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Education

  • Ph.D., M.A. University of Memphis, 2005
  • B.A. Millsaps College, 1996

Courses Taught

  • Philosophy of Nature
  • Phenomenology
  • Existentialism
  • Foucault
  • Africana Philosophy
  • Critical Philosophy of Race
  • Philosophy of Art
  • Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
  • Philosophy of the Enlightenment
  • Introduction to Philosophy
  • Logic

Research Interests

  • 20th Century Continental Philosophy
  • Phenomenology
  • Existentialism
  • Philosophy of Time
  • Critical Philosophy of Race

Publications

  • “From Time to Temporality: Heidegger’s Critique of Bergson.” In The Bergsonian Mind, 332-349. Edited by Mark Sinclair and Yaron Wolf. New York: Routledge, 2022.
  • Translation of Henri Bergson, “Remarks on the Theory of Relativity (1922).” Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy - Revue de la philosophie française et de langue française 28, No. 1 (2020): 167-172. https://doi.org/10.5195/jffp.2020.904
  • “Two Kinds of Postracialism: Declaration and Aspiration,” Critical Philosophy of Race 9, no. 2 (2021): 270-294. muse.jhu.edu/article/795860
  • “Bergson, Henri (1859-1941),” in The  Encyclopedia of Philosophers. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350989979-0002
  • The Archaeology of Knowledge: Foucault and the Time of Discourse,” in Understanding Foucault, Understanding Modernism, 79-94. Edited by David Scott. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
  • The Origin of Time: Heidegger and Bergson Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015.
  • “Bergsonian Intuition: Getting Back into Duration.” In Rational Intuition: Philosophical Roots, Scientific Investigations, 151-173. Edited by Lisa M. Osbeck and Barbara S. Held. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
  • “‘When Are We When We Think?’ Arendt’s Temporal Interpretation of Thinking and Thoughtlessness.” Philosophical Topics 39 (2013): 71-90.
  • Translation of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Institution and Passivity: Course Notes from the Collège de France (1954-1955). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2010. With Leonard Lawlor.

Heath Massey

Professor of Philosophy

 Email: masseyh@beloit.edu  Phone: 608-363-2308  Office: Room 106, Morse-Ingersoll Hall

With a background in the history of philosophy,  I approach philosophy as an ongoing conversation with thinkers of the past and present.  I teach a variety of courses including existentialism, phenomenology, philosophy of the Enlightenment, philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, and philosophy of art.  In all these courses, I challenge students to read, write, and think critically about the questions that matter to them.  My goal in the classroom is always to promote good discussion and to guide students in the process of reflecting on their beliefs and assumptions, as well as considering things from different perspectives.  Many of my courses are writing intensive, and I enjoy working with students to build their communication skills and discover their style and voice.

In my research, I have focused primarily on 19th and 20th century philosophers in the European continental tradition, especially Henri Bergson, Martin Heidegger, and Michel Foucault.  I am especially interested in philosophical questions about the nature and experience of time, which is the subject of my book The Origin of Time.  My recent work examines the issue of time in African-American political thought and in ancient Greek and Roman ethics.  I have also begun to explore the field of environmental philosophy and specifically the question of how our concept of nature guides the way we relate to the natural world.

When I’m not teaching or writing, I enjoy spending time with my family, watching movies, reading fiction, and listening to music of the 1960s and ’70s.  I also like  playing disc golf and ultimate frisbee, canoeing, hiking, gardening, and cross-country skiing. 

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