Lecturer

College

College of the Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Department

Department of Philosophy

Phone

Location

Science 1 S242

After taking a critical thinking class as a freshman at Merced College, I quickly became enamored with philosophy and declared it my major soon thereafter. I completed my Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy at Stanislaus State, studying numerous contemporary continental thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Emmanuel Levinas. After taking some time off from my schooling and teaching at a local community school, I returned to Stanislaus State to pursue a Master's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies that focused primarily on texts that blurred the distinctions between philosophy and literature. I continued to study more contemporary thinkers including Jacque Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Enrique Dussel, and Judith Butler. My Master's Thesis explored the relationship between recognition and personal identity in the auto-fiction works of the French homosexual-bastard-thief, author, poet, playwright, and political activist Jean Genet.

I have taught at various educational institutions: Stanislaus State, Modesto Junior College, Merced College (Los Banos Site), Valley Community School (Merced and Atwater Sites), Turlock High School, and Pittman High School.

I enjoy listening to as well as playing music, going to concerts, reading, watching thought-provoking films and television series, creating, traveling, and numerous other activities.

My current philosophical interests include political philosophy, Latin American political philosophy, philosophy and education, identity formation and transformation, power relations, theories of domination and exploitation, theories of liberation, and various social justice issues.

Philosophy is not merely an academic discipline; rather, it is a form of life. It is a way of engaging the world that fundamentally alters how one experiences existence. Whether one is listening to music, reading, philosophical literature, wandering through an unpopulated forest, talking with friends, watching television, or even playing a video game, a philosophical orientation enriches, enlivens and deepens one's various experiences. In the infamous words of Socrates, "the unexamined life is not worth living." Here's to living well.

"Bless the cup that wants to overflow, that the water may flow from it golden and carry everywhere the reflection of your delight!" - Zarathustra

M.A. (with Distinction) Interdisciplinary Studies (Continental Thought: Individual, Community, Narrative), Stanislaus State. 2007

B.A. (Cum Laude) Philosophy. Stanislaus State. 1998
 

M.A. Thesis

Recognizing the Unrecognizable: Jean Genet (Directors: Valerie E. Broin, James A. Tuedio, John E. Carroll).  In this project, I argue that the norms of recognition that are operative in any society delimit what will be allowed to count as recognizably human life. As such, some lives are marked as unrecognizably human and therefore unlivable. When the norms that structure our lives become essentialized, the possibility of transitioning from the unrecognizable to the recognizable is permanently foreclosed. At a young age, Jean Genet is marked as a bastard child, a homosexual, and a thief; he is essentially unrecognizable. He is banished from the human community at birth with no hope of ever entering the recognizably human. Instead of attempting to challenge the marks of unrecognizability with which he was branded, Genet embraces these marks. Furthermore, Genet utilizes these marks as strategies of betrayal to sever the bonds of love that unite the human community in an attempt to become the pure embodiment of the unrecognizably human.  Through the praxis of writing as a form of ascesis, Genet attempts to transform himself into the negation of man-what he terms "saintliness"-and to creat his legend. By closely following Genet's work, the reader bears witness to the effects that being marked essentially unrecognizable can have on a specific life. In addition, the reader is called to not only challenge the norms of recognition that are operative in his or her society, but to change these norms so that more forms of life can be recognized as viable and worthy of living.

Lecturer, Stanislaus State. Winter 2008-present
Courses: Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophical Inquiry, Introduction to Critical Thinking (formerly Philosophical Inquiry), Honors Critical Thinking, Contemporary Moral Issues, Advanced Introduction to Philosophy (formerly Classics of Western Philosophy), Concepts of Race and Identity in Philosophical Perspective, Professional Ethics

Lecturer, Stanislaus State, Extended Education, Turlock High School. Spring 2015
Courses: Contemporary Moral Issues

Lecturer, Stanislaus State, Extended Education, Pittman High School. Fall 2014
Courses:  Contemporary Moral Issues

Adjunct Lecturer, Modesto Junior College. Fall 2008-Spring 2014
Courses:  Introduction to Philosophy, Reasoning, Political Philosophy

Adjunct Lecturer, Merced College, Los Banos Campus. Spring 2010-Spring 2011
Courses:  Introduction to Philosophy, Critical Thinking, Critical Reasoning, and Writing

Additional Teaching Positions:
Independent Studies Instructor. Valley Community School, Atwater. 2004-2007
High School Teacher. Valley Community School, Merced. 2000-2001
Substitute Teacher. Merced County Office of Education. 1999-2000

Other Employment
Master's Thesis Reader/Reviewer. Stanislaus State. Spring 2008

Additional Experience
Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Fellowship: Philosophy. Stanislaus State. Spring 2004
Tutor in Philosophy. Stanislaus State. 2003-2004
Teaching Assistant in Philosophy. Stanislaus State. Fall 1998, Spring 1999
Philosophy Discussion Leader. Stanislaus State. Spring 1997

  • Latin American Political Philosophy: Enrique Dussel. Stanislaus State. Spring 2008, 1 lecture
  • Introduction to Philosophy: Nietzsche. Stanislaus State. Fall 2007, 4 lectures
  • Introduction to Philosophy: Kierkegaard. Stanislaus State. Spring 2004, 4 lectures
  • Introduction to Philosophy: Epictetus, Stanislaus State. Spring 2004, 2 lectures
  • Introduction to Philosophy: Nietzsche. Stanislaus State. Spring 1999, 1 lecture
  • Introduction to Philosophy: Freud. Stanislaus State. Fall 1998, 2 lectures

"Sovereign Power and Potential Resistances: Empire and Bare Life." Empire and Imperial Culture Conference. Stanislaus State. February 2004

  • Philosophy Student of the Year, Stanislaus State. 1998
  • Philosophy Scholarship.  Merced College. 1996

Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy and Literature, Philosophy and Film, Philosophy and Music, Advanced Studies in the History of Western Philosophy: Hardt and Negri, Aesthetics, Ethics, 20th Century Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Contemporary Moral Issues, Professional Ethics, Critical Thinking, Honors Critical Thinking, Political Philosophy, Existentialism, Latin American Political Philosophy, Concepts of Race and Identity in Philosophical Perspective

Feminist Philosophy, Gender Studies, Contemporary Political Philosophy, Marxism and Neo-Marxism, Critical Theory, Latin American Political Philosophy, Psychoanalytical Theory, Post-colonial and Decolonial Studies, Media and Culture, Philosophy and Terrorism, Confessional Writing, Self-transformative Writing, Philosophical Literature including the works of Jose Saramago, Jean Genet, Yukio Mishima, Paul Auster, Georges Bataille, Albert Camus, and Subcomandarnte Marcos