海角社区

Spring 2026 Events

Building in Athens Greece in ruins with a tree in the middle

FRONT RANGE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY WORKSHOP (FRAP)
Hosted by 海角社区 Department of Philosophy

Join us for the annual Front Range Ancient Philosophy (FRAP) Workshop, a collaborative gathering dedicated to exploring research in progress in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.

海角社区 the Workshop
FRAP brings together faculty and graduate students from across the Front Range region to share ongoing work, exchange ideas, and foster a vibrant scholarly community. The workshop is open to all interested scholars.

May 9th, 2026聽

Tivoli Student Union

9:00-9:45 Coffee and snacks

9:45 – 10:45 am 鈥淎ristotle, John Dewey, and the Enlightenment: Re-examining Foundational Accounts of Moral Judgment鈥� David Sackris (Arapahoe Community College)

11-12pm聽“Plato鈥檚 Argument from the Future and the Failure of Subjectivism:聽Theaetetus聽178c-179c鈥澛燦aomi Reshotko (University of Denver)

12-1 Catered taco bar from Los Molinos (including vegetarian options)

1-2聽鈥淭ropes or Particles? A new and improved particularist interpretation of Anaxagorean physics鈥� Thomas Tuozzo (University of Kansas)

2:15-3:15 鈥淲hat is Matter in Aristotle鈥檚 Metaphysics?” Anna聽Marmodoro聽(Saint Louis University)

Kristen Irwin is Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director at the Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, where she has received the Provost鈥檚 Award for Excellence in Teaching Freshmen. Professor Irwin鈥檚 research is about what we can (and do) believe about the Divine, and the implications of those beliefs for our self-understanding and existence in the world. Irwin has special expertise in European philosophers of the 17th century who address these questions but also engages with contemporary explorations of topics such as what counts as good evidence for different classes of beliefs, the difference between divine and human moral norms and judgments, and how we understand the role of the Divine in various types of suffering (especially mental disorders).

Looking for more events! Check out DPHI!

Past Events

Image of Text saying, "Ghosts Among Us" Japanese Specters, Reincarnation, and Feeding the Hungry Spirits" Presented by Professor TJ Dezauche. 海角社区 Department of Philosophy Religious Studies Lecture Series

 

We are excited to feature Professor TJ Dezauche in our Religious Studies Lecture Series. He will present “Ghosts Among Us.”

Japanese ghosts, called y奴rei, now appear in media all over the world. Their frightening appearance and horrific powers have thrilled audiences for centuries. But where do these ghosts come from? Are they simply stories told for entertainment?

This lecture will explore the origins of these tragic spirits. We will consider their relationship to Shint艒, the native religion of Japan, as well as the relationship between the y奴rei and Buddhist pretas, or hungry ghosts. We will ask whether or not the stories of ghosts, particularly those found in Buddhist tradition(s) might offer more than a simple, entertaining thrill. What warnings do the hungry ghosts offer, and what possibilities?

Finally, we will consider how appeasing these spirits and specters might actually be an act of true bravery, not because we would have to face a monster, but because we would have to face ourselves.

April 6th

12:30-1:30

Science 1117

 

Recording from TJ DeZauche lecture, "Ghosts Among Us" on April 6, 2022. We lose video for about a minute and half at the 2:30 mark.

Sanaa Riaz

Religious Archetypes

September 8th, 2022

1:00 CN 303A

 

What are religious archetypes? How do they impact our understanding of religion? Come explore archteypal journeys in an engaging lecture with Dr. Sanaa Riaz.

Prior to coming to the Metropolitan State University of Denver, Dr. Sanaa Riaz served as the Program Chair of the Bachelor of Arts in Social Science in Ashford University’s College of Liberal Arts. She graduated from the University of Karachi, Pakistan with Bachelor鈥檚 in History and a Master鈥檚 in Archeology and earned her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Arkansas. Learning and teaching languages being her passion besides Anthropology, she also began pursuing a Master鈥檚 degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Prior to joining Ashford University鈥檚 Denver campus, Dr. Riaz taught at the Mount St. Mary College, New York; Arkansas State University; University of Arkansas; and at undergraduate institutions in Karachi, Pakistan. Dr. Riaz鈥檚 research revolves around issues of modernity, tradition, secularism, and social class in religious practice and the education context. She was trained as a Middle East anthropologist and conducted ethnographic research in urban Pakistan. In her Anthropology classes, Dr. Riaz鈥檚 mission is to encourage students to critically examine their worldviews and socio-economic and political ethos, and bring themselves one step closer to understanding other cultural normalities. Thus, respecting other points of view and challenging one鈥檚 own through academic dialogue is an important feature of her class environment. Dr. Riaz advises her students to read about other cultures as much as possible and to deconstruct the ideologies that drive every activity in their daily lives and of the people around them, whether it鈥檚 watching a movie, celebrating an occasion, going shopping, or communicating.

“The Virgen de Guadalupe and the Politics of Gender”

Dr. Adriana Nieto

September 21, 2022

1:00 CN 205

 

Adriana Nieto, Ph.D., is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Chicana/o Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She has been with the university for over 15 years, first starting out as an adjunct professor and then becoming a full-time faculty member in 2009. Her teaching and research interests include Latina spiritualities and practices; women of color feminisms; mental health among Xicanas in early 20th Century New Mexico; Chicana protestants in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands; oral history and water in the 鈥榃est鈥�, with special interest in acequia culture and practices in southern Colorado.

Nieto received her Ph.D. in religious and theological studies form the University of Denver Iliff School of Theology, her master鈥檚 in Latin American studies with a focus on gender studies and borderland history from the University of New Mexico and her bachelor鈥檚 in Latin American and women studies also from the University of New Mexico.