Astrid Vicas Ph.D.

Dr. Astrid Vicas is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and teaches Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and Interdisciplinary Humanities courses in the Honors Program.

Her interdisciplinary interests are reflected in the fact that she has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, an MBA, and a BA in the Visual Arts. All the courses she teaches, whether it is Business Ethics, The Modern World View, The Humanistic Tradition, or The Quest for Wisdom, aim at promoting the ability to see connections between course material and current developments in culture and society. They also invite class participants to take a critical stand on these developments and articulate their own views. For this reason, all the classes she teaches are to a significant degree organized as discussions of presentations by class participants, whether these presentations be case studies, analyses of readings, or creative demonstrations or performances of multimedia works authored by class participants.

Some of the topics, themes, and areas of discussion that occupy the classes Dr. Vicas teaches are also the subject of her own work. She is currently working on projects that examine the impact of technology and business on our ways of thinking about how we interpret things and what it means to act. Her most recent publications examine online fan communities, pervasive gaming, and advertising. You can be dead serious about stuff and have fun at the same time! This is actually what her courses are all about.