Email: AMills@otterbein.edu
Office: Towers Hall, Room #323
Phone: (614) 823-1368
Website
I didn't choose philosophy, philosophy chose me. I found myself in a philosophy class my sophomore year at the University of Michigan, and ever since the first week in that course, I was hooked. From my conversations with other philosophers I have learned that many of them have a similar story. Few people, if any, deliberately set out to be philosophers. Rather they find themselves captivated by philosophy and grow ever more confident that they don't want to do anything else. After getting hooked as a sophomore, I went on to graduate from Michigan with a B.A. in Philosophy in 1990, and moved to the sunny south to pursue my M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there, I concentrated on the Philosophy of Language, the Philosophy of Mind, and some issues in metaphysics. I began my teaching career in 1997 with brief stints at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. I came to Otterbein in 1999, and have taught a wide range of courses in philosophy as well as courses in the Integrative Studies Program, in the Honors Program, and in the Senior Year Experience Program. My research interests have changed since my time at Otterbein, and I am now thinking about questions regarding the most effective ways of teaching philosophy courses to undergraduates, and the value and purpose of a liberal arts education. I have published articles on The Liar Paradox, on theories of truth, and on the pedagogy of philosophy.
Email: GJackson@otterbein.edu
Office: Towers Hall, Room #321
Phone: (614) 823-1561
When I came to Otterbein College 15 years ago, my mentor at Marquette University told me that although I was going to a college renowned for teaching, I should always remember that good teaching cannot be done without good research and good research cannot be done without the outlet of good teaching. He was right. My passion for both teaching and research centers on first-century Judaism and Christian origins. That field has taken on new meaning during the last generation for many reasons, including World War II when New Testament scholars had to take a hard look at their discipline and consider its role in the anti-Semitic attitude that led to the Holocaust, modern-day terrorism, new archaeological discoveries, and the onset of alternative methods of looking at biblical texts, such as feminist and womanist theologies, third-world theology, and eco-theology. I teach biblical courses, women and religion, mythology, science and religion, and take an SYE to Rwanda yearly. I am the author of "Have Mercy on Me": The Canaanite Woman in Matthew 15:21-28 as well as scholarly articles and book chapters on the historical Jesus and women in the first century. Current research focuses on African oral, agrarian cultures as a means of understanding New Testament writings. My sabbatical teaching in both Zimbabwe and Egypt has resulted in an infusion of African influences in all of my classrooms.
Email: PLaughlin@otterbein.edu
Office: Towers Hall, Room #322
Phone: (614) 823-1510
Website: http://laughlinonline.net
I came to religious studies and my current area of academic expertise by a rather indirect route. As a Northern Kentucky kid with a love for the Latin language, I wound up at the nearby University of Cincinnati in the Classics Department, majoring in Latin and Greek studies. U. C. had no Religion courses, yet my interests shifted to theological studies, about which I did a great deal of reading on my own. After graduation, I moved to Atlanta and attended Emory University, where I earned my Master of Divinity degree and a Ph.D. in Religion, with a concentration in historical-theological studies in Christianity. After a brief stint as a United Methodist pastor in Newport, Kentucky, I came to Otterbein College in 1979 to teach mostly courses relating to Christianity. But again my interests and teaching load gradually shifted, this time to Eastern spirituality and religion, so that I now teach mostly courses relating to Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, though I cover Religion in America and Islam as well. I think the secret of being a good teacher is remembering what it was like not to know the things you are presenting to students. I am also convinced that being an active scholar is important for a college teacher, so over the years I have done research for many presentations at professional meetings, and published numerous articles and books on religion and philosophy for both scholarly and general audiences. My most recent published article is "A Mystical Christian Credo: From Experience to Expression" in the September-October 2007 issue of The Fourth R, and my latest books are Remedial Christianity: What Every Believer Should Know about the Faith, but Probably Doesn't (2000); Getting Oriented: What Every Christian Should Know about Eastern Religions, but Probably Doesn't (2005); and The Tao of Christianity: The Wisdom of Lao-tzu for the Followers and Fans of Jesus (forthcoming), which includes a fresh English version of the Chinese text of the Tao Te Ching uniquely rendered in a haiku format.
Email: SPatridge@otterbein.edu
Office: Towers Hall, Room #223
Phone: (614) 823-1790
My interest in philosophy can be traced to a single moment. As an undergraduate at THE Ohio State University, with an interest in art theory, I took a class in the philosophy of art. It was this class that not only sparked a lifelong interest in philosophy, but that fundamentally reshaped the way that I see the world. After pursuing an undergraduate degree in philosophy with a minor in art history, I moved on to pursue graduate studies in philosophy at the University of Washington in Seattle. While there I continued my interest in philosophy of art, but became increasingly more interested in more general issues of value, particularly moral value and its relation to other kinds of value. Three years ago, I began teaching at Otterbein College, where I completed a dissertation on the moral evaluation of art works entitled "Should We Feel Bad About Feeling Good About Immoral Art? An Argument in Favor of Minimal Moralism." At Otterbein I teach a variety of courses in value theory including applied ethics, philosophy of human rights, ethical theory and meta-ethics, and philosophy of art. I also teach courses in philosophy of religion, symbolic logic and practical reason. Speaking very broadly, my research is in ethics, moral psychology and philosophy of art. Currently, I am working on projects that focus on what I call the imaginative emotions - emotions whose intentional object is imaginative. I am also interested in the role that ethical evaluation plays in art criticism.
Email: CZimmerman@otterbein.edu
Office: Towers Hall, Room #320
Phone: (614) 823-1363
