I design courses so that students begin to see through the eyes of others. Key thinkers are located in their material cultural contexts to illuminate their most significant ideas. Students thus foster cognitive empathy for viewpoints that often differ from their own. While my primary expertise concerns eighteenth to twentieth-century thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, Hannah Arendt or Emmanuel Levinas, I also feature ancient and medieval thinkers such as Avicenna, Al Ghazali, Dogen, Nagarjuna, Shankara, Maimonides, Anselm or Julian of Norwich. Critical evaluation of their interventions in the debates of their times helps to inform students about how to face contemporary challenges.

We live in complex information cultures that benefit from the intersubjective habits of mind my courses promote. Such habits are embedded in the marking rubrics I use to assess a student’s ability to prove their argument, evaluate concepts in context, as well as apply well-researched primary and secondary sources of evidence. We may have tremendous power to access information through digital devices, but this does not inevitably result in the skills necessary to deliberate meaningfully amidst diverse human beings. It seems to me that Kant's enlightenment challenge, sapere aude [dare to be wise], remains ever out in front of us.

The following courses feature in the University of Newcastle’s Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education (Secondary) degrees.

1000 Level

• World Religions introduces the principal features of the world's major religions through reference to key events, characters, beliefs and related phenomena. A range of thinkers are discussed such as Philo of Alexandria, Origen of Caesarea Maritima, Muhammad Rumi, Dogen Zenji [Kigen], Julian of Norwich, Theodor Herzl, Mohandas Gandhi and Vine Deloria Jr.

• Virtual Religion explores religious themes in a sampling of global cinema, streamed media, video games and virtual reality simulated experiences. It aims to help students begin to interpret their visual styles, narrative constructions, technological interactions and historical contexts.

2000 Level

• Philosophy of Religion examines a number of issues which came to the fore in the ancient, medieval, early modern, enlightenment and later periods such as proofs for the existence of God, various conceptions of transcendence, the nature of the self, the concept of religion, and the relation of religious and scientific forms of inquiry. Thinkers to be considered may include Aurelius Augustine, Avicenna, Moses Maimonides, Anselm, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Buber and Simone Weil.

• Suffering: Comparative Studies investigates diverse reflections upon the nature of human and other forms of suffering. It develops comparative methodologies in the academic study of religion and philosophy in order to help students evaluate divergent viewpoints on the topic. Thinkers discussed may include Gottfried Leibniz, Al Ghazali, Immanuel Kant, Nagarjuna, Arthur Schopenhauer, William James, W.E.B. Du Bois, René Girard, Hannah Arendt and Emmanuel Levinas.

• Religion in Political Thought examines the complex relationship between religion and politics. It analyses key concepts developed by political philosophers and their impact upon how religion came to be understood in democratic societies. Thinkers discussed may include Thomas Hobbes, Benedict Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, G. W. F. Hegel, John Dewey, Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas.

• 2024-26, Deputy Head of School Teaching and Learning, School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences

• 2018-26, Discipline Liaison, Studies of Religion

• 2019-23, Academic Representative, College Teaching and Learning Committee, College of Human and Social Futures

• 2023, Historical, Cultural and Critical Inquiry Coordinator, Academic Work Allocation Model (AWAM) Committee, School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences

• 2019-22, Leader, Historical, Cultural and Critical Inquiry Group

• 2019, Member, B.A. Honours Revitalization Working Group (2019 Faculty of Education and Arts Dean’s Award for Collaboration Excellence)

• 2012-17, Convenor, Religion Courses in the B.A. Philosophy and Religion Major

• 2012-17, Convenor, Religion Honours, M.Phil. and Ph.D. Research

• 2016, Head of Discipline, Philosophy and Religion

• 2016, Member, B.A. Revitalization Working Group (2017 Faculty of Education and Arts Dean’s Award for Collaboration Excellence)

• 2012-16, Convenor, Theology Programs (Dip.Th, B.Th, B.Th Honours)

• 2012-13, Convenor and Lead Investigator, Religion in Political Life Research Program

• 2011-12, Convenor, Research Group for Religious and Intellectual Traditions