Conference Presentations

2024
UC Santa Cruz: The California Ideology Conference
Paper: Los Angeles Physiognomy

2023
Lewis & Clark College: Annual Northwest Philosophy Conference
Paper: The Cunning of Reason in Smith, Hegel, Odysseus, and George Santos

New School for Social Research Graduate Conference: “Political Concepts”
Paper: Cunning

2022
University of Minnesota, CSCL Conference: “Culture & Theory in Reactionary Times”
Paper: The Genesis of a False Dichotomy: A Critique of Conceptual Alienation

Emory University Symposium for Psychoanalysis and Politics 
Paper: The Genesis of a False Dichotomy: A Critique of Conceptual Alienation                    

2021               
British Society for Phenomenology: Future as Present Concern
Paper: Days of Future Past: On the Legacy of Utopian Socialism   

Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy
Paper: The Past Within the Future: On the Legacy of Utopian Socialism   

Houston Community College Philosophy Symposium
Paper: The Past Within the Future: On the Legacy of Utopian Socialism        

2019               
Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy
Paper: Philosophy after Auschwitz: The Expression of Suffering in Levinas and Adorno

University of New Mexico Graduate Conference, “The Liberal Subject”
Paper: Philosophy after Auschwitz: The Expression of Suffering in Levinas and Adorno

New School for Social Research Conference: “Paranoid Encounters”
Paper: On Identification and Myth: A Freudo-Marxist Analysis of the Alt-Right

North Texas Philosophical Association Conference
Paper: Sacrifice and Simone de Beauvoir’s Ethics of Ambiguity  (invited)   

2018   
North American Levinas Society
The Ethics of Non-Identity: Philosophy and the Other in Adorno and Levinas (invited)      

Conference Organization

2024

“The California Ideology” Conference

University of California: Santa Cruz, April 6-7, 2024
Co-organizers: Shaun Terry (History of Consciousness, UCSC) and Kyle Proehl (Comparative Literature, UC Davis)
Speakers: Massimiliano Tomba; Banu Bargu; Additional speakers TBA
Sponsored by the University of California Humanities Research Institute

About: California, the place and the idea, may seem sunny and exceptional: in its economy, its politics, its culture. It promises a unique form of dynamism and levity, a fantasy that has always seemed both singular and fundamentally American. Yet, in the midst of unfolding global catastrophes – climate collapse, new wars cold and hot, the rise of the far right, etc. – California’s uniqueness appears increasingly phantasmagorical. While moving images of California palms continue their work of seduction, the doom scroll of our lives is produced as much by Hollywood and Silicon Valley as by anywhere else on Earth. Inspired by the Frankfurt School’s historical and empirical studies in and about California—as an image, an idea, and a place—we are hosting an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to exploring the various dimensions of the enduring paradoxical character of the Golden State. Full CFP and more info can be found here.

2021

Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy  
Zoom                      
Co-organizers: Robin Muller (Cal State Northridge), Ellie Anderson (Pomona College), and Kaity Creasy (Cal State Redlands)

About: In June 2021, I scheduled and orchestrated the annual Southwest Seminar Philosophy conference (moved online due to COVID) with a four-person leadership team. Organizational duties involved drafting and circulated CFP, assembling the conference schedule, organizing panels, facilitating presentations on Zoom, ensuring smooth execution, and organizing a virtual social event.

2019

UNM Philosophy Graduate Student Conference, “The Liberal Subject”
University of New Mexico
Co-organizers: UNM Philosophy Graduate Students

About: In May 2021, I helped orchestrate a UNM Philosophy conference with a leadership team of other graduate students in the Philosophy departmnt, which involved applying for funding, soliciting donations, reviewing submissions, assembling the schedule and panels, and facilitating presentations.

2017

42nd Annual Merleau-Ponty Circle
University of New Mexico

About: In 2017, a handful of graduate students assisted with the 42nd Annual Merleau-Ponty Circle Conference, which involved compiling welcome materials, reserving meeting spaces, facilitating mealtimes, as well as setting up and breaking down the conference facilities.