Interdisciplinary Studies

Vernon W. Cisney

Chairperson/Associate Professor

Interdisciplinary Studies

Contact

Email

vcisney@gettysburg.edu

Phone

(717) 337 - 6296

Box

Campus Box 0390

Address

Weidensall Hall
Room 413
300 North Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1400

Website

VISIT PROFESSOR CISNEY'S WEBPAGE

Education

PhD Purdue University, 2012
MA University of Memphis, 2006
BA Eastern Illinois University, 2004
AA Lake Land College, 2000

Academic Focus

19th through 21st Century Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Film and Literature, Philosophy of Religion, Social and Political Philosophy

Professor Vern Cisney’s research is focused on 19th through 21st century Continental philosophy (with an emphasis on Derrida and Deleuze), Philosophy of Film and Literature, and Philosophy of Religion. Thematically, his interests include questions of difference and identity, the nature and meaning of philosophical thinking, and the intersections of ontology, agency, and aesthetics.

My Courses:

  • Jewish Thought and the Enlightenment
  • Franz Kafka
  • Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
  • Literature, Language, & Life
  • Postmodern Christian Philosophers
  • Sympathy for the Devil
  • Quentin Tarantino
  • Marx's Capital, v. 1
  • Neoliberalism and its Demons
  • Infinite Jest
  • Dostoevsky
  • Plato, Personhood, & Popcorn
  • Violence and Revolution
  • Power, Punishment, and Pleasure: Michel Foucault

Recent Research:

Bo oks

Reading Deleuze, manuscript in progress, Wipf and Stock. 

Deleuze: Literature, Language, & Life, manuscript & proposal in progress, Edinburgh.

Deleuze and Derrida: Difference and the Power of the Negative, Edinburgh, 2018.

Between Foucault and Derrida, co-edited with Aryal, Morar, and Penfield, Edinburgh, 2016.

The Way of Nature and the Way of Grace: Philosophical Footholds on Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, co-edited with Beever, Northwestern, 2016.

Biopower: Foucault and Beyond, co-edited with Nicolae Morar, University of Chicago, 2015.

Derrida's Voice and Phenomenon: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide, Edinburgh, 2014.

Papers, Articles, and Book Chapters

"Time and the Power of the False in Deleuze," in Deleuze and Time, ed. Luzecky and Smith (forthcoming, Edinburgh). 

"The Gifts of Death: Visions of Sacrifice in the Worlds of Terrence Malick," in A Critical Companion to Terrence Malick, ed. Sikora (Lexington, 2020).

"In G.O.D. We Trust: The Desert of the Religious in The Broom of the System," in David Foster Wallace and Religion: Essays on Faith and Fiction, ed. McGowan and Brick, (Bloomsbury, 2019).

"Metaphor, Metamorphosis, and Meaning: 'All the Possibilities of Language' in Difference and Repetition," in Deleuze and Guattari Studies (2020).

"The Writer is a Sorcerer: Literature and the Becomings of A Thousand Plateaus," in Deleuze and Guattari Studies (Deleuze and Guattari Studies, 2020).