Ego

Me, giving a talk on the Red Sox &
Philosophy, at Professor Thom's

My name is Nolen Gertz.  I'm an absent-minded professor, as evidenced by my having thought this site was anonymous until I discovered that the PayPal button I put up as a joke (unless you're feeling generous) has this entire time revealed my identity as soon as you clicked on it (which is why I've decided to put actual information up here and end the charade, the charade that clearly only I was operating under).  I'm originally from the Boston, MA area, currently live in Ann Arbor, MI, and am on my way to Tacoma, WA.  As a philosopher-by-day I'm interested in existentialism, phenomenology, political philosophy, and aesthetics (or in other words, continental philosophy).  As a human-by-night I'm interested in movies, TV, sports, and travel (or in other words, what everyone's interested in, except I do it by using my day job to put a damper on all my nighttime activities so that I can keep asking myself things like, "Why is going to movies fun?" and "Isn't sports just a way for the powers-that-be to distract us from larger social issues?").

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed on this site are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employers or of myself (see, I told you I was a continental philosopher).

Me and Walzer

Employment

Visiting Assistant Professor, Pacific Lutheran University, 2014-present

Full-Time Instructor, Delta College, 2012-2014

Visiting Scholar, Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics, and Ethics, University of Brighton, Summer 2013

Associate, Consortium for Emerging Technologies, Military Operations and National Security (CETMONS), 2011-present

Philosophy Classifier, Social Science Research Network, 2011-present


Education

Herzog and Me

Ph.D. in Philosophy, The New School for Social Research, 2007-2012

M.A. in Philosophy, The New School for Social Research, 2003-2007

General Studies Program, The London School of Economics, 2001-2002

B.A. in Philosophy, The George Washington University, 1999-2003

Books

The Philosophy of War and Exile: From the Humanity of War to the Inhumanity of Peace (Palgrave-MacMillan, September 2014, Series: Palgrave Studies in Ethics and Public Policy, edited by Thom Brooks)

Editor, War Fronts: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on War, Virtual War, and Human Security (Oxford: The Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2009).

Journal Articles

What’s Wrong with the Torturer?, Philosophical Frontiers (forthcoming)

Unmanned Warfare: Psychological and Ethical Dimensions, Humanities and Technology Review, vol. 30, pgs. 57-76 (Fall 2011)

Blood/Lust: Freud and the Trauma of Killing in War, Formations: The Graduate Center Journal of Social Research, vol. 1, no. 1, pgs. 65-79 (Fall 2010)

On the Possibility of a Phenomenology of Light, PhaenEx: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, vol. 5, no. 1, pgs. 41-58 (Spring 2010)

Just and Unjust Killing, Journal of Military Ethics, vol. 7, iss. 4, pgs. 247-261 (Fall 2008)

Book Chapters

Technologie et souffrance dans la guerre, in Les drones aériens: passé, présent et avenir. Approche globale, dir. Sébastien Mazoyer, Jérôme Lespinois, Emmanuel Goffi, Grégory Boutherin, and Christophe Pajon, Paris: La Documentation Française, coll. Stratégie Aérospatiale (Spring 2013)

Who Do You Think You Are? and Who’s the Philosopher?, in The Philosophy Shop: Ideas, Activities and Questions to Get People, Young and Old, Thinking Philosophically, ed. P. Worley, Carmarthen: Crown House Publishing Limited, pgs. 103-105, 297-299 (Fall 2012)

On the Genealogy of a Rivalry, in The Red Sox and Philosophy: Green Monster Meditations (Popular Culture and Philosophy), ed. M. Macomber. Chicago: Open Court Press, pgs. 169-182 (Spring 2010)

Censorship, Propaganda, and the Production of ‘Shell Shock’ in World War I, in War Fronts: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on War, Virtual War, and Human Security, ed. N. Gertz. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary.Net, pgs. 141-150 (Fall 2009)

Book Reviews

Review Article of Killing in War (Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics), by Jeff McMahan, Review Journal of Political Philosophy, vol. 9, pgs. 131-136 (Spring 2012)

Conviction versus Convention: Review Article of Just and Unjust Warriors: The Moral and Legal Status of Soldiers, eds. Rodin and Shue, Res Publica, vol. 17, no. 2, pgs. 203-209 (Spring 2011)

Review of Lacan: The Silent Partners (Wo Es War Series), ed. Slavoj Zizek, Science& Society, vol. 73, iss. 3, pgs. 436-438 (Summer 2009)

Review of Terrorism: The New World Disorder (Think Now), by Nicholas Fotion, Boris Kashnivok, and Joanne Lekea, Philosophical Frontiers, vol. 3, iss. 1, pgs. 183-187 (Spring 2008)

Review of Fanon: Collective Ethics and Humanism, by Vivaldi Jean-Marie, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, vol. 29, no. 1, pgs. 290-293 (Spring 2008)

Magazine Articles

Adventures in Formalism, or I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Going to Take it Some More, Canon Magazine, Language & Culture Issue, pgs. 35-42 (Spring 2007)

Talks and Conference Presentations

The Problem of Exile and PTSD, at the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE), University of Brighton (May 17, 2013)

Why Just War Theory is Completely Idiotic: A Debate with Michael Neu, at the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE), University of Brighton (May 16, 2013)

On the Need to Move from Asking Who is Responsible to What is Responsibility, at the 3^rd Annual Euro-ISME (International Society for Military Ethics) Conference, at the Royal Netherlands Navy Event Center (May 2-3, 2013)

Combatants, Non-Combatants, and the Meaning of Citizenship, at The Center for the Study of Citizenship’s Conference, “The Meaning of Citizenship”, at Wayne State University (March 21-23, 2013)

A New Approach to Military Professionalism: On the Need for ‘Soldier-Artists’, at the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts’ 12^th Annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts: “War and Peace as Liberal Arts”, Westmont College (February 21-23, 2013)

Why All Students Should Become Artists: On J. Glenn Gray’s Philosophy of Education, at the 28^th Annual LAND Conference, Bay City, MI (February 13-15, 2013)

Duties, Distinctions, and the Dangers to Civil-Military Relations, at the 2012 International Society for Military Ethics Conference, at the University of San Diego (January 24-27, 2012)

Technology and Suffering in War, at The Society for Philosophy and Technology Biennial Conference, “Technology and Security”, at University of North Texas (May 26-29, 2011)

Technology and Suffering in War, at Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World and Society for Universal Dialogue, “Philosophy and Technology in Dialogue” at Eastern Division APA Meeting, Boston, MA (December 29, 2010)

Moderator, Post-Screening Discussion of “Human, All Too Human: Friedrich Nietzsche”, at The Rubin Museum of Art, New York (December 22, 2010)

Blood/Lust: Freud and the Trauma of Killing in War, at Duquesne University Graduate Student Philosophy Conference, “Thinking Desire” (April 10, 2010)

What’s Wrong with the Torturer?, at CUNY Graduate Student Sociology Conference, “Sociological Reimagination: Crisis and Critique Today”, at CUNY Grad Center (November 20, 2009)

Just and Unjust Killing, at Association for Legal and Social Philosophy Annual Conference, at University of Edinburgh (July 2-4, 2009)

Censorship, Propaganda, and the Production of ‘Shell Shock’ in World War I, at Inter-Disciplinary 5^th Global Conference, “War, Virtual War & Human Security”, Budapest, Hungary (May 5-7, 2008)

The Wretched of the Occupation: Sartre, Fanon, and the Experience of Violence, Psychology and Social Justice Conference, at New School University (April 19, 2008)

Censorship, Propaganda,and the Production of ‘Shell Shock’ in World War I, at The New School Graduate Student Politics Conference, “VoxPop! The Voice of the People” (April 11, 2008)

Toward a Phenomenology of Light, at Architecture and Phenomenology International Conference, at Technion I.I.T., Haifa, Israel (May 13-17, 2007)

Academic Service

Reviewer, Ethics and Information Technology, Philosophy and Technology, Ethics & International Affairs