Research

Areas of Interest

Area of Specialization

My AOS is medieval philosophy. I focus especially on topics in medieval philosophical theology, including natural theology and related topics in metaphysics (including theories of the transcendentals) and in medieval theories of cognition (including divine illuminationism and debates about the cognitive primacy of God).

Figures I focus on include Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, and Bonaventure.

Alongside my PhD in Philosophy, I have satisfied the requirements for Notre Dame’s Advanced Graduate Minor in Medieval Studies (focus: Latin language and paleography).

Areas of Competence

My AOCs include early modern philosophy (especially rationalism), contemporary philosophy of religion, and the history of Reformed thought about the natural knowledge of God (especially in John Calvin, Reformed Scholasticism, and the Neo-Calvinist intellectual tradition).

In-Progress Work

Dissertation

My dissertation is on Thomas Aquinas and Henry of Ghent. I consider their accounts of how acquired knowledge of an absolute God considered as absolute is possible. A dissertation abstract is included in my CV.

My dissertation director at the University of Notre Dame is Thérèse Scarpelli Cory. I am currently performing active dissertation research as a visiting graduate student at the University of Toronto under Martin Pickavé. I am on track to defend my dissertation by April 2028.

In-Progress Papers

Alongside my dissertation, I am preparing two papers on Bonaventure for submission to academic journals—a paper on his account of first principles, and a paper on his illumination argument for God’s existence.

Plans for Future Research

Plans for future scholarship on medieval philosophy include a paper evaluating medieval theories of the analogy of being and a paper taxonomizing medieval theories of truth.

I am also planning papers on Reformed intellectual history, including papers on John Calvin’s arguments for God’s existence and for the immortality of the soul, Calvin’s divine illuminationism, and Gisbertus Voetius’s account of the implanted knowledge of God.

Conference Presentations

The Agent Intellect in Bonaventure’s Theory of Cognition
2026 Conference of the Society of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy (June 2026)

Cornelius Van Til’s Theory of Theological Predication
South Carolina Society for Philosophy 2026 joint meeting with the North Carolina Philosophical Society (March 2026)

Aquinas and Bonaventure on the Epistemic Grounds of the Principle of Noncontradiction
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting: “Esse, Vivere, Intelligere” (October 2025)

Two Theistic Models of the Epistemic Grounds of the Principle of Noncontradiction
2025 Eastern Conference of the Society of Christian Philosophers: The Philosophical Legacy of Robert Merrihew Adams. Commentator: Tyler Hildebrand (Dalhousie). (October 2025)

Doctor Communis or ‘Christus Unus Omnium Magister’? Aquinas versus Bonaventure on Certainty
Symposium Thomisticum (June 2025, Prague, Czech Republic)

Bonaventure’s Illumination Argument for God’s Existence: Reexamining its Scope and Status
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting: “Male and Female He Created Them” (November 2024)

“If ‘God Is Not,’ God Is: Bonaventure’s Illumination Argument”
University of Notre Dame History of Philosophy Forum Work-in-Progress Luncheon (November 2024)

“If ‘God Is Not,’ God Is: Bonaventure’s Illumination Argument”
University of Notre Dame Department of Philosophy Graduate Colloquium (November 2024)

“Aquinas and Proclus on Theistic Argument: Metaphysical Presuppositions and Method”
Aquinas at 800: Ad Multos Annos (University of Notre Dame) (September 2024)

“Aquinas and Calvin on the Immortality of the Soul”
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting: “The Human Person” (November 2023)