CURRICULUM VITAE
PRESENT POSITION
Assistant Professor, Department
of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross, Fall 2007-
PAST APPOINTMENTS
Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Turin, October 2009-March 2010
Associate Member, University Seminar on Comparative Philosophy, Columbia University, Fall 2008 - Spring 2009
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION AND OF COMPETENCE
AOS: Metaphysics; Philosophy of Biology; Philosophy of Food
AOC: Early Modern Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Epistemology; Logic; Philosophy of Language; Philosophy of Action; Aesthetics; Interdisciplinary: Classics of Western Ethical and Political Thought
EDUCATION
Columbia University, New York, NY, 2001 -
2007
Ph.D. in Philosophy, May 2007
Dissertation Title: 'On the Necessity and Sufficiency of Universals'
Dissertation Committee: Achille C. Varzi (advisor); Christia Mercer;
John D. Collins; Gyula Klima; Jan Westerhoff
M.Phil. in Philosophy, May 2004
M.A. in Philosophy, May 2002
Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence,
Italy, 1996 - 2000
Laurea in Philosophy, October 2000
Dissertation Title: "David K. Lewis’s Theory of
Possibility"
Main Advisor: prof. Massimo Mugnai
Honors: Summa Cum Laude
PUBLICATIONS
-
Books
- David K. Lewis: guida per gli increduli [David K. Lewis: Guide for the Incredulous], Carocci Editore, Rome, under contract
- Questioni di vita.Un'introduzione alla filosofia della biologia [Life Matters: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology] (with Elena Casetta), Carocci Editore, Rome, under contract
- Il genio compreso. La filosofia di Saul Kripke [A Genius Understood. The Philosophy of Saul Kripke] (with C. Hughes, M. Santambrogio, and A.C. Varzi), Carocci Editore, Rome, 2010, ISBN: 9788843054022
- Che cos'è la possibilità [Possibility: What Is It?], Carocci Editore, Rome, 2009, ISBN: 9788843048045
- 'On Being the Same Wine', Rivista di estetica (special issue on wine edited by N. Perullo), forthcoming
- 'The Metaphysics of the Thin Red Line' (with G. Torrengo) in Around the Tree, F. Correia and A. Iacona, (eds.), Kluwer, Synthèse Library: Dordrecht, forthcoming
- 'One More Reason Not to Tense the Copula', Logic and Philosophy 1, forthcoming
- 'Natural Properties, Supervenience, and Mereology' (with G. Lando), Humana.Mente 19: 79-104
- 'Universalism and the Argument from Indifference', in A. Hall and G. Klima (ed.), The Demonic Temptations of Medieval Nominalism, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, 2011: 25-37
- 'Lessons from the Scientific Butchery' (with M.H. Slater), in J. Campbell, M. O'Rourke, and M.H. Slater (ed.), Carving Nature at Its Joints. Topics in Contemporary Philosophy. Vol 8, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), 2011: 1-32
- 'On the Logic of Soccer Patronage' (with A. Baldini), Soccer and Society 12 (2011): 569-585
- 'What Is a True Ribollita? Memory and the Quest for Authentic Food', in T. Piazza (ed.), Secret and Memory in the Information Age, Afrontamento, Porto, 2010: 95-108
- 'Generals and Particulars', The Analytic Way: Proceedings of the Sixth European Conference of Analytic Philosophy, College Publications (King's College), London, 2010: 379-395
- 'When a Soccer Club Becomes a Mirror' (with A. Baldini), in E.T. Richards (ed.), Soccer and Philosophy, Open Court, 2010: 302-316
- 'Dispositions and Their Intentions' in Debating Dispositions: Issues in Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Mind, Gregor Damschen, Robert Schnepf and Karsten R. Stueber (eds), Berlin: DeGruyter, 2009:
- 'Why I Am Not A Tropist', in M. Okada and B. Smith (eds.), Proceedings of the First Interdisciplinary Ontology Meeting (InterOntology 2008), Tokyo, Japan, 2008: 93-98
- 'A Dispositional Theory of Possibility'(with Neil E. Williams), Dialectica 62 (2008): 21-41
- 'Counting Individuals with Leibniz', in H. Berger, J. Herbst, and S. Erdner (eds.), VIII Internazionaler Leibniz Kongress: Einheit in der Vielheit, Hannover, 2006, Vol. 1: 76-83
- 'Event Location and Vagueness' (with Achille C. Varzi), Philosophical Studies 128 (2006): 313-336
- 'Counterpart Theory Vindicated: A Reply to Merricks', Dialectica 59 (2005): 67-74
- 'Metafisica' [Metaphysics] in T. Andina (ed.), Filosofia contemporanea: di che cosa si occupano oggi i filosofi [Contemporary Philosophy: What Philosophers Study Today], Carocci Editore, Rome, forthcoming
- 'Quel che resta dei generi naturali' (with Elena Casetta) ['Natural Kinds: What's Left'], Rivista di estetica, forthcoming
- 'Tratti, sessi e generi. Un dialogo' (with Elena Casetta) ['Traits, Sexes, and Genders. A Dialogue'], Rivista di bioetica 19 (2011): 35-53.
- 'Ermes e Afrodite. Un dialogo' [Hermes and Aphrodite. A Dialogue], Rescogitans, 7.11.2010
- 'David K. Lewis', Analytical and Philosophical Explanation 2 (2010)
- 'Geni, ricette e integrazione' ['Genes, Recipes, and Integration'], Zoon Politikon 2010 - Volume I. On Democracy and Social Integration, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2010: 369-378
- 'Essere (categoricamente) e poter essere e non essere' ['On Being (Categorically), and Being Potentially and Not Being'], Verità. Annuario e bollettino della società italiana per la filosofia analitica 2010, Mimesis, Milano, 2011: 251-259.
- 'Esistono proprietà intrinseche?' ['Are There Intrinsic Properties?'], Rivista di estetica, 43 (2010): 231-245
- 'La durata naturale di un genere naturale' ['The Natural Time of a Natural Kind'], Rivista di estetica, 39 (2008): 87-99
- 'I marchi di origine e i miraggi del nominalismo legislativo' ['Labels of Protected Origin And The Mirage of Legal Nominalism'], Rescogitans, 5.2.2008
- 'Onestà intellettuale e globalizzazione: come cambierà la filosofia?' ['Intellectual Honesty and Globalization: How Philosophy Is Going to Change'], Rescogitans, 1.24.2008
- 'Generale e particolare' ['General and Particular'], in Chora V, 14 (2007): 27-36
- 'Introduzione' ['Introduction'], Annali del Dipartimento di Filosofia, XII (2007): 173-180
- 'Virtù e vizi del concretismo' ['Virtues and Vices of Concretism'], Annali del Dipartimento di Filosofia, XII (2007): 181-193
- 'Quante cose ci sono in Piazza dei Miracoli?' ['How Many Things Are There in Piazza dei Miracoli?'], Rescogitans, 12.17.2005
- 'Un Mondo di Possibilità. Realismo Modale Senza Mondi Possibili' ['One World of Possibilities. Modal Realism Without Possibile Worlds'], Rivista di estetica, 26 (2004): 91-104
- 'Oggetti Possibili e Oggetti Esistenti. La teoria di David K. Lewis' ['Possible and Existent Objects:David K. Lewis’s Theory'], Kykeyon, March 2002: 67-77
- 'Review of Y. Dolev, Time and Realism', Humana.Mente 8 (2009): 173-176
- 'Review of J. Westerhoof, Ontological Categories', 2R 3 (2006-2007): 113-124
- 'Review of S. Morini and P. Perconti, E-mail Filosofiche', in Rivista di Estetica 32 (2006): 129-131
Preprints - 'The Relational Species Concept', Proceedings of the Ohio Philosophical Association, Volume 6 (2009), http://proceedings.ohiophilosophy.org/006007
Varia - 2009 Questions (passim) in J. Searle, Coscienza, Linguaggio, Società [Consciousness, Language, Society], Rosenberg & Sellier, Turin, ISBN: 978-88-7885-079-8
Magazine Articles - 'Meno male che l'OGM c'è' ('Glad GMOs Are Here'), Intelligence in Lifestyle 37 (January 2012): 148-149
- 'Ribollita metafisica' ('A Metaphysical Ribollita'), Intelligence in Lifestyle 36 (December 2011): 170
- 'Lezioni di macelleria scientifica' ('Lessons of Butchery and Science'), Intelligence in Lifestyle 35 (November 2011): 216-218
- 'Cibo, per piacere' ['Food, for Pleasure'], Intelligence in Lifestyle 34 (October 2011): 246
- 'Il cibo e il suo rimosso geografico' ['Food and Its Geographical Discharge'] Alfabeta2 11, July 4th 2011: 28
Articles in English
Articles in Italian
Reviews
Encyclopedia Entries
'Dispositional properties', 'Extrinsic/intrinsic', 'Ontological Committment',
'Individual', 'Natural Law', 'Metaphysics', 'Necessity', 'Ontology', 'Formal Ontology', 'Possibility', 'Principle of individuation',
'Property', 'Possible World Semantics', 'Supervenience', 'Tropes', 'Universal-particolar',
'Dispute on Universals' in L. Floridi and G.P. Terravecchia (eds.), Le parole della filosofia contemporanea [Words of Contemporary Philosophy], Roma: Carocci Editore, 2009, ISBN: 9788843050031
Translations
Translated the following texts in Achille C. Varzi (ed.), La Metafisica Analitica: Antologia di Testi [Analytic Metaphysics: An Antology], Bari: Laterza, 2008, ISBN: 9788842083825
- D.M. Armstrong, 'Properties', in Kevin Mulligan (ed.), Language, Truth, and Ontology, Reidel, Dordrecht 1992: 14-27
- D.K. Lewis, 'Composition as Identity', in Id., Parts of Classes, Blackwell, Oxford 1991: 75-87
- D.K. Lewis, 'Against Overlap', in Id., On the Plurality of Worlds, Blackwell, Oxford 1986: 202-204
- D.K. Lewis, 'Causation', Journal of Philosophy, 70 (1973): 556-567
- T. Sider, 'All World’s a Stage', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74 (1996): 433-453
- D.C. Williams, 'The Elements of Being (I)', Review of Metaphysics, 7 (1953): 3-18
PRESENTATIONS
-
In English
- 'More Polenta, Less Cous-Cous: On Biological and Cultural (Dis)Integration', The Languages of Food: Exploring Representations of the Culinary within Arts, Cornell University (NY, USA), April 13-14, 2012
- 'The Paradox of the Mindful Eater', Mindful Body in Healing and the Arts, Florida Atlantic University, Center for Body, Mind and Culture, Boca Raton, January 19-20, 2011
- 'Educational Systems: A Comparison Between USA and Italy Through Food', University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo (Italy), December 19, 2011
- 'I Am, Therefore I Eat', Life! Motions, Motives, Emotions, UCLA (California, USA), November 17-19, 2011
- 'Getting Nomic Necessity Out of Dispositions', Sixth Latin Meeting in Analytic Philosophy, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon, November 2-4, 2011
- 'Natural Properties, Supervenience, and Composition' (with Giorgio Lando), Another World Is Possible: Conference on David Lewis, Urbino (Italy), June 16-18, 2011
- 'Commentator of J. Divers 'Lewis - He Himself! - on the Analysis of Modality', Another World Is Possible: Conference on David Lewis, Urbino (Italy), June 16-18, 2011
- 'Getting Nomic Necessity Out of Dispositions', International Workshop: Knowledge and Modality, L'Aquila (Italy), June 8-10, 2011,
- 'Identity and Development' (with Marco J. Nathan), Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science, Toronto (Canada), May 13-15, 2011
- 'Identity and Development' (with Marco J. Nathan), College of the Holy Cross, Worcester (Mass., USA), February 10, 2011
- Diachronic Identity in Biology and Philosophy' (with Marco J. Nathan), Triennial Conference of the Italian Society for Philosophy of Science, Bergamo (Italy), December 15-17, 2010
- 'Lewis on Fundamentality and Composition' (with Giorgio Lando), Metaphysics, Language and Morality: International Philosophical Colloquium, Zagreb (Croatia), December 1-3, 2010
- 'Diachronic Identity in Biology and Philosophy' (with Marco J. Nathan), Ninth National Conference of the Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy, Padua (Italy), September 23-25, 2010
- Commentator of A. Voltolini 'All the Existences that There Are', 'Word and Object' Fifty Years Later, Università di Roma 'La Sapienza', Rome (Italy), May 28-29, 2010
- 'Geographic Indications and the Respect for Food Milieux', Political Ecology and Environmental Philosophy, Colby College, Maine (USA), April 9-10, 2010
- Commentator of Hugo Tristram Engelhardt's 'The Pluralistic Ethical Scenario in Western Societies' and John Harris's 'New Possibilities in Medicine and New Ethical Choices', XIII Conference: Immune Pathology and Orphan Diseases, Turin (Italy), January 21-23, 2010
- 'One More Reason Not to Tense the Copula', 2009 Latin Meeting in Analytic Philosophy, L’Aquila, September 8-10, 2009 (with comments by Fabrice Correia)
- 'The Ultimate Soccer Patronage: Or, When a Club Becomes a Mirror' (with A. Baldini) [in absentia, paper delivered by A. Baldini], IAPS 2009, Seattle, August 27-30, 2009
- 'What Does a Geographic Indication Indicate?', State Sovereignity, International Law, and Ecological Integrity, Florence (Italy), June 25-30, 2009
- 'The Relational Species Concept', Ohio Philosophical Association, Athens (OH), April 4, 2009 (with comments by Madeline Muntersbjorn)
- 'Memory and the Quest for Authentic Foods', Seminario Internacional: Segredo e Memoria na era da Informação, Porto, December 15-16, 2008
- Commentator of Jan Westerhoff's 'Philosophical Problems from Nāgārjuna's Vigrahavyāvartanī', Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy, New York, December 12, 2008
- 'Universalism and The Argument From Indifference', Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics, Creighton University, October 31-November 2, 2008
- 'Universalism and The Argument From Indifference', Eight National Conference of the Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy, Bergamo (Italy), September 25-27, 2008
- 'General and Particular', Workshop on Meta-metaphysics, ECAP, Cracow, August 21-26, 2008
- 'The Natural Time Of A Natural Kind', INCP 2008, University of Idaho, March 15-17, 2008
- 'Why I am Not A Tropist', InterOntology08, Tokyo, February 26-27, 2008
- Commentator of Raul Saucedo 'Parthood and Location', Columbia-NYU Graduate Conference, New York (NY), March 3, 2007
- 'General and Particular', Fordham University, New York (USA), February 5, 2007
- 'General and Particular', College of the Holy Cross, Worcester (USA), January 30, 2007
- 'Counting Individuals with Leibniz', VIIIth International Leibniz Congress, Hannover (Germany), July 24-29, 2006
- Commentator of Carrie Figdor’s 'What Is an Extrinsic Property?', Meeting of the Long Island Philosophical Society, NYIT, Old Westbury (NY), October 16, 2004
- 'From Properties to Individuals', Sixth National Conference of the Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy, Genova (Italy), September 23-25, 2004
- 'A Dispositional Theory of Possibility', Workshop on Relations, Variables and Order, Geneva (Switzerland), June 4-8, 2004
- 'The Relational Species Concept', UCSD Graduate Conference in Philosophy of Science, La Holla (CA), 11-13 April, 2003
- Commentator of Katherine Dunlop’s 'Berkeley Metaphysical Objections to the Calculus', Columbia-NYU Graduate Conference, New York (NY), March 29-30, 2003
- 'Vagueness and Event Names', Fifth National Conference of the Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy, Bergamo (Italy), October 3-5, 2002
In Italian
- 'You Eat What You Are', panel presentation with Nicola Perullo (University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo, Italy) and Marco Bolasco (editor in chief, Slow Food Editore), Italian Food: Fact and Fiction, The Umbria Institute, Perugia (Italy), June 8-9, 2012
- 'Some Remarks on Composition as Identity and Plurals', Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy), March 8, 2011
- 'Genders, Sexes, and Sexual Characters' (with Elena Casetta), Fourth Italian Conference on Analytic Ontology, Bergamo (Italy), June 17-18, 2010
- 'Naïve vs Mediated Representations of a City' (with Matteo Pericoli and Luca Morena), Department of Architecture, Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin (Italy), May 24, 2010
- 'Lewis on Recombination and Individuality', Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy), May 4, 2010
- 'Lewis on Intrinsicness', Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy), April 27, 2010
- 'Genders, Sexes, Sexual Traits', Department of Biology, Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin (Italy), April 20, 2010
- 'Living vs Non-Living', Department of Biology, Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin (Italy), April 19, 2010
- Expert moderator for the panel on 'Food Sustainability', Fourth Session, Democrazia 2.0: Sustainability, Turin (Italy), March 1-4, 2010
- 'What Is Life, On Paper?', XIth Labont Workshop: Monumentum.doc, Turin (Italy), January 11-12, 2010
- 'Genes, Recipes, and Cultural Integration', Sixth Italian-American Conference: Societies in the 21st Century, Pisa (Italy), October 15-17, 2009
- 'The Natural Time of a Natural Kind', Third Italian Conference on Analytic Ontology, Turin (Italy), November 15-16, 2007
- 'A World of Universals', Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua (Italy), February 19, 2007
- 'General and Particular', Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Bergamo (Italy), May 31, 2006
- 'Possible Worlds', Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence (Italy), May 25, 2006
- 'Are There Intrinsic Properties?', Second Italian Conference on Analytic Ontology, Pisa (Italy), July 5-7, 2005
- 'One World of Possibilities. Modal Realism Without Possible Worlds', First Italian Conference on Analytic Ontology, Padua (Italy), July 7-9, 2003
- 'Desires', LOA-CNR, Trento (Italy), May 21, 2003
- 'Parts and Participants', LOA-CNR, Trento (Italy), May 20, 2003
- 'What is 'Acquaintance'? ', Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua (Italy), May 6, 2001
Public Lectures - 'Food and Space', Food and ..., Santa Croce sull'Arno (Pisa, Italy), June 4, 2010
- 'Bioethics and Enhancement', Federazione Malattie Rare Infantili, Turin (Italy), October 20, 2009
- 'Le stravaganze dell'ordinario' ('On the Oddities of the Ordinary'), Scuola Media "Domenico Cavalca", Vicopisano (Italy), December 18, 2008
Lecture Series
Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy Department, Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin (Italy), September 21 - October 28, 2009
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Courses
Department of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester,
MA
I Esteem, Therefore I Eat (first-year seminar), Spring 2012
I Mean, Therefore I Eat (first-year seminar), Fall 2012
Metaphysics, Spring 2012, Fall 2008, Fall 2007
Topics in Metaphysics: Kinds in Nature and Society (upper level seminar) Spring 2011
Philosophy of Biology, Spring 2011, Spring 2009
Introduction to Philosophy, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2008, Fall 2007
Tutorial: Philosophy of Food, Spring 2011, Spring 2008
Symbolic Logic, Fall 2010
How Then Shall We Eat? (first-year seminar), Spring 2009
Food: What Is It? (first-year seminar), Fall 2008
Theory of Knowledge, Spring 2008
Early Modern Philosophy, Fall 2007
Columbia College Core Curriculum, Columbia
University, New York, NY
Contemporary Western Civilization
II, Spring 2006, Spring 2005
Contemporary Western Civilization
I, Fall 2004, Fall 2005
Department of Philosophy, Columbia University,
New York, NY
Summer 2005, History of Philosophy: from Aquinas
to Kant
Teaching Assistant
Columbia College, Columbia University, New York, NY
Fall 2006, Introduction to the Philosophy of Art, prof.
Macalester Bell
Spring 2004, History
of Philosophy: from Aquinas to Kant, prof. Christia Mercer
Fall 2003, Symbolic Logic, prof. Achille
Varzi
Spring 2003, History of Philosophy: from
Aquinas to Kant, prof. Christia Mercer
Barnard College, New York, NY
Fall 2003, Morality, Self and Society, prof.
Andrew Cross
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Ardizzone Junior Faculty Excellence Award, Summer 2011, College of the Holy Cross
Research and Publication Grant, Fall 2010, College of the Holy Cross
Research and Publication Grant, Spring 2009, College of the Holy Cross
Vittorio Sainati Dissertation Prize, 2008 Edition, Pisa (Italy), special mention
Charles and Rosanna Batchelor (Ford) Foundation Grant, Summer 2008, College of the Holy Cross
GSAS Fellowship, 2001-2007, Department of Philosophy,
Columbia University
Bowdery Fellowship, 2006-2007, Columbia University, Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences
Lina Kahn Essay Prize, 2005, Department
of Philosophy, Columbia University
Core Curriculum Summer Fellowship, Summers of 2005 and 2006, Columbia College, Columbia University
GSAS Summer Fellowship, Summer 2003, Department of Philosophy,
Columbia University
Class of 2000 Award, 2000, Università degli
Studi di Firenze, Florence (Italy) to the earliest graduates in the class
High School Achievement Award, 1996, Università
degli Studi di Firenze, Florence (Italy), to the freshmen entering with the
highest grades