Megan Flocken, Ph.D.

Winner of Catawba College’s Professor of the Year, 2023-2024!

I grew up in Orlando, Florida. I've been studying philosophy since I was a teenager. I've taught philosophy, ethics, humanities, religion, and arts at Carnegie Mellon University, Valencia College, Rollins College, University of South Florida, Hillsborough Community College, St. Petersburg College, University of Cincinnati (in Berlin), and King High School.

I earned my PhD in Philosophy in 2019 from the University of South Florida. For my dissertation, I read Nietzsche against Heidegger and more contemporary figures on questions about values, biology, nature, and "the natural". I earned a Master's in Liberal Studies from Rollins College in 2010. My Master's thesis interrogated Hegel and Levinas on love and metaphysics. My B.A. is in Ethics, History, and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. I engage with philosophy in very interdisciplinary ways. 

I've translated Alain Badiou from the French on Heidegger, Parmenides, and Metaphysics. I served as the co-executive director of the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival for 5 years. In my free time, I step into the serene beauty of North Carolina or play my bass guitar through an amplifier. My research interests explore issues like nature, death, technology, politics, biology, and art, through their intersections with 19th and 20th century continental philosophical thinkers. 

What I hope to do as a teacher is to inspire my students to evaluate their presuppositions and think critically about the themes and arguments which have preoccupied philosophers throughout history as well as examine dilemmas students encounter directly or indirectly, which persist in challenging their stance in their world. Such critical thinking requires one to become aware of and to even call into question the various criteria by which one evaluates judgments.

I design my course using interactive activities in which students participate during class time and develop assignments which ask students for critical engagement with a variety of sources, from so-called traditional and marginal philosophical texts, to works of art, reports in science, and contemporary events. In my view, any philosophical subject which cannot resonate with a student’s own values in and senses of everyday life will soon be forgotten. In order to help reveal how philosophy is relevant, I pose questions to my students and solicit their discussion, and emphasize skills which help students develop and amplify their own questioning and resolve toward solutions.