Mike Austin
Professor and Coordinator for Philosophy and Religious Studies
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 308
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: Mike.Austin@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1022
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HON 308W | Guns and Culture of Violence | MWF 10:10am-11:00am | University Building 139 | Spring 2024 |
HON 320W | Guns and Culture of Violence | MWF 10:10am-11:00am | University Building 139 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 130 | Beginning Ethics | TR 9:30am-10:45am | Wallace Bldg 433 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 130 | Beginning Ethics | TR 11:00am-12:15pm | Wallace Bldg 433 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 130 | Beginning Ethics | TR 2:00pm-3:15pm | Wallace Bldg 433 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 499 | Senior Project | Spring 2024 |
Teena Blackburn
Lecturer
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies
Office: Keith 131
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: Teena.Blackburn@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-7285
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
PHI 110 | Beginning Philosophy | MWF 9:05am-9:55am | Wallace Bldg 332 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 110 | Beginning Philosophy | MWF 10:10am-11:00am | Wallace Bldg 332 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 110 | Beginning Philosophy | MWF 11:15am-12:05pm | Wallace Bldg 332 | Spring 2024 |
REL 301 | World Religions | MWF 12:20pm-1:10pm | Wallace Bldg 332 | Spring 2024 |
REL 301 | World Religions | MWF 1:25pm-2:15pm | Wallace Bldg 332 | Spring 2024 |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 |
David Blaylock
Associate Professor Ph.D., Ohio State, 1992
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 336
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: david.blaylock@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1290
Research Interests: Japan, East Asia
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HIS 100 | Ruling the Ancient World | MWF 10:10am-11:00am | University Building 230 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 100 | Ruling the Ancient World | MWF 11:15am-12:05pm | University Building 230 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 376 | Japan – Samurai to Superpower | MWF 12:20pm-1:10pm | University Building 230 | Spring 2024 |
John Patrick Bowes
Professor; Associate Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences; Ph.D., UCLA, 2003
Contact Information
Department: Dean – Letters, Arts and Soc Sciences
Office: Roark 103A
Mailing Address: Roark 103
Email: john.bowes@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2222
Research Interests: Native American, American West, 19th Century United States
David Coleman
Professor / Honors Program Director; Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1996
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy, and Relig Studies
Office: University Building 137
Mailing Address: EKU Honors Program, University Building 137
Email: david.coleman@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2924
Research Interests: Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Spain, Honors Education
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HON 302 | Honors Option | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
HON 390 | Directed Topics in Honors | Spring 2024 | ||
HON 420 | Thesis Project and Seminar | T 12:30pm-1:45pm | New Martin Residence Hall 118 | Spring 2024 |
HON 420 | Thesis Project and Seminar | T 2:00pm-3:15pm | New Martin Residence Hall 120 | Spring 2024 |
Carolyn Dupont
Professor; Ph.D., Kentucky, 2003
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy, and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 307
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: carolyn.dupont@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1374
Research Interests: United States, Religion, Race
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HIS 102 | American Civilization to 1877 | TR 9:30am-10:45am | Combs Building 105 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 102 | American Civilization to 1877 | TR 11:00am-12:15pm | Combs Building 105 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 302A | Religion in American History | TR 2:00pm-3:15pm | Combs Building 105 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 435 | U.S. Civil Rights Movement | TR 3:30pm-4:45pm | Combs Building 105 | Spring 2024 |
Todd Gooch
Professor
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Religous Studies
Office: Keith 333
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: Todd.Gooch@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2955
Bio
I was born and raised in southern California but spent several summers as a boy on a farm in Lincoln County, Kentucky, that’s been in my family for seven generations, and which it has fallen to me to take care of since coming to EKU in 1999. Since that time, I have taught 25 different courses here, mostly in the areas of philosophy and religious studies. These have included courses on world religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, as well as beginning philosophy, Greek and Roman philosophy, and modern philosophy, not to mention upper division electives on Hume and Kant, on Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud, and on the thought of Charles Taylor. Over the years I have also co-taught, together with faculty from several different departments on campus, interdisciplinary seminars in the EKU Honors Program on topics as diverse as The Rediscovery of Antiquity in the Modern Age and Search for Self.
I am a historian of modern religious thought, which I conceive broadly to include powerful critiques of religion that have emerged since the Enlightenment; challenges to religious belief posed by the astounding growth of scientific and historical knowledge in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and by social dislocations resulting from industrialization, democratization, colonialism and globalization; as well as attempts on the part of major philosophers, theologians and social theorists to respond to these challenges, either by re-conceptualizing traditional religious categories, or else by proposing alternatives to them.
I earned a BA in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1990. After attending an Episcopal seminary affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, for three semesters, and serving for one year as an intern at a parish in Inglewood, California, I received my MA (1997) and PhD (2000) in philosophy of religion and theology from Claremont Graduate School in southern California.
Just prior to my arrival at EKU, I spent two academic years (from 1997-1999) as a Fulbright scholar conducting doctoral research at the University of Marburg in Germany on an important figure in the newly emergent discipline of religious studies in the twentieth century named Rudolf Otto (1869-1937). Otto, who was trained as a Protestant theologian, but also wrote books on Hinduism and travelled several times through Asia, is best remembered as the author of a classic book called The Idea of the Holy (1917). In it, he coined the term “numinous” to refer to the sort of experience of awe-inspiring mystery that he considered to be the essence of religion, and which he found expressed in a variety of forms in a wide and multicultural range of religious texts. Since the publication of my monograph, The Numinous and Modernity: An Interpretation of Rudolf Otto’s Philosophy of Religion (de Gruyter, 2000), I have on three occasions been invited to participate in academic conferences on Otto in both Germany and Italy and have published several book chapters on various aspects of his thought.
Over the past decade I have also published several book chapters and journal articles on the nineteenth-century philosophical critic of religion, Ludwig Feuerbach, and several related nineteenth-century figures, including Hegel, the Young Hegelians, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. These publications have appeared (or are forthcoming) in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online), The Oxford History of Nineteenth-Century Germany Philosophy (2015), the Blackwell Companion to Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (2019), The Oxford History of Modern German Theology (forthcoming), and The Journal for the History of Modern Theology (de Gruyter).
From 2013-2018 I served as chair (or co-chair) of the Nineteenth-Century Theology Unit of the American Academy of Religion.
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
REL 301 | World Religions | TR 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. | Wallace Bldg 332 | Spring 2024 |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 |
Martha Groppo
Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Princeton University, 2019
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 323
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: Martha.Groppo@eku.edu
Research Interests: History of Medicine, Modern Europe, British History, Imperial History, Women’s History, and Rural History
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HIS 101 | Monarchs and Revolutionaries | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
HIS 101 | Monarchs and Revolutionaries | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
HIS 302B | Discovery and Disaster | TR 12:30pm-1:45pm | University Building 230 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 359 | World War One | TR 11:00am-12:15pm | University Building 230 | Spring 2024 |
Todd Hartch
Professor; Ph.D., Yale, 2000
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 303
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: todd.hartch@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1367
Research Interests: Latin America, Mexico, Religion in Latin America
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HIS 103 | American Civ Since 1877 | TR 12:30pm-1:45pm | University Building 232 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 103 | American Civ Since 1877 | TR 2:00pm-3:15pm | University Building 232 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 103 | American Civ Since 1877 | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
HIS 802C | Modern Mexico | T 6:00pm-8:45pm | University Building 230 | Spring 2024 |
Jacqueline E. Jay
Professor; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2008
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 326
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: jackie.jay@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1371
Research Interests: Ancient Egyptian language and literature
Joshua Lynn
Associate Professor; Graduate Program Coordinator
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy, and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 309
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: joshua.lynn@eku.edu
Research Interests: 19th-Century U.S, Antebellum and Civil War America, Politics and Culture, History of Monsters and Horror
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HIS 102 | American Civilization to 1877 | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
HIS 103 | American Civ Since 1877 | MWF 1:25pm-2:15pm | Powell Building 203 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 838 | Practicum in Applied History | Spring 2024 | ||
HIS 860 | Slavery, Civil War, Reconstruc | R 6:00pm-8:45pm | University Building 233 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 899C | Thesis Continuation | Spring 2024 | ||
HIS 899 | Thesis | Spring 2024 | ||
HIS 899 | Thesis | Spring 2024 |
Dr. Laura Newhart
Professor
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 324
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: Laura.Newhart@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2574
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
PHI 110 | Beginning Philosophy | TR 12:30pm-1:45pm | Wallace Bldg 334 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 110 | Beginning Philosophy | TR 2:00pm-3:15pm | Wallace Bldg 334 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 383 | Health and Biomedical Ethics | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 |
Steve Parchment
Assoc Professor
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 330
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: Steve.Parchment@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2698
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
PHI 101R | Logic and Critical Reasoning | F 11:15am-12:05pm | Wallace Bldg 333 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 101R | Logic and Critical Reasoning | TR 11:00am-12:15pm | Wallace Bldg 333 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 101 | Logic and Critical Reasoning | TR 12:30pm-1:45pm | Wallace Bldg 333 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 110 | Beginning Philosophy | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
PHI 320 | Modern Philosophy | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 |
Matthew Pianalto
Professor
Contact Information
Department: Philosophy and Religion
Office: Keith 342
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: Matthew.Pianalto@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2979
Web Page: Academia.edu Page
Bio
I teach a variety of courses in philosophy and in the Honors Program, as well as for the Animal Studies major (Animal Ethics) and the Environmental Sustainability and Stewardship minor (Environmental Ethics).
I have published articles on many topics in ethics, including papers on patience, courage, integrity, and tolerance, on animal and environmental ethics, and on the philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Friedrich Nietzsche. See my Academia page for many of these works, as well as for select presentations and works in progress. My first book, On Patience, was published by Lexington Books in 2016, and is now available in paperback, too.
My current research and writing focuses on the myth of Sisyphus and the notions of meaning in life and the meaning of life. I am also co-editing an interdisciplinary collection of new essays on patience with the psychologist Sarah Schnitker (Baylor University).
I was born and raised in Tontitown, Arkansas. I earned three degrees from the University of Arkansas: B.A. English (Creative Writing Emphasis), magna cum laude, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy. I finally left my home state to teach for a year as a Temporary Visiting Assistant Professor at Truman State University (in Missouri) and came to EKU in August 2009.
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
PHI 130 | Beginning Ethics | MWF 10:10am-11:00am | Powell Building 203 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 130 | Beginning Ethics | MWF 11:15am-12:05pm | Powell Building 201 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 381 | Animal Ethics | TR 11:00am-12:15pm | Powell Building 203 | Spring 2024 |
PHI 381 | Animal Ethics | TR 12:30pm-1:45pm | Powell Building 203 | Spring 2024 |
Timothy Smit
Associate Professor; Interim Chair of the Department of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2009
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 325
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: timothy.smit@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1373
Research Interests: Medieval and Mediterranean
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
GRD 857G | MA Hist Written Comp Exam | Spring 2024 | ||
GRD 858H | MA Hist Oral Comp Exit Exam | Spring 2024 | ||
HIS 339 | The Dark Ages Illuminated | MWF 11:15am-12:05pm | Combs Building 108 | Spring 2024 |
Jennifer B. Spock
Professor; Ph.D., Yale, 1999
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 305
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: jennifer.spock@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1364
Research Interests: Russia, Eastern Europe
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HIS 100 | Survivor-Ancient/Medieval Life | TR 12:30pm-1:45pm | Combs Building 106 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 302C | Expansion of Russia | MWF 2:30pm-3:20pm | Combs Building 108 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 861 | Muscovy and Ivan the Terrible | W 6:00pm-8:45pm | University Building 230 | Spring 2024 |
Catherine L. Stearn
Associate Professor; Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2007
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 306
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: catherine.stearn@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1362
Research Interests: Women’s and Gender History to 1750
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HIS 100 | Ancient Empires | MWF 12:20pm-1:10pm | Combs Building 106 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 100 | Ancient Empires | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
HIS 100 | Ancient Empires | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
HIS 290 | Historical Research and Methods | MWF 10:10am-11:00am | Combs Building 106 | Spring 2024 |
Dr. Abraham Velez de Cea
Professor
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 331
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: Abraham.Velez@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2939
Bio
Born in Saragossa, Spain, Dr. J. Abraham Vélez de Cea teaches Buddhism and World Religions at Eastern Kentucky University since 2006. Before joining EKU he taught Buddhist Ethics and Buddhist-Christian Mysticism in the department of theology at Georgetown University. He is active in the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies, and the Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflective Group of the American Academy of Religion.
He is interested in peace-building through interfaith dialogue, which he sees as a spiritual practice for everybody, not just scholars and representatives of religious communities. He believes that interreligious education, comparative theology, and interreligious studies are indispensable tools to foster mutual understanding and cooperation among people from diverse faiths.
He has published four books in Spanish and one in English, The Buddha and Religious Diversity (Routledge, 2013), which discusses the Buddha’s attitude towards religious diversity in conversation with Christian theology of religions. He has also published several articles about diverse aspects of early Buddhist thought and interreligious dialogue in peer-reviewed journals including Philosophy East & West, Sophia, Journal of Interreligious Dialogue, Buddhist Studies Review, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies.
At present he is translating Pali texts into Spanish, writing a book chapter about Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue, and working on a book project comparing Theresa of Avila and the Buddha, where he addresses the question of whether it is possible to practice Buddhist and Christian meditation without contradiction.
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
PHI 240 | Philosophy of Religion | TR 9:30am-10:45am | Combs Building 438 | Spring 2024 |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 | |
REL 301 | World Religions | Internet Classes | Spring 2024 |
Robert S. Weise
Professor; Ph.D., Virginia, 1995
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 335
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: rob.weise@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1293
Research Interests: United States South, Appalachia
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
APP 200 | Introduction to Appalachia | MWF 10:10am-11:00am | Roark Building 108 | Spring 2024 |
APP 200 | Introduction to Appalachia | MWF 11:15am-12:05pm | Roark Building 108 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 450W | Senior Seminar in History | MWF 1:25pm-2:15pm | University Building 232 | Spring 2024 |
HON 104 | Building Thriving Communities | TR 9:30am-10:45am | University Building 139 | Spring 2024 |
Bradford J. Wood
Professor; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1999
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 311
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: brad.wood@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1289
Research Interests: Colonial British America, The American Revolution
Mina Yazdani
Professor; Ph.D., University of Toronto, 2010
Contact Information
Department: History, Philosophy and Relig Studies
Office: Keith 304
Mailing Address: Keith 323
Email: mina.yazdani@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1361
Research Interests: Modern Iran, Islamic World
Courses
Subject | Title | Dates | Location | Term |
HIS 101 | Becoming Modern | TR 11:00am-12:15pm | Combs Building 114 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 101 | Becoming Modern | TR 2:00pm-3:15pm | Combs Building 114 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 205 | Women in the Middle East | TR 3:30pm-4:45pm | Combs Building 114 | Spring 2024 |
HIS 324 | Iran: State, Religion and Soci | TR 9:30am-10:45am | Combs Building 106 | Spring 2024 |