Dean

College

College of the Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Department

Department of Philosophy

Phone

Location

Demergasso-Bava Hall DBH257

  • Ph.D. (Philosophy, 1983) University of Colorado, Boulder (University Dissertation Research Award)
  • MA (Philosophy, 1980) University of Colorado, Boulder
  • AB (Philosophy, 1976) University of California, Santa Cruz (Department and College Honors)

  • California State University, Stanislaus Assistant Professor of Philosophy (1983-87)
  • Associate Professor of Philosophy (w/tenure) (1987-1992)
  • Professor of Philosophy (1992-Present)
  • Department Chair (Philosophy) (1990-2010)
  • Interim Associate Dean, College of Arts, Letters and Sciences (1998-99)
  • Director, University Honors Program (2000-Present)
  • Interim Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (2010-Present)
  • Dean, College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (2013-Present)

  • “‘It All Rolls into One’: The Allure of Chaotic Synergy in Grateful Dead Improvisation and Musical Dialogue,” Grateful Dead Studies, Vol. 1 (2013/2014), 50-69.
  • The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation (ed., with Stan Spector). Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010.
  • "'Pouring Its Light into Ashes': Exploring the Multiplicity of Becoming in Grateful Dead Improvisation." In The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation. Edited by Tuedio, J. and Spector, S. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010), pp. 133-151.
  • "It All Rolls Into One: The Allure of Chaotic Synergy in Grateful Dead Improvisation and Musical Dialogue," Texas/Southwest Popular Culture/American Popular Culture Association Conference (Albuquerque: February 2010).
  • "Nothing to Hold (You Can't Let Go): Embracing the Uncanny in Grateful Dead Songs of Home," Dead Letters: Essays on the Grateful Dead Phenomenon (Vol. 4), Nicholas Meriwether (ed.) Dead Letters Press (Columbia SC: 2010), pp. 183-193.
  • "Ambiguities in the Locus of Home: Exilic Life and the Space of Belonging," in Homes in Transformation: Dwelling, Moving, Belonging, ed. by Hanna Johansson and Kirsi Saarikangas (Finnish Literary Society, Helsinki: 2009).
  • "Pouring Its Light Into Ashes: Exploring the Theme of Becoming in Grateful Dead Musical Experience," Texas/Southwest Popular Culture/American Popular Culture Association Conference (Albuquerque: February 2009)
  • "Wings To Fly: Love's Refrain in the Ideational Space of a Grateful Dead Soundscape," Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Conference (Albuquerque: February 2008)
  • "Words Half Spoken and Thoughts Unclear: Synchronicity, Ambiguity, and Exposure To Excess In The Transvaluative Dynamic Of Grateful Dead Music," Unbroken Chain Symposium (The Grateful Dead in Music, Culture and Memory) (National Symposium Conference, UMass Amherst: November 2007)
  • "Transversal Logic in Philosophical Practice: Pathways to Possibilities, Inroads to Home," 2nd ASPCP International Conference for Philosophical Practice (Chicago: May 2007)
  • Book Review: D. E. Polkinghorne, Practice and the Human Sciences: The Case for a Judgment-Based Practice of Care (SUNY 2004): Philosophical Practice, Nov. 2006 2(03)
  • "All Ears, All Body: The Strange Attraction in Nonlinear Musical Embodiment," Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Joint National Conference (Albuquerque: February 2007)
  • "Community Through Excess: Bataille's Festival of Rapture and Deadhead Concert Experience," Dead Letters, Vol. III: Essays on the Grateful Dead Phenomenon, Nicholas Meriwether (ed.) Dead Letters Press (Columbia SC: 2006), 59-69.
  • "Judgment and Openness as Strategic Limits on Inquiry: Calibrating Attunement in Philosophical Practice," American Philosophical Association/Pacific Division Meeting (ASPCP Session): Portland OR (March 2006).
  • Book Review: H. G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit (Princeton: 2005): Philosophical Practice, March 2006 2(1), 57-60
  • "Boundaries in Translation at the Margins of Liminal Excess: Calibrating the Voice of Empire to the Ear of Resistance," Empire Conference (CSU Stanislaus: March 2006); published in: Margins (CSU Stanislaus Honors Program Journal: May 2006), 61-65
  • "And Then Flew On: Improvisational Moments of Rhizomatic Assemblage in Grateful Dead Musical Experience," Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Joint National Conference (Albuquerque: February 2006)
  • "Normalization, Exclusion and Excess: Constructing Community in Grateful Dead Space," Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Joint National Conference (Albuquerque: February 2005)
  • "A Postmodern Basis for Narrative Realism in Philosophical Counseling," International Journal of Philosophical Practice, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 2004), 32-75.
  • "Death of a Virtue Salesman: The Philosophical Counselor as Personal Redeemer," Pratiche Filosofiche 2/1 (April 2004), 71-77.
  • "Morti Di Un Venditore Di Virtu: Il Consultente Filosofico Come Redentore Personale," Pratiche Filosofiche 2(1) (April 2004), 77-85.
  • "Nothing to Hold (You Can't Let Go): Embracing the Uncanny in Grateful Dead Songs of Home," American Pop Culture Association (San Antonio TX: April 2004)
  • "Assessing the Promise of Philosophical Counseling: Questions and Challenges for an Emerging Profession," International Journal of Philosophical Practice 1/4 (2003), 30-41.
  • "The Grateful Dead Parallax: Toward a Phenomenological Reading of the Grateful Dead Concert Experience," in: Dead Letters, Vol. II: Essays on the Grateful Dead Phenomenon, Nicholas Meriwether (ed.) Dead Letters Press (Columbia SC: 2003), 29-38.
  • "Thinking About Home: An Opening for Discovery in Philosophical Practice," in Philosophy in Society, H. Herrestad, A. Holt and H. Svare (eds.) Unipub Forlag (Oslo, Norway: 2002), 210-215. Also presented at 6th International Conference on Philosophical Practice (Oslo, Norway: July 2001)
  • "The Search for Home as a Postmodern Philosophical Exercise," Inaugural Address, ASPCP Annual Meeting @ Eastern Division APA Meeting (New York: Dec. 2000)
  • "The Philosophical Counselor as Personal Redeemer: Death of a Virtue Salesman," Plenary Lecture, 4th International Conference on Philosophical Practice (Cologne, Germany: August 1998)
  • "Philosophical Counseling as a Window on the Abstract Realities of Everyday Life," 3rd International Conference on Philosophical Practice (New York: July 1997)
  • "Postmodern Perspectives in Philosophical Practice: Reconstructing Life-Narratives on the Frontiers of Human Development," in: Perspectives in Philosophical Practice, Wim van der Vlist (ed.) Vereniging voor Filosofische Praktijk (Groningen, Holland: 1997)
  • Critical Study: Kockelmans, Phenomenological Psychology: The Dutch School (Nijhoff, 1988): Husserl Studies 7 (1990), 213-23
  • Perspectives on Mind (w/Herbert R. Otto), Synthese Library 194 D. Reidel: Dordrecht, Holland (1988) Reviewed in Husserl Studies 6 (1989) Perspectives on Mind (Google Books)
  • "Intentional Transaction as a Primary Structure of Mind," in Perspectives on Mind, w/commentaries by William McKenna and Steve Fuller (183-216)
  • "Cognitive Motility and Common Sense Understanding," American Philosophical Association/Pacific Division Meeting: Berkeley CA (March 1989)
  • "The Source and Nature of Edmund Husserl's Transcendental Turn," Philosophy Today 30 (1986), 192-209 "Merleau-Ponty's Refinement of Husserl," Philosophy Today 29 (1985), 99-109
  • "Merleau-Ponty's Rejection of the Husserlian Ideal of a Rigorous Science," Philosophy Today 25 (1981), 204-209
  • "Notes on the Methodology of Scientific Research," Auslegung 7 (1980), 208-22 "Ideas and Experience," Auslegung 6 (1979), 196-205
  • "Sartre's Phenomenology of Lived Immediacy," Kinesis 9 (1979), 72-87
  • "The Engagement of Lived Immediacy: A Phenomenological Uncovering of the Field of Human Freedom," Auslegung 6 (1979), 97-113
  • "Phenomenological Excavation: Searching for the Irreducible Ground of Conscious Experience," Auslegung 4 (1977), 199-208

  • Continental Philosophy
    • (Kant, Nietzsche, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Postmodern Philosophy)
  • Critical Perspectives on Rationality and Objectivity
    • (Dissertation: Intentionality, Science, and Technology: Toward a Phenomenological Paradigm of Reason)

  • Professional Ethics, Ethical Theory & Human Valuation
  • History of Ancient and Modern Philosophy
  • Philosophies of Mind, Knowledge, and Reality
  • Environmental Thought, Philosophy of Technology
  • Reading Seminars in the Humanities

  • Director, University Honors Program (2000-2010)
  • Department Chair
    (Philosophy Department: 1990-2010; Modern Languages 2004-2010)
    Dean's Advisory Council, College of ALS (1996-2007); HSS Chairs Council (2007-2010)
    Core Planning Committee, College of ALS (1998-2004); College of HSS (chair, 2008-2010)
    Department RPT Committee (Chair, 1993-96, 1997-2003, 2007-2009)
    Tenure-Track Search Committee (Chair, 9 searches: 1991-2002, 2007)
    Steering Committee Design Team for Cognitive Studies BA Program (1987-91, 2000-01)
    ​Authored Philosophy Department's Academic Program Review (1995-96, 2000-01, 2008-09)
  • Speaker of the Faculty
    (1996-97; re-elected 1998-99--resigned to become Interim Associate Dean)
    Authored working draft of Evaluative Criteria for Faculty PSI Policy (1996-97)
    Authored working draft of University Mission Statement (Chair: 1994-96)
    Authored Teaching Evaluation Task Force Report (Chair: 1996-97)
    ​Organized Faculty Team for CSU Academic Conference on "Cornerstones Initiative and the Future of the Baccalaureate" (Monterey, January 1996)
    President's University Budget Priorities and Assessment Committee (1994-5, 1996-97)
    Provost's Council (appointed: 1996-98)
    ​​AAHE Summer Academy (1998: University Assessment Project; 1999: University Honors Program)
  • Senate Executive Committee (elected: for 1985-86, 1994-98)
    Presiding Chair, Academic Senate/SEC: 1996-97)
    Speaker-elect of the Faculty and Vice-chair of Senate/SEC (1995-96 and 1997-98)
    ​Faculty Budget Advisory Committee (Presiding Chair: 1994-95)
  • Provost's Master Academic Planning Committee (Chair: 1997-2000)
    Facilitated Development of a University Master Academic Plan (wrote MAP Report)
  • University Strategic Planning Commission (1995-99)
    Steering Committee 1996-97 (University's first Strategic Planning Framework)
    Chair, Steering Committee January 1999 (facilitator for comprehensive Strategic Plan)
  • President's Tactical Innovation Committee (1992-94)
    Comprehensive study of the University's administrative structure, with Budget Crisis Report and Recommendations to President and Senate (TIC Report)
  • University Administration Search Committees (1987-88, 1995-96, 2006-2010)
    Search for Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs (1987-88)
    Search for Dean, College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences (1995-96)
    Advisory Committee re: Appointment of Interim Provost (Spring 2002)
    Search for Director of Financial Aid (Spring 2006; Spring 2008)
    Search for Founding Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (Spring 2007)
    Search for Associate Vice-President of Enrollment Services (Summer 2007)
    Search for Provost/VP Academic Affairs (Chair, Spring 2010)
  • Honors Program Curriculum Development Coordinator (1999-2000)
    Coordinated development of University Honors Program for implementation in Fall 2000

  • Academic Senator (Philosophy Department representative: 1990-1999, 2006-2010)
  • Liberal Studies Steering and Advisory Committees (1996-2010)
  • Interdisciplinary Studies MA/MS Steering Committee (2005-2010)
  • Chair, Liberal Studies RPT Committee (2005-2007)
  • Cognitive Studies Steering Committee (1990-2007)
  • Assumed Chair's responsibilities for Modern Languages programs in Fall 2004
  • Co-Director of Conference on "Normalization, Exclusion, Excess" (Alphonso Lingis, Charles Scott and other nationally known philosophers), CSU Stanislaus (Oct. 2005)
  • Co-Director of Conference on "Visual Intelligence and the Sense of Art" (Edward Casey, David Wood, Irene Klaver, and others), CSU Stanislaus (Nov. 2006)

  • Assistant Editor, Auslegung: A Journal of Philosophy (1978-2007) (editorial review of submissions, primarily in Continental philosophy)
  • President (2001) and Executive Board Member (1998-2006) American Society for Philosophy, Counseling and Psychotherapy (ASPCP) Program Chair for Pacific Division APA/ASPCP Meetings
  • National Advisory Board, American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA)
  • Editorial Board, International Journal of Philosophical Practice (Journal of ASPCP)
  • Editorial Board, Philosophical Practice (Journal of APPA) Co-Director of International Conference on Philosophical Practice (Co-sponsored by ASPCP and Albert Ellis Foundation: Chicago, May 2007)
  • External Reviewer for Academic Programs: CSU Northridge Philosophy Program (June 1997 and May 2004) Southern Connecticut State University Philosophy Program (April 2002)