Professor Vern Cisney enjoys the opportunity to encourage students to embrace the complexity of philosophical and ethical questions, to reflect critically on their own preconceptions about the world, and to carefully and responsibly weigh the perspectives of others in the process. His research is broadly focused in the areas of 19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy, primarily Nietzsche and Bergson, Phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty), and Post-Structuralism (Derrida, Deleuze, and Foucault). Specifically he is interested in the intersections of ontology, agency, virtue, and justice in the history of Continental thought. He also maintains strong interests in Social and Political Philosophy, the history of Ethics, the history of Philosophy (Ancient and Modern, especially Stoicism and Spinoza), Philosophy of Film, and Philosophy of Religion.

In addition to revising for publication his dissertation, an analysis of the concept of difference in the philosophies of Derrida and Deleuze, his current research projects include:

Books

Derrida's Voice and Phenomenon: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide, co-authored with Leonard Lawlor (Penn State), under advance contract with Edinburgh University Press, 2014.

Biopower: Foucault and Beyond, co-edited with Nicolae Morar (University of Oregon), under advance contract with the University of Chicago Press, 2014.

The Way of Nature and the Way of Grace: Philosophical Footholds on the Tree of Life, co-edited with Jonathan Beever (Purdue University), manuscript for review requested by Northwestern University Press.

Biopower and Biopolitics: A Genealogical Landscape of our Present, co-authored with Nicolae Morar (University of Oregon).

Between Foucault and Derrida, co-edited with Yubraj Aryal (Purdue University) and Nicolae Morar (University of Oregon)

Translations

Pierre Klossowski, La Monnaie Vivante, co-translated with Daniel W. Smith (Purdue University) and Nicolae Morar (University of Oregon), under advance contract with Continuum, 2014.

Papers and Book Chapters

"Jacques Derrida and the Future," in ed. Lester Embree and Tom Nenon, The Continuing Impact of Husserl's Ideen I, Kluwer Academic Publishing, 2012.

"All the World is Shining, and Love is Smiling Through All Things: The Collapse of the Two Ways in The Tree of Life," in ed. Jonathan Beever and Vernon W. Cisney, The Way of Nature and the Way of Grace: Philosophical Footholds on the Tree of Life, manuscript for Northwestern University Press.

"Becoming-Other: Foucault, Deleuze, and the Nature of Thought," in Foucault Studies, 2013.

"All Things in Mind: Panpsychist Elements in Spinoza, Deleuze, and Peirce," co-authored with Jonathan Beever (Purdue University), in Biosemiotics, Vol. VI, No. 3, (December 2013)