I specialize in 20th and 21st century Continental philosophy, with interests in metaphysics (questions of being, becoming, and change), philosophical logic, critical phenomenology (especially critical race phenomenology and whiteness studies), aesthetics, and art-making. This work is informed by my rigorous training in the history of philosophy. I am concerned with how ideas appear in their original contexts, and I contend this attention is a helpful guide for understanding ideas in contemporary settings.

With S. Andarge, N. Aranda, J. Brady, T.M. Charfauros, K. Coakley, and R. Worles, "Erlebnis, Tarrying, and Thinking Again after George Yancy." In George Yancy: a Critical Introduction, edited by Kimberley Ducey, Clevis E. Headley, and Joe R. Feagin (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021), pp. 29-47.

"Guests in the Out-Side: Becoming, Knowing, and Acting in Jane Bennett's Vital Materialism," Philosophy in the Contemporary World: An International Journal 27:2 (Spring/Summer 2021), 20-43. https://doi.org/10.5840/pcw20212712

"Alain Badiou." Entry in Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers (2020). DOI 10.5040/9781350999992.0041 (subscription required).

"Collision: Voices of Water." Evental Aesthetics: Aesthetic Intersections 3, vol. 9:1 (2020), 55-67. Open Access online: https://eventalaesthetics.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/EAV9N1_2020_Vartabedian_Water_55_67.pdf

(Monograph) Multiplicity and Ontology in Deleuze and Badiou. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319768366

"Negation, Structure, Transformation: Alain Badiou and the New Metaphysics." In Open Philosophy topical issue, "The New Metaphysics: Analytic/Continental Crossovers" (2018): 213-222. Open Access online: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opphil.2018.1.issue-1/opphil-2018-0015/opphil-2018-0015.xml?format=INT

Interview - Blog of the American Philosophical Association, Early Career Research Spotlight (November 2017)

"Allowances, Affordances, and the Collaborative Constitution of Identity.” Perspectives International Postgraduate Journal in Philosophy, vol. 5 (2014), 58-74.

"Should We Condemn Michael?” in Ultimate LOST and Philosophy: Think Together, Die Alone, ed. Sharon Kaye (Wiley, 2010), 233-241. Also appeared as “Should We Condemn Michael for Saving Walt?” in LOST and Philosophy: The Island Has Its Reasons, ed. Sharon Kaye (Blackwell, 2007), 18-25.

"Special Effects, Special Status: Lie, Visual Effects, and Stephen Prince’s Perceptual Realism,” Cinemascope 10 (Jan.-June 2008), special issue: Falsehood and Cinema, ed. Mariangela Fornaro, http://www.cinemascope.it.

Review of James Dreier, ed., Contemporary Debates in Moral Theory (Blackwell, 2006), Teaching Philosophy 30:1 (March 2007), 132-134.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

"The Event in Alain Badiou's Being and Event Trilogy." In preparation for 21st Century Philosophy of Events: Beyond the Analytic/Continental Divide. James Bahoh, Marta Cassina, and Sergio Genovese, eds. (volume proposed to Edinburgh University Press).

"Decision, Annulment, and Periodization: Eleatic Resources in Badiou's Oeuvre." In preparation for M = O? Rereading Alain Badiou's Mathematical Ontology 30 Years After Being and Event. Tzuchien Tho and Mirna Dzamonja, eds. (volume under contract with Suture Press).

"The Pleasures of the Problem: Path, Decision, and Annulment in Parmenides and Badiou." in preparation for Practice: Encounters with Antiquity, eds. Ryan Johnson, Jacob Greenstine, and Dave Mesing (volume under contract with Edinburgh University Press).

“Local Time.” Second Temporal Belongings International Conference: Material Life of Time. March 2021.

“Nurturing the Four Natures – Mind.” Choosing the Goodness and Understanding the Choice Workshop, facilitated by Dr. Trudi Wright. Online, March 2021.

“Decolonial Strategies in Education: Here and Abroad,” with Naomi Olson, Ph.D., Josie Brady, Tricia Charfauros, and Grace Warner. The Sixth Annual Internationalization Summit, University of Denver, April 2019.

“Construction and Demonstration as Ontological Method.” Duquesne University History and Philosophy of Science Graduate Seminar, April 2019.

“Who is this TED, and Why does he Talk So Much?” Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry (D-Phi) panel and discussion with Buntport Theater. Denver East High School, April 2019.

“Using a ‘Four-Corners’ Approach to Initiate Challenging Conversations.” All-Faculty Teaching Institute. Regis University, August 2018.

I offer courses in the history of philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy's relationship to art, and philosophy’s intersections with race, gender, and sexuality. Each of my courses are built on the commitment to philosophy as a tool that provides those who engage it with the critical awareness and skills necessary to transform the present for a better future. A sampling of recent courses at these crossings include:

• Special Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy and Creativity
• Philosophy in Practice
• Topics in Metaphysics: The Event
• Philosophy and Social Issues: Precarious Bodies
• Philosophy/Art

• 19th Century Philosophy
• 20th Century Philosophy: Phenomenology
• Contemporary Currents: Continental Philosophy in the 21st Century
• Medieval Philosophy

• Hospitality, Justice, and the Common Good
• Refugees, Resources, Resettlement
• Thanksgiving Dinner

My academic preparation is pluralistic; my work with contemporary Continental philosophy is informed by extensive training in the history of philosophy and work with Analytic philosophy.

Ph.D., Philosophy, Duquesne University

M. Humanities, Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies: Philosophy and Film Studies, University of Colorado Denver

M.A., Philosophy of Religion (Honors), Denver Seminary

B.A., Philosophy and History, Regis University (Regis College)