Briefly
I'm a scholar-teacher with a passion for pursuing curiosity, creativity, improvisation, and liberation both in and out of the classroom. Since 2012, I've taught in the Philosophy department at Regis University in Denver, Colorado USA. I'm currently Associate Professor of Philosophy and our department chairperson (through 2024).
Research and Writing
I specialize in 20th and 21st century Continental philosophy and its conversation with the History of Philosophy. I also pursue interests in metaphysics (questions of being, becoming, and change), philosophical logic, critical phenomenology (especially critical race phenomenology and whiteness studies), aesthetics, and art-making.
Selected Publications
Recently Published
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
"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.
Work in Progress and Under Review
"'How Ought We To Live?' Four Lessons from Medieval Philosophy." With M. Barnosky, T. Jones, V-E. Lucero, M. Noriega, W. Nunley, D. Omoomy, A. Ortiz, M. Romanowski, M. Singh, and J. Werner. Under consideration for publication in Jesuit Higher Education: a Journal (fall 2022 issue).
"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).
"Three Stories about Decision: Badiou, Parmenides, and the Persistence of Thinking Being" 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 (in press, forthcoming from Edinburgh University Press).
Translation of Alain Badiou, "Ontologie et mathématiques: Théorie des Ensembles, théorie des Catégories, et théorie des Infinis, dans L'Être et l'événement, Logiques des mondes, et L'Immanence des Verites."
"Cognitive Dissonance, Loving Perception, and Empathetic Capacity." Conference paper in preparation.
Recent Presentations
"The Uninvited Guest: Settler Logics and Hospitality." Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy, Texas State University San Marcos, June 2022.
"The Uninvited Guest: Hospitality, Responsibility, and Possibility." Decolonization and Poststructuralism online conference, universidad Compultense Madrid. February 2022.
“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.
Teaching and Course Development
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:
Education
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)
About Me
I was born and raised in the Denver area and have lived in Denver for most of my life. I enjoy Pittsburgh Pirates baseball, lifting heavy things, noodles in broth, reading speculative and science fiction, film, and hanging around with our basenji comrades, Luke and Lucille. I appeared on an episode of Jeopardy! in 2008. I did not win.