Associate Professor in Master of Arts in Higher Education
Associate Professor in Core Studies Department
Degrees Received
B.A. from Geneva College in Philosophy and Political Science, 1997
M.A. from Geneva College in Higher Education, 2003
Ph.D. from Duquesne University in Philosophy, 2011
Courses Taught
In our graduate program in higher education, I teach Foundations of Higher Education; Foundations of Learning and Knowledge; Comparative Higher Education; Higher Education Practicum; and Historical Foundations of Higher Education.
In our undergraduate Core Studies department, I teach Perspectives: Faith, Culture, Identity; Great Issues in Politics; and Academic Faithfulness in the Young Scholars Program
Selected Presentations/Publications
Dissertation: “The Narrative Subject and Place," Duquesne University, 2011.
Review: Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement, Steven Bauma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, Christian Scholars Review, April 2009.
"Descartes and the Dissolution of Aristotelian Place," West Chester University Philosophical Society, 2007.
"Longinus′ Peri Hypsous: Third Century Catalyst of the Je ne sais quois," May 4th Philosophy Graduate Student Conference, Kent State Ohio, 2006.
"Edenic Tales, the Revealing of Sexuality, and Pornographic Enframing: Toward a Heideggerian Understanding of Human Sexuality," GSIP Colloquia Series, Duquesne University, 2006.
"On Academic Revival," Comment Magazine, March 2006
"Building Monuments: Enacting Ritual, Retaining Memory," National Conference on Outdoor Leadership, San Diego State University, 2006
“Enframing Higher Education: A Consideration of Heidegger’s ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ and Higher Education,” Baylor Symposium on Faith an Culture, 2016.
“The Next 150: The Future of Higher Education in Canada,” Keynote Address, Canadian Association for Christians in Student Development, 2017.
"Re:Imagining," in Reimagining the Student Experience: Formative Practices for Changing Times, Abilene Christian University Press, 2019.
Advancing the Vision (Beaver Falls: Falls City Press), ed. Watt and Backenstoe, December 2019.
On Mission Together (Beaver Falls: Falls City Press), Richard Noble.
Dreaming Dreams for Christian Higher Education, Dev Editor/Pub, Falls City Press, Aug 2021.
Current Projects
I am currently part of a multi-disciplinary group considering how our fields interact with and impact the old steel town in which our college is emplaced. As an environmental phenomenologist and worker in the field of higher education, I am particularly interested in the interface of learning and location—I desire to help students and practitioners understand a deeper, richer, and more robust sense of a place-based education.
The confluence of my interests in twentieth-century philosophy, reformational thought, and higher education has compelled me to consider the role of power and institutions. A primary concern is the history and role of governance within the realm of higher learning. This is includes an exploration of the normative structure of education through Dooeyweerd′s conception of modal aspects and the cosmonomic idea.
Miscellaneous
Kristie has been my friend, partner in crime, and wife for the past decade. She works at Geneva College in the Center for Faith and Practice through the CCO. She is currently working on a project regarding faith and personal aesthetics including the role of beauty and cosmetics in the Kingdom of God. She is a lot smarter than her husband. Our beautiful daughter Simone (age 8) is a voracious reader and is both curious and creative. Our son Gavin (age 5) is the most handsome and funniest person alive.
