PHD STUDENT PROFILES

Hayden Berg

Hayden researches theories of subjectivity/intersubjectivity and self-transformation across traditions including Indian Buddhism, Phenomenology and Ancient Greek thought. He is especially interested in these questions with an eye toward social, political and ethical issues of contemporary life.

Areas of Specialization: Indian Buddhism, Ancient Greek Philosophy (esp. Presocratics), Michel Foucault, Phenomenology and Existentialism (especially French)

Areas of Competence: 19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Critical Theory

Education: BA from Utah Valley University, MA from Villanova University

Patrick Corry

Patrick concentrates on ancient Greek philosophy, exploring philosophical questions which arise from careful readings of the texts of thinkers like Aristotle, Plato, and Parmenides. His dissertation examines Aristotle's theory of truth in the Metaphysics.

Areas of Specialization: Ancient Philosophy, Metaphysics

Areas of Competence: Philosophy of Mind, Medieval Philosophy

Education: BA and MTS, Notre Dame; MA, St. John's College

Lilia Endter

Lilia’s research is grounded in the critical social theory of the early Frankfurt School, especially the work of Theodor W. Adorno. Her work engages post-Kantian philosophy, particularly the historical unfolding of rational forms in the work of Leibniz, Kant, and Hegel. It also extends into modern German thought through Nietzsche, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Ernst Cassirer, as well as the tradition of Negative Anthropology associated with Günther Anders and Ulrich Sonnemann.  Lilia is currently in the writing stage of her dissertation, tentatively titled "The Dialectic of Spontaneity in Technological Society." 

Areas of Specialization: 18th–20th Century German Philosophy, Early Frankfurt School Critical Theory, German Idealism, Philosophy of Technology, Social Theory, Feminist Philosophy

Areas of Competence: Philosophy of Science, Political Aesthetics, Philosophy of Film, Nietzsche

Education: MA Philosophy (Villanova); MSc Political Theory (The London School of Economics); BA Philosophy & Political Science (University College Dublin)

Shayna Federico

Shayna's research resides at the intersection of feminist and French philosophies, using canonical thinkers and frameworks to interrogate the meaning of embodied existence. She is working on a dissertation provisionally titled "Toward an Existentialist Aesthetics of Existence, or On Faces," oriented toward the questions: What does it mean to have a face? and What does it mean to change a face? Shayna has also published articles in Simone de Beauvoir Studies and JCLA.

Areas of Specialization: Feminist Philosophies, French Philosophy (particularly Simone de Beauvoir)

Areas of Competence: 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Early Modern Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Translation

Education: BA, Political Science, Skidmore College; MA, Philosophy and Social Policy, The George Washington University; MA, Philosophy, Villanova University

Constanza Filloy

Areas of Specialization: Contemporary French Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, 19th Century German Philosophy

Areas of Competence: Environmental Philosophy, Decolonial Thought, Phenomenology

Isaac Fried

Isaac received his MA from University College Dublin with a thesis on Lukacs' early aesthetics and theory of reification, before joining Villanova in Fall 2025. He now works at the intersection of philosophy of science, politics, and the history of philosophy, with a focus on the political and natural philosophy of Thomas Hobbes.

Areas of Specialization: Early Modern Philosophy, Critical Theory, Critical Philosophy of Race

Areas of Competence: Phenomenology, German Idealism, Psychoanalysis,  Ancient Philosophy

Education: MA from University College Dublin

Grace Jang

Born in South Korea raised in Beijing, China, Grace (Songeun) Jang currently lives in Philadelphia. Her interests lie at the intersection of phenomenology and ancient philosophy, which she understands as self-knowledge and the search for it. She serves on the editorial board of Alqesseh, an independent press that strives to create an environment in which authors can take ownership of their authority and to facilitate the conditions for creation.

Areas of Specialization: Ancient Philosophy and Phenomenology

Areas of Competence: German Idealism

Education: BA, St. John’s College Annapolis; MA, New School for Social Research

Tertia Gillett

Tertia Gillett is a Doctoral Candidate in the final stages of completing her dissertation, “Sculpting Phenomenal Consciousness: A Defense of Cosmopsychism.”

Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics, Indian Philosophy

Areas of Competence: Social Ontology, Philosophy of Cognitive Science

Education: BS, Microbiology, University of Idaho; BA, Philosophy, University of New Mexico; MA, Philosophy, Central European University

Sterling Hall

Sterling's work attempts to create bridges between phenomenology, critical theory, and various forms of 'philosophies of the event', namely the work of Alain Badiou. He has published work on what he calls a "non-correlational" form of phenomenology and his current project attempts to develop this form of phenomenology in relation to recent publications in critical phenomenology, the work of early Frankfurt School theorists, and Badiou's "objective phenomenology".

Areas of Specialization: Phenomenology, Critical Theory, Recent French Philosophy

Areas of Competence: Continental Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, Personal Identity, Standpoint Epistemology, Critical Phenomenology

Education: BA, University of Nevada, Reno; MA, University of Oregon; MA, Villanova University

Shawn Huberdeau

Huberdeau's undergraduate training was in analytic normative philosophy, especially Rawlsian theory and its Marxist and feminist critics. For the first MA at Concordia, Huberdeau studied twentieth century French and German philosophy. At Villanova this research has deepened by way of a focus on German idealism and its legacy in critical theory.

Areas of Specialization: 20th century French philosophy, especially Foucault, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and feminist philosophy

Areas of Competence: Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Marxism, Critical Theory, queer theory, history of philosophy of science

Education: BA, University of Manitoba; MA, Concordia University in Montréal

Jordan Johnson

Jordan comes to the Villanova PhD program after studying at the University of Scranton and he's interested in how philosophy can speak to emerging questions about technology and contemporary life. Outside of philosophy, he enjoys music, guitar, gaming and finding new places around Philadelphia.

Areas of Specialization: Continental Philosophy; Critical Theory

Areas of Competence: Kant; German Idealism; Hermeneutics; Philosophy of Technology

Education: BA, University of Scranton

Bela Khanna

Bela is a PhD student with a BA from Haverford College in Philosophy and English with Creative Writing. She is interested in identity, opacity, and consent paradigms, and is currently investigating a potentially productive disagreement between Foucauldian sexual subjection and the contemporary psychoanalytic notion of a politically salient desubjectivation or "shattering" in the confrontation with the Other. Bela believes that accessibility, diversity, and community make philosophy better.

Areas of Specialization: Phenomenology, feminist philosophy

Education: BA, Haverford College

Bryan Knittle

Areas of Specialization: 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Deleuze and Guattari (esp. Anti-Oedipus), Philosophy of Psychoanalysis

Areas of Competence: Phenomenology, Philosophy of Mind, Social and Political Philosophy

Education: MA, Philosophy, Villanova University; MA, Philosophy, California State University, Los Angeles; BA, Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley

Danielle Kutner

Danielle is an interdisciplinary scholar and organizer based in Western Massachusetts who works in critical theory, aesthetics and materialism.

Areas of Specialization: Critical Theory, Aesthetics, Materialism

Areas of Competence: Continental Philosophy, Kant

Education: BA Oklahoma City University; MA, Villanova University

Alexandra Rone Lang

Areas of interest: The philosophies of time, memory, beauty and death; dream and perception; 20th-century phenomenology; Levinas; Derrida; early Foucault

Education: BA, Northwestern

Thomas McGlone Jr

Thomas McGlone, Jr. is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Villanova University interested in European political philosophy (including J-J Rousseau, G.W.F. Hegel, and Karl Marx), Africana political philosophy (including Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Paulin Hountondji), continental philosophy, and the history of political thought and of value theory more broadly. Born and raised in the Delaware Valley, he is an incorrigible Philadelphia Eagles fan.

Areas of Specialization: Social-Political Philosophy, Critical Theory (esp. its roots in Marx, Hegel, and Rousseau), Africana Philosophy

Areas of Competence: Continental Philosophy (esp. 20th century Francophone), History of Political/Moral Thought, Value Theory 

Education: BA, Hofstra University; MA, Villanova University

Ella Mercer

Ella’s work explores the relationship between love and being, particularly what love reveals about what it means to exist and to encounter an other. Her research is grounded in French phenomenology and hermeneutics and is attentive to the ways literature and other forms of expression can illuminate experiences that are difficult to articulate.

Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of Love, Hermeneutics, Phenomenology and Philosophy of Literature

Education: BA and MA, Loyola Marymount University

Blake Perry

Blake's research focuses on Kant, German Idealism, Adorno, and Critical Theory, with special attention to anthropology, subjectivity, freedom, and the limits of reason. His dissertation, Aporetic Anthropology, examines Kant, Adorno, and Du Bois on the question of the human being.

Areas of Specialization: Kant and Post-Kantian Philosophy; German Idealism; Critical Theory; Social and Political Philosophy

Areas of Competence: Ethics; Early Modern Philosophy; Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy; Philosophy of Race; History of Philosophy

Education: BA., DePaul University; MA, Villanova University; PhD, Villanova University, expected 2026

Michael Poling

Michael is primarily interested in the convergence of phenomenology and psychoanalysis, engaging both traditions to explore questions concerning transference, intersubjectivity and social inheritance as well as the metabolization of experience, knowledge and expression.

Areas of Specialization: Transcendental Idealism

Areas of Competence: History of Early Modern & Modern Philosophy, Marxism, Critical Theory, Existentialism

Education: BA, Philosophy, NYU

Christopher Quasti

Chris primarily researches philosophy of psychiatry, medical/clinical ethics, and psychoanalysis. He is particularly interested in ethical issues that arise in mental healthcare and how bioenhancement technologies affect values and personal identity. He further seeks to understand how the concepts of alienation and autonomy unfold in psychotherapeutic settings and within the broader medical institution.

Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of Psychiatry, Medical/Clinical Ethics, Psychoanalysis, Applied Ethics

Education: MA, Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania; MSc, Philosophy and Public Policy, The London School of Economics; BA, Philosophy and Psychology, Temple University

Vishal Ramola

Vishal is interested in phenomenology, especially the work of Edmund Husserl. He is primarily concerned with using this tradition as a framework to develop an understanding of the forms and elements of cultural change.

Areas of Specialization: Continental Philosophy, 19th and 20th Century Philosophy

Education: BA, Boston University

Melanie Renaudin

Melanie works on the German Idealist (Kantian and Hegelian), and Psychoanalytic (Freudian) traditions. Currently, she is interested in questions of naturalism and materialism. She arrived at the Villanova philosophy department in 2025.

Areas of Specialization: German Idealism, Psychoanalysis, Critical Theory (first generation of the Frankfurt School)

Areas of Competence: Aristotle, Early Modern, Aesthetics

Education: BA, Boston College

Brendan Rome

Brendan primarily works at the intersection of Social and Political Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and the History and Philosophy of Science. He is especially interested in the relationship of knowledge production to ideological and normative questions, the relation of theory and practice, how subjectivity is developed, and how we navigate the fuzzy distinction between needs and desires. He also investigates these questions in the context of Decolonial Philosophy and Early Modern Philosophy.

Areas of Specialization: 19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Social and Political Philosophy, Critical Theory

Areas of Competence: Philosophy of Science (Especially Medicine and Psychology), Decolonial Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, Early Modern Philosophy, German Idealism

Education: MA, Philosophy, Villanova University; MA, Philosophy, University of New Mexico; BA, Philosophy and English, Macalester College

Timothy J. Schatz

Timothy is a philosophy doctoral student at Villanova University with a focus on 19th-20th century continental philosophy (esp. phenomenology) and the reception of ancient philosophy (esp. Aristotle). Their research gravitates toward the intersection of phenomenology and traditional ontological and metaphysical questions. Timothy also seeks to distill larger trends within the history of philosophy and develop phenomenological interpretations of non-phenomenological texts.

Areas of Specialization: French and German Phenomenology

Education: BS, Mathematics and Philosophy, University of Oregon; MA, Philosophy, Boston College

Gabriel Schendler

Gabriel (he/him) is a PhD Philosophy student at Villanova University. Prior to attending Villanova, he worked as a community organizer and nonprofit program manager focused on issues of educational inequity. His research areas are in Phenomenology, Social and Political Philosophy, and Decolonial Philosophy. His research is primarily concerned with questions of intersubjectivity and social transformation.

Areas of Specialization: Phenomenology (esp. Merleau-Ponty), Social and Political Philosophy, and De-/Anti-/and Post-Colonial Philosophy (esp. Caribbean and Latin American/Latine philosophy)

Areas of Competence: History of Philosophy (esp. 19th and 20th Century Continental), History of Political Thought, and Philosophy of Race

Education: BA, Philosophy, Earlham College; Masters of Social Work, The University of Chicago

Callum Sullivan

Callum works on transcedental idealism (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Steiner). Specifically, he is interested in the duality and unity of thinking and intution/observation, the systemtic exposition of the transcendental conditions of cognition, and the question of free will. He entered the PhD program at Villanova University in 2025.

Areas of Specialization: Transcendental Idealism

Education: BA, Philosophy, Cornell University

Sinan Turan

Sinan's research explores the intersections between Deleuze, Kant, and psychoanalysis. He is interested in Deleuze’s epistemological endeavor to formulate a rigorous philosophical concept of the unconscious as a productive, quasi-transcendental condition of representational experience, as well as the ethical possibilities of resistance which follow from the renewed practical theory of subjectivity that emerges from this analysis.

Areas of Specialization: Deleuze, Kant, Psychoanalysis

Areas of Competence: Critical Theory, Marxism, Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Literature and Film

Education: BA, Political Science, UCLA; MA, Philosophy, University College London

Peter Visscher

Peter specializes in Foucault, in particular his late ethical period. His research deals with the problems of subjectivity: both how we are formed by power relations, as well as to what degree these relations are historically contingent, and what opportunities for freedom and action we are afforded within our situation.

Areas of Specialization: Foucault, Phenomenology, 20th Century French Philosophy

Areas of Competence: Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Critical Theory, Kant, Classical Chinese Philosophy

Education: BA, New College of Florida; MA, Villanova University

Isaiah Wilkinson

Isaiah works primarily within the tradition of German Idealism and its philosophical consequences in the following centuries. Specifically he is interested in the methodology of Hegel's system, the history of German Idealism, and conceptions of freedom that motivated and flowed out of this tradition.

Areas of Specialization: German Idealism (Esp. Kant, Hegel, and the Jena Romantics), Critical Theory (Esp. Adorno, Marcuse, and Benjamin)

Areas of Competence: Political and Social Philosophy, Early Modern Philosophy, Rousseau

Education: BA, Political Science & Philosophy, University of New Brunswick; MA, Philosophy, Concordia University