CONTRIBUTORS

And Now, We’d Like to Introduce the X-Perts: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Amazing, Astonishing, Uncanny, Ultimate Authors from Xavier’s School for Gifted Philosophers!

Andrew Burnett teaches philosophy at Augustana College and medical ethics at Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota. His research interests include the problem of natural evil, psychiatric ethics, and issues of (real-world) genetic discrimination. Current projects include an interdisciplinary seminar on “mad science” and transforming the family basement into a fully equipped Danger Room.

 

Joseph J. Darowski is a Ph.D. candidate in the American Studies Program at Michigan State University. His research focuses on American popular culture, American literature, and Latino culture. As soon as his mutant superpowers emerge, he will use the persona of a mild-mannered academic as a ruse while pursuing a career within the superhero field, preferably as an X-Man.

 

Richard Davis is an associate professor of philosophy at Tyndale University College in Toronto, Canada. He coedited the volume 24 and Philosophy with Jennifer Hart Weed and Ronald Weed (John Wiley & Sons, 2007). As an active member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Davis uses his mutant superpowers to influence the masses to reason in an evil attempt to flood American pop culture with intelligent thought.

 

George A. Dunn regularly coteaches a course called “Philosophy through Pop Culture” at the Indiana University- Purdue University at Indianapolis. His publications include articles on philosophy in Battlestar Galactica and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has been a visiting lecturer at Purdue University, the University of Indianapolis, and the Ningbo Institute of Technology in the People’s Republic of China. Unlike his hero Layla Miller, he doesn’t know a damn thing.

 

Patrick D. Hopkins teaches philosophy and science and technology studies at Millsaps College in Mississippi. He is the author of numerous articles on bioethics, technology studies, gender studies, and religious studies. He is the editor of Sex/ Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender, and Technology (Indiana University Press, 1999). Through his numerous mutant superpowers as a college professor, Hopkins uses nothing but Star Trek episodes as texts and uses the term “Buffyverse” un-ironically. Yes, he is that kind of mutant.

 

Rebecca Housel teaches writing and popular culture at a secret mutant university in western New York. She is an active member of Excalibur on an alternate Earth and started a separate branch for Aussie X-Men while attending the University of New South Wales in Sydney after thwarting a plot by Mojo to kill her. Luckily, Housel only lost the use of one leg during the unfortunate Mojo encounter. Her mutant superpowers have been used for articles on poker, Monty Python, and, of course, superheroes, as well as a novel series for middle-grade to adult literacy. Housel’s dream is to write for Marvel comics. She eagerly awaits Joe Quesada’s call. Any day now . . .

 

Ramona Ilea is an assistant professor of philosophy at Pacific University and lives in Portland, Oregon. Her work focuses on normative and applied ethics, especially animal and environmental ethics. Although born in Transylvania, Ramona doesn’t have any vampiric superpowers; in fact, as a vegan-philosopher, she has ethical objections to drinking any kind of blood.

 

Jesse Kavadlo is an associate professor of English and humanities at Maryville University of St. Louis, where he teaches courses in writing, literature, and interdisciplinary topics such as superheroes, rock and roll, conspiracies, and monsters. He is the author of the book Don DeLillo: Balance at the Edge of Belief (Peter Lang, 2004), as well as journal articles and book chapters on contemporary American fiction, popular culture, and writing pedagogy. When no one is looking, Jesse puts three pencils between his closed fingers and imagines adamantium claws.

 

Katherine E. Kirby is an assistant professor of philosophy and global studies at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. She specializes in the work of Emmanuel Levinas, continental philosophy, and ethics and has created courses examining genocide, marginalization, propaganda and the media, and heroic action or character. She has written and presented essays on ethical and moral philosophy, heroism, the Holocaust, ethical pedagogy, and ethical faith. Katherine is looking forward to having Hugh Jackman over for dinner to discuss the complex nature of his character in regard to her essay.

 

Cynthia McWilliams is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Texas-Pan American, where she serves as the codirector of the Pan American Collaboration for Ethics in the Professions (PACE). She has published in biomedical ethics, animal ethics, and intelligence ethics. Sadly, Cynthia has never recovered from having the worst mutant power ever: glow-in-the-dark freckles.

 

Jeremy Pierce is a Ph.D.student in philosophy at Syracuse University and an adjunct instructor at Le Moyne College. His Ph.D. dissertation examines issues in the philosophy of race and metaphysics with research interests in the philosophy of religion. Jeremy’s X-Gene produced a higher-than-normal level of ambidexterity with a lower-than-normal level of dexterity itself. The result is bad but passable handwriting with both hands and the ability to play equally badly on either side of the soccer field.

 

Christopher Robichaud is an instructor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He trained as a boy at Professor X’s prestigious school, and although it’s unclear whether his ability to question everything is really a mutant power, he certainly finds himself more at home in mutant company. Wolverine won’t suffer his nonsense, but Beast and he get along just fine.

 

Jason Southworth is an ABD graduate student at the University of Oklahoma and an instructor of philosophy at Fort Hays State University in Kansas. He has published articles on Batman, Heroes, and Stephen Colbert. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jason enjoyed reading all of the X-books, even those drawn and plotted by Rob Liefeld. Please don’t hold that against him, though, as he was too young to know any better; he is still working toward absolution of this horrible mistake in judgment.

 

Andrew Terjesen is currently a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. In the past, he has taught at Washington and Lee University, Austin College, and Duke University. He is mainly interested in ethics, moral psychology, early modern philosophy, and the philosophy of economics. He has had essays published in this series on the connections between philosophy and Family Guy, The Office, and Battlestar Galactica and is also working on essays involving Heroes and Watchmen. If Terjesen had telepathy as a superpower, he’d find out what Brett Ratner was thinking when making The Last Stand (and whether Ratner feels any shame).

 

George Teschner is a professor of philosophy at Christopher Newport University, where he teaches a variety of courses in comparative philosophy, continental philosophy, and philosophy in popular culture. He has published articles in the areas of Asian philosophy, phenomenology, continental philosophy, and the philosophy of technology. Teschner grew up with the stigma of having super-philosophical powers, so he relates strongly to the plight of X-Men and mutants everywhere.

 

Mark D. White is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, Economics, and Philosophy at the College of Staten Island/CUNY, where he teaches courses that combine economics, philosophy, and law. He has edited Watchmen and Philosophy (John Wiley & Sons, 2009), Batman and Philosophy (with Robert Arp, John Wiley & Sons, 2008), Theoretical Foundations of Law and Economics (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and Economics and the Mind, with Barbara Montero (Routledge, 2007). Since puberty, he has had the mutant power to repel intelligent, beautiful women, and he sadly has no control over it.

 

J. Jeremy Wisnewski was an assistant professor of philosophy at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. He published several articles on mutant affairs, including “Your Inner Mutant,” “Magneto as Infantile Narcissist,” and “Can’t Anyone Die around Here?” These titles, unfortunately, were insufficient for him to be granted tenure at the prestigious academy. After working for a time in various convenience stores and fast-food establishments, Wisnewski edited Family Guy and Philosophy (Blackwell Publishing, 2007) and The Office and Philosophy (Blackwell Publishing, 2008). He hopes eventually to land a job in retail.