Department of Philosophy and Religion

429 Cooper Street
Room 303
856-225-6574
ude.sregtur.nedmacnull@oahcys

Shin-yi Chao, Associate Professor of Religion

Shin-yi Chao has a B.A. from Fu-jen Catholic University (Taiwan), M.A. in History from UCLA, and Ph.D. in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia (Canada). She is author of Daoist Rituals, State Religion and Popular Practices: Zhenwu Worship from Song to Ming (960-1644) (forthcoming Routledge, 2011), and has written articles on Chinese popular religion in traditional and modern periods, Daoist examination system, and Daoist temple networks in early twelfth-century China.

Among the courses she teaches are World Religions, Eastern Religions, as well as other courses in East Asian religious and intellectual traditions. Her interests include popular religion, Daoism, ritual studies, women in religion, and the relationship between state and religion.

429 Cooper Street
Room 300
856-225-6237
ude.sregtur.nedmacnull@emrahcs
Website

Stuart Z. Charmé, Professor of Religion

Stuart Charmé received his B.A. from Columbia University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is an internationally recognized expert on the work of existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, the focus of two books (Meaning and Myth in the Study of Lives: A Sartrean Approach and Vulgarity and Authenticity: Dimensions of Otherness in the World of Sartre) and many articles he has written. His most recent articles have dealt with the relevance of Sartre to feminist theology and to Jewish identity. In addition, he has published articles and directed a documentary film about the religious ideas of children.

Among the courses that Professor Charmé teaches regularly are: Religion and Psychology, Antisemitism and the Holocaust, Women and Religion, Introduction to Religion, and Jews, Christians, Muslims. Professor Charmé is especially interested in anthropological, psychological, and philosophical dimensions of religious and ethnic identity.

429 Cooper Street
(arriving Fall 2013)
ude.mdnafnull@enoneg.semaj

429 Cooper Street
Room 306
856-428-1385
ude.sregtur.nedmacnull@llawnhoj
Website

John Wall, Professor of Religion

John Wall has a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He conducts research in the areas of religious ethics, postmodernity, and children’s rights. He is author of Ethics in Light of Childhood (Georgetown University Press, 2010) and Moral Creativity: Paul Ricoeur and the Poetics of Possibility (Oxford 2005), and co-editor of Children and Armed Conflict (Palgrave Macmillan 2010), Paul Ricoeur and Contemporary Moral Thought (Routledge 2002), and Marriage, Health, and the Professions (Eerdmans 2002), and is currently working on two books titled Being and Making and Childhood and Democracy.

He teaches courses in Evil, Biomedical Ethics, Philosophical and Religious Perspectives on Childhood, Introduction to the Bible, and Religion and Contemporary Culture.

429 Cooper Street
Room 302
856-225-6275
ude.sregtur.nedmacnull@msetay

Melissa Yates, Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Melissa Yates has a B.A. from Grinnell College, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She specializes in moral and political philosophy, with a particular interest in theories of deliberative democracy following John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas. Her research considers the epistemic, normative, and legal implications of conflicting ethical, cultural, and religious worldviews in democratic theory. She is currently writing a book titled, Evaluative Pluralism: Epistemic Promises of Public Deliberation. The central questions of this book include: “What are the limits of a person’s ability to comprehend, from the outside, claims embedded in cultural and religious worldviews?” and “What normative constraints should we adopt in our public deliberation with others?”

Dr. Yates teaches courses in Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, and Feminist Philosophy. She is currently designing a course on Religion and Democracy, and has also taught courses in Contemporary Legal Theory, History of Early Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysics, and Bioethics.

Elizabeth Hayes Alvarez
Elizabeth Hayes Alvarez received her Ph.D. in the History of Christianity from the University of Chicago in 2011. Her work focuses on the interplay of gender and religion in U.S. history. She is also interested in the ways American religious communities have both opposed and influenced each other.
Email: moc.emnull@zeravlaseyah

Kenneth Banner
Kenneth Banner’s main fields of research are early Judaism and Christianity along with Magical traditions in the Greek and Roman world. He also focuses on the academic study of Mysticism/Religious Experience and Religion in America as well as early and modern movements in Islam.
Email: ude.sregtur.nedmacnull@rennab

Margaret Betz
Dr. Margaret Betz writes on Continental philosophy, feminist theory and animal ethics and is the author of the 2002 book, The Hidden Philosophy of Hannah Arendt.
Email: moc.liamgnull@121amitoid

Paolo Bonardi
Paolo Bonardi is completing his Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy of language at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). His dissertation criticizes the notion of mode of presentation and offers a solution to the puzzles about belief ascriptions using ideas from Donald Davidson and Kit Fine. Before teaching at Rutgers University, Paolo was an Assistant Diplomé at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), a Tutor at the University of Sheffield (UK), and an Adjunct Lecturer at CUNY and Rowan University.
Email: moc.liamgnull@1idranobp

Sami Catovic
Sami Catovic is a PhD student in Religion at Temple University and an Attorney in the State of New Jersey.
Email: moc.liamgnull@civotacs

Ross Chapman
Email: ude.pccnull@nampahcr

Michael Gentzel
Michael Gentzel’s areas of research are in Biomedical Ethics (and Applied Ethics broadly construed) and Ethical Theory. He is also interested in Political / Social Philosophy, Moral Psychology, and Philosophy of Law.
Email: moc.loanull@sngieravolal

M. Andrew Holowchak
Mark Holowchak has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers in areas such as ethics, psychoanalysis, ancient philosophy and science, philosophy of sport, and social and political philosophy and has authored 20 books including Framing a Legend: Exposing the Distorted History of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, Dutiful Correspondent: Philosophical Essays on Thomas Jefferson, Freud and Utopia, Extreme Freud, Happiness and Greek Ethics, Critical Reasoning & Philosophy, Ancient Science and Dreams, Philosophy of Sport, Aretism, The Stoics, as well as two philosophical novels, Life of a Jellyfish and Hotel Bob. When not teaching or writing, Holowchak enjoys strength training (former super-heavyweight powerlifting champion), biking, gardening, travel, cooking, brewing beer, and polite conversation.

Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad
Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad is a longtime educator and social activist with interests in world peace and justice issues. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran from the Vietnam era, and has a Ph.D. in religio-ethical theory and educational philosophy from the Union Institute Graduate School in Cincinnati, OH. His special focus area is in Africana thought, particularly religious and social philosophy.

Email: ude.sregtur.nedmacnull@dayiz

David Krueger
David Krueger earned a Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in religion from Temple University. His areas of expertise include the history of religion and culture in the U.S., and the relationship between religion, violence, and social distinctions.  His dissertation considers the role of Viking origin myths in the production of ethnic, racial, civic, and religious identities in America.  Dr. Krueger brings a wealth of life experiences to the classroom that include: growing up on farm in rural Minnesota, living in inner-city Philadelphia for many years, and traveling and studying in Indonesia, Turkey and India.

Lior Levy
Lior Levy received her PhD from the department of philosophy at Temple University in 2011. Lior’s field of specialization is Twentieth Century European philosophy. She has worked and published on the themes of memory, imagination, and subjectivity in the thought of René Descartes, Jean-Paul Sartre, Paul Ricoeur, and Roland Barthes.
Email: ude.elpmetnull@yvelroil

David Low
David Low got his PhD in Religious Studies at Temple University in 1998 (where he got a graduate teaching award) and has worked as a performer, technical writer, and substance abuse counselor (also having a Master’s Degree in Community Counseling from Georgia State University) before returning to teaching in 2006. He has traveled extensively in India and spent time in both eastern and western spiritual communities. His interests include spirituality and mysticism, religion and psychology and eastern religions.
Email: ten.tsacmocnull@321wold

Ed Pollitt
Ed Pollitt’s academic interests include the history of western philosophy, social and political philosophy, and ethics and animal ethics.
Email: ten.nozirevnull@ttillope

Stephen O’Hanlon
Mr. O’Hanlon practices criminal law, civil rights law, and employment discrimination law and teaches philosophy at Rutgers and Temple University.
Email: ude.elpmetnull@olnahos

Bryan Sacks
Email: moc.oohaynull@skcaskb

Faraz Sheikh
Faraz is a PhD candidate (ABD) in the department of religious studies at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB). His research interests are quite broad, ranging from ethics of self-formation in early Islam to comparative religious ethics and religion in the modern world. He holds a Masters in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the department of Near Eastern languages and cultures at IUB and a Bachelor in computer science from the Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan. Indian food and music, Urdu poetry, singing, playing soccer with his 3-year old, nutritional healing and educational non-profits are some of his other interests.
Email: moc.liamgnull@hkiehsdoosamf

Daniel Touey
Dan Touey has taught philosophy in Philadelphia since 1992. He has special interest in metaphysics and the philosophy of death.
Email: moc.liamgnull@yeuotd

Jon Winterbottom
Jon Winterbottom is a philosophy PhD student at Rutgers, New Brunswick. His interests include political philosophy, ethics and running (usually after his one-year old daughter).
Email: ude.sregtur.icrnull@bretniwj

Ed Young
Phillips (Ed) Young has a BA degree from Kent State University (1984) and an MA degree from Penn State University (1995), both in philosophy. He has published essays in such journals as International Studies in Philosophy and The Journal of Value Inquiry, presented papers to such organizations as the International Association of Philosophy and Literature, the Society for Phenomenological and Existential Philosophy, and the Merleau-Ponty Circle, and won awards for teaching excellence from Rutgers University and Penn State. Mr. Young has also maintained significant interests in non-academic life, once having been a performing modern dancer (approximately 30 years and 20 pounds ago!), and currently performs regularly as a musician (as pictured!).
Email: ten.nozirevnull@gnuoyforp

856-225-6233
ude.sregtur.nedmacnull@tterraj
Website

Charles Jarrett, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy

Charles Jarrett retired in June 2012. He has the B.A. from the University of Florida and the M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Spinoza. A Guide for the Perplexed (Continuum, 2007) and several articles on Spinoza, including “The Logical Structure of Spinoza’s Ethics, Part I” and “The Development of Spinoza’s Conception of Immortality”. Other articles concern Descartes, Leibniz, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and philosophy of law. His courses included Introduction to Philosophy, Problems of Identity, History of Philosophy II (Modern), Metaphysics, and Philosophy of Mind. Previously taught courses include, among others, Logic (Introductory through Advanced), Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Science, and Social and Political Philosophy.

ten.tniopvannull@nworbojwc

Clifford W. Brown, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy

Clifford Brown, now retired, received the A.B. and A.M. from the University of Pennsylvania and the Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. He is the author of Leibniz and Strawson: A New Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics and a variety of articles on the philosophy of art and on Leibniz. His causes included Contemporary Moral Issues, Introduction to Logic, Philosophy of Art, History of Philosophy I, Existentialism and Phenomenology, and Analytic Philosophy.