Dr. Joseph Westfall
Dr. Joseph Westfall
Professor of PhilosophyHistory, Humanities, and LanguagesBiography
Joseph Westfall began teaching at UHD in 2005, and has held the rank of Professor since 2019. He teaches courses on existentialism, ethics, and the philosophy of art and film, among other things.
Dr. Westfall is a philosopher of art and literature trained in the Continental European philosophical tradition, with a special focus on the works of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. His primary research interests are in questions of style and authorship, and he has written and presented extensively on Kierkegaard's use of pseudonymity. He also has interests in the philosophy of film, 20th-century Continental philosophy (especially Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, and Jacques Derrida), and in philosophy and popular culture. He is presently working on a book on Kierkegaard, writing, and music.
Degrees Earned
B.A. Santa Clara University
M.A. Boston College
Ph.D. Boston College
Courses Taught
PHIL 2310: The Meaning of Life (3) (U)
PHIL 3313: Sports Ethics & Philosophy of Sport (3) (U)
PHIL 3322: World Religions (3) (U)
PHIL 4399: Directed Studies in Philosophy (3) (U)
Experience Qualifications
Dr. Westfall is a tenured Associate Professor of Philosophy. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy, and his research is in aesthetics, philosophy of literature and film, philosophy and popular culture, and the history of Continental European philosophy (nineteenth century to present). He has taught undergraduate courses in philosophy at all levels, and his education, teaching experience, and scholarly research endeavors make him well qualified to teach in aesthetics, philosophy and culture (including PHIL 3313 Sports Ethics and the Philosophy of Sport and PHIL 3322 World Religions), and European philosophy (including existentialism, PHIL 2310 The Meaning of Life), as well as PHIL 4399 Directed Studies in Philosophy courses on various related topics.
Teaching Experience:
2005-present, Assistant and Associate Professor of Philosophy, UHD.
Academic Scholarship/Research/Creative Endeavors:
Hannibal Lecter and Philosophy (editor; Open Court, forthcoming 2015). The Kierkegaardian Author: Authorship and Performance in Kierkegaard's Literary and Dramatic Criticism (Walter de Gruyter, 2007)."Saving Abraham: Johannes de silentio and the Demonic Paradox," Philosophy Today 48: 3 (2004), pp. 276-287.
More Information
The Kierkegaardian Author: Authorship and Performance in Kierkegaard's Literary and Dramatic Criticism (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007).
Editor, Hannibal Lecter and Philosophy (Chicago: Open Court, 2016).
Edited with Alan Rosenberg, Foucault and Nietzsche: A Critical Encounter (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).
Editor, The Continental Philosophy of Film Reader (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).
Editor, Authorship and Authority in Kierkegaard's Writings (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).