between East and West.” Translating Russian Literature in a Global Context, edited by Muireann Maguire and Catherine McAteer. Cambridge: Open Books Publisher, 2024, p. 235-52.

• “From Zero to Hero: Gambling and Human Worth.” Dostoevsky’s The Gambler, edited by Svetlana Evdokimova, Lexington Books, 2024, p. 169-83.

• “Cu Platon in drum spre Emaus” [“With Plato on the Road to Emmaus”]. SÆCULUM, 1(33), 2023: 214-225.

• “Never Think that You Are Worthless.” Introduction to Valeriu Gafencu. White Lilies. Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Press, 2022, p. 1-19.

• “Responses to Divine Communication: Oedipus and Socrates.” Philosophy and Theology. May 2020.

• “Re-Creation of Normality in the Absurd Space of Deportations to the Siberian Gulag.” Vergentis, 9.2019.

• “Taming the Beast: Constantin Noica and Doing Philosophy in Critical Political Contexts.” Diálogos, 2019.

• “Justice between Mercy and Revenge in Sophocles’ Antigone and Plato’s Crito.” Lexicon Philosophicum: International Journal for the History of Texts and Ideas. 6.2019.

• “Communism: The Attempt at Deification without God. Reflections on Andrei Scrima’s Thought.”The Faith Almanac, 2019.

• “Nationalismul intre sisteme solare si constelatii.” [“Nationalism, between Solar Systems and Constellations”] The Faith Almanac, 2019.

• “Two Kinds of Responsibility in Crime and Punishment.” Mundo Eslavo, vol. 16, 2017.

• “Constantin Noica’s Becoming Within Being and Meno’s Paradox.” Companion to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central Europe. Eds. Zara Torlone & Dana Munteanu. Blackwell, 2017.

• “The Use and Intended Outcomes of Presence: A Focus Group Study.” Co-authored with Cherrill Stockmann and Pamela DiVito. Second author. International Journal of Nursing Knowledge, 2016.

• “The Sultan and His Janissaries. Gheorghe Hagi and the Golden Era of Galatasaray Istanbul.” Cultures of Communication. 1. 2016.

• “Despre Nascatori de Frumos in Inchisorile Comuniste.” [On Birth-Givers of Beauty in Communist Prisons”] Identitati Sociale, Culturale, Etnice si Religioase in Comunism [Social, Cultural, Ethnical, and Religious Identities in Communism]. Ed. Cosmin Budeanca. Polirom, 2016.

• “Birth-Givers of Beauty: An Excursion into Finding One’s Given Place within a Constellation.” Introduction to Aspazia Otel Petrescu. With Christ in Prison. Reflection Publishing House, 2014.

• “Dialogical Writing in Philosophy and Literature – A Study on Plato’s Gorgias and Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey.” Kinesis 29.2 (2002): 67-84.

• “Adevar si credibilitate in mesajul publicistic de televiziune” [Truth and Credibility in the TV message]. Comunicariile “Hyperion” 1. Bucuresti: Editura Hyperion, 1998, p. 72-4.

 

Book Reviews:

• Review of Anna Marmodoro, Forms and Structure in Plato’s Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews, 2024. https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2024/2024.07.10/

• Review of Julie K. Ward, Searching for the Divine in Plato and Aristotle: Philosophical Theoria and Traditional Practice. Cambridge University Press, 2021, Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews, 2022. https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2022/2022.12.34/

• Review of Karel Thein, L’âme comme livre. Étude sur une image platonicienne. Éditions Classiques Garnier, 2021. Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews, 2022. https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2022/2022.09.05/

• Review of Eugenio Refini, The Vernacular Aristotle. Translation as Reception in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. The Medieval Review, 2022. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/34016/37480

• Review of Paul Contino, Dostoevsky’s Incarnational Realism: Finding Christ among the Karamazovs. Cascade Books, 2020. Christianity and Literature, September 2021.

• Review of Yuri Corrigan, Dostoevsky and the Riddle of the Self. Northwestern University Press, 2017. Religion and Literature Journal. Notre Dame, Summer 2020.

• Review of Brian A. Butcher, Liturgical Theology after Schmemann: An Orthodox Reading of Paul Ricoeur. Fordham University Press, 2018. Phenomenological Reviews, January 2019. https://reviews.ophen.org/2019/02/21/brian-a-butcher-liturgical-theology-after-schmemann-an-orthodox-reading-of-paul-ricoeur/?lang=it

• Review of Constantin Noica, Pray for Brother Alexander. Punctum Books, 2018. Romanian Studies Association of America Journal. September 2018.

• Review of Martha Nussbaum, Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice. Oxford University Press, 2016. Metaphsycology Online Reviews, November 2016.

• Review of Michael Davis, The Soul of the Greeks: and Inquiry. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Bryn Mawr Classical Review, May 2012. https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2012/2012.05.25/

• Review of Terence Irwin, “Stoicism: Action , Passion, and Reason” and “Stoicism: Virtue and Happiness.” The Development of Ethics: A historical and Critical Study. Vol. I-III. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The Philosophical Forum: A Quarterly. 42.3 (2011): 279-80.

• Review of Brooke Holmes. The Symptom and the Subject: The Emergence of the Physical Body in Ancient Greece. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010. Bryn Mawr Classical Review, March 2011. https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2011/2011.03.69/

• Review of Ronald Polansky, Aristotle’s De Anima. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Bryn Mawr Classical Review, September 2009. https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.47/

• Review of Julie K. Ward, Aristotle on Homonymy: Dialectic and Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Bryn Mawr Classical Review, October 2008. https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2008/2008.10.09/

 

 

Book Translations:

• Gafencu, Valeriu. White Lilies. Edited and Translated from Romanian to English. St. Tikhon Monastery Press, 2022.

• Noica, Constantin. The Romanian Sentiment of Being. Translated from Romanian to English together with Elena Gabor. Punctum books, 2022.

• Noica, Constantin. Pray for Brother Alexander. Translated from Romanian to English. Punctum books, 2018.

• Monk Moise, ed. Do Not Avenge Us: Testimonies of Romanians Deported to Siberia. Translated from Romanian to English. Reflection Publishing, 2016.

• Scrima. André. Apophatic Anthropology. Translated from Romanian to English. Gorgias, 2016.

• Fr. Arsenie Boca. Living Words. Translated from Romanian to English together with Fr. Gregory Allard. Deva: Charisma Publishing House, 2014.

• Jean Servier. Istoria Utopiei. Translated from French to Romanian by Octavian Gabor and Elena Gabor. Bucharest: Meridiane, 2000. Original title: L’Histoire de l’utopie.

 

Work in Progress

Confession, Evil, and Beauty in Dostoevsky: Will Truth Make You Free?, book under contract with Lexington Books

Germs on the Notion of Personhood in Ancient Philosophy. Monograph

“Playing with Equations: An Account of Aristotle’s Hylomorphism”

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Conference Presentations:

• "Playing with Equations: An Account of Aristotle Hylomorphism." 17yh London Ancient Science Conference. University College London, April 8-10, 2024.

• “Will Truth Make You Free? Thoughts On an Encounter Between Two Broken Men.” BASEES 2024, Cambridge University, April 5-7, 2024.

• “Healing Responsibility and the Recovery of the World.” Political Theologies of Enmity: Time and the Other. Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, March 18-19, 2024.

• “Assimilating to the Immortals as Far as Possible.” Canadian Aristotle Society, October 2023.

• “Germs of the Notion of Personhood in Plato.” International Society for Neoplatonic Studies. Catania, Italy, June 2023.

• “Theandricity and the Healing of a Desecrated Earth: Notes on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.” Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought. Inaugural Conference of the Northwestern University Research Initiative for the Study of Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought. Northwestern University, April 21-23, 2023.

• “The Problem of Deification in Crime and Punishment.” BASEES 2023, University of Glasgow, March 31-April 2, 2023.

• “Nationalism and the Question of Love in Christianity.” Political Theologies after Christendom, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, March 27-29, 2023.

• “From Zero to Hero: Personhood in the Gambler.” Bogliasco Foundation, June 22-25, 2022.

• “The God-Given Freedom of Being a Pawnbroker.” BASEES 2022, Cambridge University, UK, April 8-10 2022.

• “Being întru a language.” MLA 2022.

• “The Line Between Good and Evil in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.” ASEEES, 2020, virtual conference.

• “Aristotle’s Answer to a Non-Aristotelian Question: Individuation.” Society for Ancient Greek Society, Christopher Newport University, November 2019.

• “The Idiot, or the theandricity of the good man.” XVIIth Symposium of the International Dostoevsky Society. Boston University, July, 2019.

• “Trauma, Anger, and Forgiveness in The Brothers Karamazov.” University of Bucharest, June 2019.

• “The Problem of Evil and Zosima’s Responsibility before All.” BASEES. Cambridge University, April 12-14, 2019.

• “Food for Wolves”: Migration as Deportation in the Siberian Gulag.” 4th International Conference “Migration and Refugees in the Law.” Universidad Católica de Murcia. Murcia, Spain, December 12-14, 2018

• “Bursting out in Song: Singing One’s Suffering in the Siberian Gulag.” ASEEES, Boston, December 6-9.

• “Personhood and Individuality in Dostoevsky.” BASEES. Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, April 13-15, 2018.

• “Opposing Communism: Between Rationality and Pragmatism.” BASEES. Cambridge University, April 13-15, 2018

• “Nous as the Actuality of Psyche in Aristotle.” University of Tampa, FL, March 2-4, 2018.

• “Responsibility beyond Morality in Brothers Karamazov.” ASEEES, Chicago, November 9-11, 2017.

• “Non-Transactional Forgiveness in Crime and Punishment.” Central Slavic Conference, Saint Louis, October 20-22, 2017.

• “The Rediscovery of the Self Through Pregnancy: Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and the Theandric Nature of a Human Being.” 19th Annual International Conference of the English Department. University of Bucharest, Romania, June 8-10, 2017

• “Producers and Consumers: Plato’s The Sophist.” University of South Florida, March 3-5, 2017.

• “The Rediscovery of Healing in an Oppressive System.” Conference on Exploring Experiences of Repression in the Soviet Union and Communist Eastern Europe. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK. January 2017

• “Teaching Communism Through the Lenses of Suffering and Forgiveness.” MLA 2017 conference, Philadelphia, January, 2017.

• “Psyche: The Actuality of Matter or of a Particular Natural Body.” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy. Fordham University, October 28-30, 2016.

• “Crime and Punishment and the Philosophy of Human Soul.” Crime and Punishment at 150.  University of Britis Columbia, Canada, 20-22 October 2016.

• Two Kinds of Responsibility in Crime and Punishment.” XVIth Symposium of the International Dostoevsky Society. Granada, Spain, 7-10 June 2016.

• “Two Ways of Responding to an Oracle.” University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. March 2016.

• “Knowing Virtue by having a Relationship with It: A Study of the Meno.” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy. Fordham University, New York October 23-25, 2015.

• “Nascatori de Frumos in Timpul Persecutiei Comuniste” (Birthgivers of beauty during Communist Persecution). IICCMER (Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes or Communism and the Memory of Romanian Exile). Annual meeting. Sambata de Sus, Romania. July 7-10, 2014.

• “Mercy and Justice in Eastern Orthodoxy and Levinas.” North American Levinas Society Annual Meeting. Duquesne University, July 28-31, 2013.

• “The Plot as the Psyche of Tragedy.” Symposium: The Poetics in Its Aristotelian Context. Ohio State University. April 7-8, 2013.

• “Platonic Philosophy and Its Public Character: A Study on the Meno.” The Performance of Culture in Ancient Greece. USF, Tampa, Florida. February 2013.

• “Education, Sacrifice and Idolatry in Sophocles’ Antigone and Plato’s Crito.” AFGLC/ICHS conference, History, Tragedy, Philosophy. Tampa, Florida, February 24-25, 2012.

•  “Nous in Aristotle as the First Actuality of Psyche.” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy. Fordham University, October 21-23, 2011.

• “Levinas’ Ethics and Eastern Orthodoxy.” North American Levinas Society Annual Meeting. Texas A&M University, May1-3, 2011.

•  “Species Souls and Particular Souls.” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy for the APA Central Division. Chicago, February 17-20, 2010.

• “Soul and Body as Formulas in Aristotle.” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy. Fordham University, October 24-26, 2008.

• “Between Freedom, Responsibility, the Common Good, and Idolatry: An Essay on Plato’s Republic.” Common Good Conference. University of Notre Dame, The Nanovic Institute for European Studies, October 9-11, 2008.

• “Plato and Levinas on the Otherwise than Being.” North American Levinas Society Annual Meeting. Seattle University, August 31 – September 2 2008.

• “Reading Midrashically:  Derrida, Kierkegaard, Literature, and Genesis 22.” The Akedah in Medieval Monotheism. 43 International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, MI, May 8-11, 2008.

•  “The Erotic and the Ethical in Plato and Levinas.” North American Levinas Society Annual Meeting. Purdue University, June 10-12, 2007.

• Comments on Priscilla Sakezles, University of Akron, “Aristotle’s Determinism and Stoic Eternal Recurrence.” Ancient Philosophy Society Annual Meeting. Boston College, April 12-14, 2007.

• “Emmanuel Levinas: Useless Suffering.” Workshop organized with Prof. Ann Astell, Prof. Sandor Goodhart, Dara Hill, Kathryn Ludwig, Michael R. Michau, Sol Neely, Rebecca Nicholson-Weir, Monica Osborne. Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference, 2006.

• “Otherwise than Philosophy.” North American Levinas Society Annual Meeting. Purdue University, May 13-15, 2006.

• “Aporia or Understanding Virtue: A Study in Meno’s paradox.” Society for Student Philosophers. Grand Valley State University, October 1-2, 2005.

• “The (Im)possibility of Akrasia.” Illinois Philosophical Association. 2004 Meeting. Loyola University in Chicago, November 5-6, 2004.

• “Dialogue in Philosophy and Literature. A study on Plato’s Gorgias and Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey.” Building Bridges. Philosophy Graduate Student Conference at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, November 15-17, 2002.

• “The Gorgias: ‘First at a Feast, Last at Fray.’” Illinois Philosophical Association. 2002 Meeting. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. November 1-2, 2002.

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Invited Talks

• “Translation and Temporality.” Pace University, Catalina Florescu’s course, Worlds in Literature, April 2023.

• “Responses to Divine Communication.” Students’ Philosophy Club, Bradley University, March 2022.

• “30 years since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.” Methodist College, IL, November 14, 2019.

• “30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.” Eureka College, Eureka, IL, November 8, 2019.

• “Taming the Job Market.” Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. April 26, 2019.

• “Voices of Romania.” Invited to talk about my translation of Constantin Noica's Pray for Brother Alexander. CEERES, University of Chicago, April 9. 2019

• “Communism, the Attempt at Deification without God: Reflections on Andre Scrima’s Thought.” 10th Edition of the Symposium of Orthodox Spirituality. The Divinity School of the University of Chicago, September 15, 2018.

• “Constellations and Solar Systems: Reflections on the Meaning of Nationalism.” Celebration of 100 years from the Great Union of Romania. Sacramento, California, September 3, 2018.

• “Knowledge of a Culture Through Dancing.” Round Table at the Center for East-European and Russian/Eurasian Studies at the University of Chicago. March 30, 2018.

• “Birthgivers of Beauty: A Reflection on Suffering and Forgiveness During Communist Persecution.” Ohio State University Newark. November 2013.

• “Particular and Species Souls in Aristotle.” Bradley University. November 2010.

• “Homeric Influences in Aristotle’s Concept of Soul.” Ninth Annual Series of Illuminations, Purdue University, November 13, 2007.

 

Fellowships and Grants:

2012     TEC Conference/Workshop Award, Travel Grant for participating at AFGLC/ICHS conference, History, Tragedy, Philosophy. Tampa, Florida, February 24-25, 2012.

2008     Purdue Research Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.

2003     Lynn Fellowship for interdisciplinary study, Purdue University.

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Teaching Experience:

• Professor at Methodist College (Fall 2019 – present)

• Associate Professor at Methodist College (Fall 2014 – Spring 2019)

• Assistant Professor at Methodist College (Fall 2012 – Spring 2014)

• Instructor at Bradley University (Fall 2010 – Spring 2012) and adjunct afterwards

• Teaching Assistant at Purdue University (between 2003-2010)

• Teaching Assistant at Virginia Tech (between 2000-2002)

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Service to the college

• Dean of Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Office (since January 2024)

• Chair of Arts and Sciences (January 2022 - December 2024)

• Director of the General Education Program at Methodist College (August – December 2021)

• Faculty Senate President, Methodist College (August 2021 – February 2022)

• Academic Committees: Scholarship and research; Program Review and Assessment; Diversity; Service Learning Across the Curriculum; Admission, Progression and Retention; Travel; Values In Action; Social Events (all Methodist College)

• Chair of the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee (Methodist College)

 

​Service to the profession:

• Curator/Moderator of the Northwestern University Forum for Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought. https://sites.northwestern.edu/nurprt/

• Reviewer for Canadian Slavonic Papers.

• Organized the First Liberal Arts and Sciences Symposium at Methodist College, The Beacons Are Lit, April 2022.

• Undergraduate Essay Contest Committee for North American Dostoevsky Society, 2022.

• Graduate Essay Contest Committee for the North American Dostoevsky Society, 2021.

• Chairing a paper at the Oxford Conference, Aristotle’s Biology and Christian Theology in the Early Empire, Oxford, January 10-12, 2019.

• Organized Panel on Culture in Communist Prisons and Concentration Camps, ASEEES, Boston, December 6-9.

• Board Member of North American Levinas Society.

• Board Member of Dostoevsky Readers Advisory Board

• Moderator of the session “Levinas and the Political.” NALS 2013.

• Commentator of “Diversification in Aristotle’s Metaphysics.” Ancient Philosophy Society Annual Conference. Notre Dame, 2013.

• Chair at the APA Central 2009 for the paper: Martin J. Henn, “An Aristotelian Solution to the Paradox of Moral Luck.”

• Co-organizer of the first and second Annual Conferences of the North American Levinas Society, May 2006 and June 2007.

• Referee for the Society of Student Philosophers.

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Service to the community

• President of the Board of Peoria Area World Affairs Council (August 2021 – August 2022)

• Board Member of Peoria Area World Affairs Council, since August 2019.

• Course on Suffering and Forgiveness during the Communist Persecution for OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Bradley University), Summer 2014.

 

Other Academic Activities:

• Reading group on Personhood with Paul Contino, Randall Poole, Susan McReynolds, Caryl Emerson, Rowan Williams, and Yuri Corrigan.

• Greek reading groups with undergraduate students at Bradley University and Methodist College.

• Participant, Liberty Fund Colloquium. One week of discussions on the Philosophy of Adam Smith. Holland, Michigan, August 2003.

• Participated in Greek reading groups at Virginia Tech (led by Dr. Mark Gifford) and at Purdue University (led by Dr. Patricia Curd).

 

Languages:

Fluent in: Romanian (native), English, French, Italian

Reading knowledge: Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Spanish, Russian