Overview
My research and teaching span ancient Roman philosophy (specializing in Lactantius and Augustine), intellectual history (focusing on freedom, slavery, law, rule, and authority), contemporary ethics and politics (idem), and philosophy of religion. My first book, Slaves of God, explicates Augustine’s reasons for justifying slavery and argues that slavery is a central theme in his broader ethics and politics.
I’m in the early stages of research for a broader philosophical history of slavery (tentatively titled Slavery: A Philosophical History), which will trace the development of ideas of natural and retributive slavery from their ancient Greek and Roman provenances through late antiquity, medieval and early modern Christianity, into the antebellum United States.
As a Klarman Fellow (2021-2024), I am a postdoctoral associate in Classics with an affiliate appointment in Philosophy. Before Cornell, I earned the Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Princeton University, the M.A.R. in Ethics from Yale Divinity School, and the A.B. in Religion from Princeton University.
I will begin as an Assistant Professor in Cornell's Sage School of Philosophy in Fall 2024.