Faculty
Geoff Chaplin
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Religion
B.A., Oberlin College
A.M., University of Chicago
Email: gchaplin@hkcolico.com
Phone: 319.399.8133
Geoff Chaplin is an intellectual historian specializing in the religious thought of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformations. He has published translations of the work of Francois Fenelon (1650-1715).
Chris Hatchell, Chair
Associate Professor of Religion and Stead Family Professor of Religion
B.A., Columbia University
Ph.D., University of Virginia
Email: chatchell@hkcolico.com
Phone: 319.399.8618
Chris Hatchell teaches in the field of Asian religions, with particular interests in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Daoism. His research focuses on Tibet, especially the Bön religion and a system of philosophy and practice called the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen). His current project is a translation of a Tibetan text known as the Zermik (gzer mig), which is a biography of the founder of the Bön tradition, Tönpa Shenrab. Some of his other favorite topics are Indian and Tibetan tantra, Buddhist cosmology, contemporary Tibetan literature and film, digital initiatives in Tibetan Studies, and Tibetan music and games. American old-time music is also a major interest - banjo and fiddle players are welcome to stop by his office.
Jeffrey Hoover
Howard Hall Professor of Philosophy
B.A., Eastern Mennonite College
M.A., Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Email: jhoover@hkcolico.com
Phone: 319.399.8685
Jeff Hoover's principal areas of teaching and scholarly interest are in post-Enlightenment continental European philosophy and in political theory. At Coe he regularly teaches Late Modern Philosophy (from Kant to Marx); Existentialism (Nietzsche to Sartre) Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy (Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Critical Theory); Philosophy of Gender and Race; and Freedom and Authority (a course in political philosophy). He has published on post-Enlightenment figures including Schleiermacher and Hegel, but has also written on more contemporary issues in political theory involving identity politics and minority representation. Another passion of his, and now research interest, involves the arts and letters of late medieval/renaissance Italy, leading recently to a year as visiting faculty in Florence and also to a Coe May-term in Italy.
Meira Z. Kensky
Joseph E. McCabe Associate Professor of Religion and
Director of Advising
B.A. Sarah Lawrence College
M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago
Email: mkensky@hkcolico.com
Phone: 319.399.8628
Meira Z. Kensky is currently the Joseph E. McCabe Associate Professor of Religion at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA. Kensky received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Biblical Studies (New Testament) from the University of Chicago. Her first book, Trying Man, Trying God: The Divine Courtroom in Early Jewish and Christian Literature, was published by Mohr Siebeck in 2010, and was the inspiration for a conference on “The Divine Courtroom in Comparative Perspective” at Cordozo School of Law in New York. Currently, she is working on her second book Go To Hell: Vicarious Travel with Peter and Paul in Earliest Christianity, under contract with Wm. B. Eerdmans, and a second book for Mohr Siebeck, Isopsychos: The Figure of Timothy in Early Christian Literature. Recent publications include articles on the Acts of Timothy, Romans 9-11, Tertullian of Carthage’s Apologeticum, and the figure of Timothy in the Pauline and post-Pauline epistles. Kensky has lectured widely around the Chicago and Cedar Rapids areas, and gave the 29th Annual Stone Lectureship in Judaism at Augustana College, IL and the Winter 2016 Dean’s Craft of Teaching Seminar at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She was the recipient of Coe College’s C. J. Lynch Outstanding Teacher Award in 2013, and currently serves as Coe College’s Director of First-Year Experience. In Fall 2018 she was in residence as a teaching fellow at the Newberry Library in Chicago as the co-director of the Associated College of the Midwest’s Newberry Seminar in the Humanities. Currently, Kensky serves on the editorial board for SBL Press’s Early Christianity and Its Literature series, and on the Society of Biblical Literature’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession. She will begin a three-year term as Coe College’s Director of Advising this May.
John Lemos
McCabe Professor of Philosophy
B.A., University of the South
Ph.D., Duke University
Email: jlemos@hkcolico.com
Phone: 319.399.8861
John Lemos teaches courses in logic, moral philosophy, ancient Greek philosophy, early modern philosophy (Descartes to Kant), and contemporary analytic philosophy. His research interests lie in three main fields of inquiry: philosophy of biology, especially the philosophical implications of evolution; neo-Aristotelian ethics; and the metaphysics of freedom and responsibility. He has published articles in a variety of journals, such as Philosophy of the Social Sciences, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Metaphilosophy, and Philosophia. His book Commonsense Darwinism was published in 2008 by the Open Court Press. His second book, Freedom, Responsibility, and Determinism: A Philosophical Dialogue, was published by Hackett in 2013. His most recent book, A Pragmatic Approach to Libertarian Free Will, was published by Routledge Press in 2018.
Peter McCormick
Professor of Philosophy
B.A., Cornell College
B.A., Oxford University
M.S., University of Iowa - Computer Science
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Email: pmccormi@hkcolico.com
Phone: 319.399.8697
Peter McCormick's my main interests are in ethics and the history of philosophy (and a logic text that is close to completion). He has taught courses in a variety of areas of philosophy (the logic course is a special interest), as well as courses in computer science, writing and various other topics (Charles Dodgson and Game Theory are two of many). In addition to traditional philosophical works on morality and human nature, he also interested in the treatment of these topics that we find in authors like Dostoevsky, Conrad and Camus (if you want to discuss Poe's theory of revenge, send Peter an email!). In the winter Peter can often be found at the swimming pool - if it's open, that's probably where he'll be. In the summer, he spends much of his time in northern Minnesota with his border collie/Australian cattle dog mix.