Curriculum Vitae

 

Robert R. Clewis, Ph.D.

Contact
Email: clewis.r at gmc.edu

Gwynedd-Mercy College
1325 Sumneytown Pike, P.O. Box 901
Connelly Faculty Center 107
Gwynedd-Valley, PA 19437  USA

PERSONAL   

Born in Tampa, FL, USA

BOOK   

The Kantian Sublime and the Revelation of Freedom
(Cambridge University Press, April 2009)

Review of the book

LANGUAGES

English: native
German, French, and Italian

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

History of Modern Philosophy

AREAS OF COMPETENCE

Italian Philosophy, Philosophy of Film, Business
Ethics, Philosophy of Globalization, Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Education, Symbolic
Logic

EDUCATION

2004 Ph.D. in Philosophy; Boston College, MA
Dissertation: Aesthetic and Moral Judgment: The Kantian Sublime
Advisor: Susan Shell and Richard Kearney

2004 M.A. in  Economics, MIEX, University of Bologna, Italy

2000 M.A. in Philosophy; Boston College, USA

1998 B.A. in Philosophy and in French; Wake Forest University, NC, USA

Summa cum laude with honors in philosophy

Phi Beta Kappa honor society

Honors in philosophy. Thesis: Nietzsche and Kierkegaard on Belief

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2005-present   Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Gwynedd-Mercy College, PA, USA.

2001-2002   Lecturer in American Studies, Katholische Universität Eichstätt, Germany

1999-2001  Lecturer in Philosophy, Boston College, MA, USA

1996-1998   CRLA-Certified French Tutor, Wake Forest University

COURSES TAUGHT

• Italian Philosophy
• Contemporary Philosophy (mostly aesthetics)
  
• Modern Philosophy (Descartes through Hegel)
• Philosophy of Film
  
• Symbolic Logic
• Global Ethics (ethics of globalization)
• Toward Global Community (capstone course in Honors Program). Co-taught with Dr. Michael Clinton.
• The Origins of the Western Tradition (Honors Program). Co-taught with Dr. Carol Breslin
• American Experience (Native American, Puritan, Enlightenment). Co-taught with Dr. Wayne Huss
• Philosophy of Education
• Ethics: The Moral Quest (introduction to ethics)
• Encountering Ethics (introduction to ethics)
• The Quest for Wisdom: Ethics (introduction to ethics)
• Philosophy of the Person I: Ways of Living (introduction to philosophy)
• Philosophy of the Person II: Ways of Living
• Philosophy of the Person I: Variations on Philosophical Themes
• Philosophy of the Person II: Methods and Meanings after Modernity
• U.S. Current Events (American Studies course, taught in Germany)
• Composition (American Studies course)
• English Conversation
• Language Course I
  

PUBLICATIONS

Articles

• “Kant's Early Distinction between True and False Sublimity,” in Critical Guide to Kant’s Observations and the Remarks, eds. Susan Shell and Richard Velkley (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, forthcoming 2011)
• “Temporality, Culture, and Art Evaluation,” forthcoming in the Journal of the Iranian Academy of the Arts (accepted)
• “Why Art Can Elicit the Kantian Sublime: A Response to Uygar Abaci,” forthcoming in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (accepted).
• “A Theory of the Age Factor in Film,” under review
• “A Court Conversation,” in Tennis and Philosophy, ed. David Baggett (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, forthcoming 2010)
• “A Spielbergian Ethics of the Family in Saving Private Ryan and The Color Purple,” in Steven Spielberg and Philosophy: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Book, ed. Dean Kowalski (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008), pp. 129-49
• “Greenberg, Kant, and Aesthetic Judgments of Modern Art,” AE: Canadian Aesthetics Journal
• “What We Can Learn from Kant on Regime Change,” Proceedings of the Tenth International Kant Congress (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, Nov. 2008)
• “Kant’s Consistency Regarding the Regime Change in France,” Philosophy and Social Criticism (2006) 32 (4): 443-460
• “Heideggerian Wonder in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line,” Film and Philosophy (2003) vol. 7: 22-36
• “Augustine’s Hermeneutics: How to Read the Confessions,” Auslegung (2000) vol. 24 (1): 65-87

Translations

• Otfried Höffe, “The Liberal Studies in a Global World: A Self-Examination” (Die Geisteswissenschaften im Zeitalter der Globalisierung: Eine Selbstbestimmung), ch. 13 in Philosophy of Education, ed. Randall Curren (New York: Blackwell, 2006), pp.102-110.
• Originally published in Theory and Research in Education 1 (2) (2003): pp. 213-27.
• Otfried Höffe, “Against Inequalities in the World Legal Order” (Wieder Ungleichheiten in der Weltrechtsordnung), in Philosophical Topics: Global Inequalities, Special Issue, eds. Martha Nussbaum and Chad Flanders (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004)
• Otfried Höffe, “The Diversity of Cultures Under the Unity of Global Law” (Vielfalt der Weltkulturen in der Einheit eines Weltrechts), Otfried Höffe, Lecture, October 2002

Book Reviews

• Review of Freedom and Anthropology in Kant’s Moral Philosophy (Cambridge UP, 2003), Kantian Review (2007) vol. 12 (2): 196-9
• Review of book on Kantian sensibility, forthcoming in Review of Metaphysics

More Publications

• “Philosophy Safeguards Intellectual Curiosity,” The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA), Sunday, October 12, 2008, F1, F4.
• “Democracy Depends on Healthy Reflection,” Chestnut Hill Local (Philadelphia, PA), Thursday, October 9, 2008, p. 4 a
• “The U.S. Democratic Nomination for President as a Game of Chicken,” in Il Talento (June 2004) vol. 1 (8): 17-30. (The paper takes a game-theoretic approach to the 2004 primary race.)

PAPERS AND COMMENTARIES

Nov 2009    “Ethics and Animal Research,” Lecture, Student Association of Science, GMC, PA
Oct 2009    “Kant, Sublimity, Freedom,” American Society of Aesthetics, National Meeting, Denver, CO                                       Dec 2008       Commentary on Helga Varden, “Kant’s Murderer at the Door,” American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting, Philadelphia, PA
April 2008      “The Kantian Monstrous and the Sublime,” “The Sublime and the Grotesque” Conference, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY
Spr 2008        “Morality and Film: Ethicism, Autonomism,and Immoralism,” Lecture, GMC, PA
May 2007       “Greenberg, Kant, and Aesthetic Judgments of Modern Art,” “Modernism Workshop” Conference, Saskatchewan, Canada
May 2007       “Kant’s Aesthetics of Enthusiasm: The Transition to Freedom,” Canadian Society for Aesthetics Meeting, Congress 2007, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Apr 2007        “Kant’s Aesthetics of Enthusiasm: The Transition to Freedom,” American Society of Aesthetics Eastern Meeting, Philadelphia, PA
Mar 2007        “Kant’s Aesthetics of Enthusiasm: The Transition to Freedom,” New Jersey Regional Philosophical Association Conference, College of New Jersey, NJ
Oct 2006        “Halloween, Horror, and the Grotesque,” Lecture, GMC, PA
Aug 2006        “Kant and the Common Good,” Lecture, First IWM International Alumni Summer School in Philosophy and Politics, Cortona, Italy
Apr 2005        “What We Can Learn from Kant on Regime Change,” North American Kant Society Eastern Group Meeting, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Apr 2005         “Aesthetics: Practical Philosophy,” Lecture, Institute of Aging, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Nov 2003         “Interest in Sublimity,” Paper, Boston College Philosophy Forum, MA
Mar 2003         “Interest in the Kantian Sublime,” Paper, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen,Vienna, Austria
Dec 2001         “Wonder in the Thin Red Line,” American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting,Society for the Study of the Contemporary Visual Arts, Atlanta, GA
Oct 2001         “The Hermeneutic Principles of the Confessions,” Paper, 2001 Pruit Memorial Symposium, Waco, TX
Nov 2001         “Wonder in The Thin Red Line,” Paper, Boston College Philosophy Forum, MA
Feb 2001         “Wonder in The Thin Red Line,” 26th Annual Conference on Literature and Film: “The Emotions inLiterature and Film,” Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Mar 2000         “Heidegger on Time: 1924 and 1962,” “Finitude and Existence” Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
Feb 2000         “Heidegger and Temporality,” Paper, Boston College Philosophy Forum, MA

SERVICE TO GWYNEDD-MERCY COLLEGE

2008-        Member of Library Committee (standing committee)

2005-        Member of Institutional Review Board

2008-        Member of Study Abroad Scholarship Committee

2007-        Pre-law advisor

2006-        Advisor to undergraduates

2006-        Assistant coach of GMC men’s tennis team (Division III)

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

2007-       Manuscript reviewer, Oxford University Press
2007-       Manuscript reviewer, Blackwell Publishing
2009-       Manuscript review, Continuum Press                          2007-       Referee, AE: Canadian Aesthetics Journal
2006-       Referee, Millennium: Journal of International Studies
1999   
    Editorial Assistant for Continental Aesthetics, ed. Kearney
1999        Assistant for William Richardson, Boston College
1998        Assistant for Arthur Madigan, Boston College

AFFILIATIONS

APA         American Philosophical Association

NAKS      North American Kant Society

SPEP        Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy

ASA         American Society of Aesthetics
ESA          European Society of Aesthetics                                           SIFA         Italian Society of Analytic Philosophy  

GRANTS, HONORS, AND AWARDS

Spr 2001      Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award, Boston   College
Fall 2003      Dissertation Fellowship, Boston College
Fall 2002      Bradley Foundation Grant, Boston College. For dissertation research
Sum 2002     Ernest Fortin Grant, Boston College. For translation projects
Sum 2002     Summer Dissertation Fellowship, Boston College
Fall 2001      Doctoral Comprehensive Exam: Passed with Distinction. Boston College
1998-2002    Graduate Student Stipend and Fellowship, Philosophy Department, Boston College
1997-1998     Thomas E. and Ruth Mullen Scholars of the Upperclass Carswell Scholarship, Wake Forest University. Awarded to selected seniors for research and scholarship
May 1998      Gregory Pritchard Scholarship for Philosophy, Wake Forest University. Awarded to one graduating philosophy major
May 1998      Harold Dawes Parcell Award for Excellence in French, Wake Forest University. Awarded to one graduating French major
1998               Phi Beta Kappa, member, Wake Forest University
1997-1998      Mortar Board, President, Wake Forest University
Spring 1995   Spires of Excellence Grant, Wake Forest University

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

July-Aug 2008    Collegium Phaenomenologicum. Città di Castello, Italy
Summer 2007      Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM), Visiting Fellow, Vienna, Austria
August 2006        IWM International Alumni Summer School in Philosophy and Politics, Cortona, Italy
July 2003            10th IWM International Summer School in Philosophy and Politics, Cortona, Italy
Winter 2003        IWM, Fellow, Vienna, Austria
April 2002           Philosophisches Seminar, Universität Tübingen, Germany. Adviser: Otfried Höffe
2001-2002           Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany
Summer 2000     Universität Heidelberg, Germany
Fall 1996             L’Université de Dijon, France