Harrison Jackson is a Ph.D. student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. They have an MA in philosophy from the New School for Social Research, and a BA in philosophy and history from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Their current work focuses on phenomenology, social and political philosophy, process philosophy, and critical theory. More specifically, they are interested in intersubjectivity, especially the influence of culture, context, imagination, and discourse on ideology and identity. They utilize a multidisciplinary approach that draws on the interrelations between history, psychology, biology, and sociology in constituting personal and social reality.
Danica Jenck is an M.A. student in Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She earned her B.A. in Philosophy and Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies from Eastern Washington University June 2021, graduating with the Dean’s Student Excellence Award for the College of Arts, Letters, and Education and the Frances B. Huston Medallion Award. She has presented at undergraduate and national conferences on research focused in Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, American Philosophy, and culture. She is in residence at AIPCT as a research assistant for the foreseeable future.
Melissa Lay Was born in Eastern Iowa, but lived in the Black Hills area for 15 years before moving to Carbondale, Illinois in 2022. Is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Melissa attended Cornell College of Liberal Arts in Mount Vernon, Iowa for four years, studying Studio Art and Philosophy, on a vocal performance scholarship and remains active in local choirs. She also writes poetry and creates music with her husband, Benjamin, partner in all things creative. Melissa is currently finishing her BA at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, and plans to pursue graduate studies at SIU and eventually teach Philosophy. Her philosophical interests include the stoics, existentialists, pragmatists, personhood, process philosophy and several other schools of thought. She is also interested in the study of religion, theology, post-colonial theory, indigenous philosophy, and ethics.
Christian Murray completed his MA this spring in the Department of History at the University of Mississippi in 2024, where also worked as a Library Student Assistant in Metadata and Digital Initiatives. Christian received a prestigious fellowship to continue his studies at the Ph.D. level at the University of Michigan beginning fall 2024. He received a BA in Communication Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2021), pursuing Intellectual History and the Digital Humanities. During the first few years of his undergrad, and from his own energies, he created the Founders Club. This digital project studies the ideas and events surrounding the framing of the American republic in order to create short video essays for public education. The Founders Club has partnered with the AIPCT to create a series on the Roots of American Political Thought.
Leslie M. Murray is a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His M.A. in philosophy was completed in spring 2018 with a thesis on the philosophical ideas of Gifford Pinchot on conservation, democracy, and ecological flourishing. He was a recipient of the prestigious McNair Fellowship as an undergraduate at SIUC with a thesis on the philosophical principles of evolution, general relativity, and time. He has presented papers at several national and international meetings and has published a translation (with Randall Auxier) of Bruno Latour’s “What Will You Gain If You Save Your Soul but Lose the Earth?” in Philosophy without Borders. He was a resident scholar of AIPCT from November 2021 until March 2022 working on a dissertation tentatively entitled: “The Dislocation of Persons: A Systematic Narrative Ontology.”