B.A. The University of Vermont
Ph.D. The Ohio State University

Born and raised in Vermont, I wended my way through a convoluted graduate career in Colorado, and Wisconsin before landing at The Ohio State University. Before Marist, I taught at the University of Dayton and Bucknell University.

In what passes for my spare time, I play a number of musical instruments. I run, far. I enjoy outdoorsy pursuits. I'm keen on baking. I live happily with my wife across the river, and prefer watching our cats to watching TV.

Selected recent publications include:

With Christy Mag Uidhir, "Pornography at the Edge: Depiction, Fiction, and Sexual Predilection," in Art and Pornography: Philosophical Essays, ed. Hans Maes and Jerrold Levinson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012): 137-157.

"Respect, Recognition, and Appraisal: Are All Artworks Valuable?" Journal of Value Inquiry 46 (2012): 147-58.

"Artistic Institutions, Valuable Experiences: Coming to Terms with Artistic Value," Philosophia 40 (2012): 591-606.

"Categories and Comparisons of Artworks," British Journal of Aesthetics 52 (2012): 45-59.

"Making Comics Into Film," in The Art of Comics and Graphic Novels: A Philosophical Approach, ed. Roy T. Cook and Aaron Meskin (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012): 147-164.

"Relating Comics, Cartoons, and Animation," in Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts, ed. David Goldblatt and Lee B. Brown. 3rd. ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2010): 369-73.

"Narrative in Comics," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 67 (2009), pp. 107-17.

My primary research interests have to do with the philosophy of art. I think a lot about artistic value, but also such diverse issues as philosophy of comics, film, pornography, serial narration, puppetry, and so on.

In the summer of 2008, I attended an NEH Summer Seminar on "Narrative: Rhetoric and Ethics in Fiction and Non-fiction," at The Ohio State University. I end up at a lot of conferences, too many to mention here.

American Society for Aesthetics.
American Philosophical Association.

Together with David Goldblatt of Denison University, I am the co-editor of the American Society for Aesthetics Newsletter.