Faculty & Staff

Biography: Dr. Manian has a PhD in Economics. Her research focuses on South Asia. She is currently the chair of the Department of Philosophy, Religion and Liberal Studies.

Phil 2010 - Survey of Philosophy, GC2Y Equality and Justice, and GC1Y Philosophy and Social Justice.  

Political Philosophy, Race Theories, Feminist Philosophies, Theories of Democracies, Theories of Post-colonialities. 

Love, Pleasure, Friendship and the Good Life; Philosophy, Art and the Art of Living; Philosophy of Law; Ethics; and Social and Political Philosophy

Dr. Winchester has two published books: Ethics in an Age of Savage Inequalities (Lexington Press, 2015) and Eros, Pleasure, Friendship, and the Good Life (Palgrave, 2025).

Myth, Magic, and Psychoanalysis; Confucianism and Daoism; Democracy and Identity: East and West; Existentialism, Buddhism, Daoism, and the Myth of Mediation.

Dr. Wang has been a member of the Georgia College faculty in the department of Philosophy since 2008. He received his doctoratal degree from Pennsylvania State University, and originally hails from China where he studied economics as an undergraduate. Dr. Wang specializes in areas of Asian philosophy and religion, contemporary continental philosophy, and ethics. He has published in a number of journals on topics of Asian philosophy, and is currently working on his book, tentatively titled The Enchantment of Ritual and the Way of Heart.

Dr. Hom earned her BA at Wellesley College, and an MA and PhD in Philosophy at Stony Brook University.

World Religions South Asia, Introduction to World Religions, Hindu Traditions, Islam in the Modern World, Religion and the Body, Religion and Media, Religion and Human Rights, Religion and Science Fiction, and other special topics.

http://jgitting.com/

Dr. Gittinger’s work focuses on religion, media, and popular culture. She received her doctorate from McGill University in Montreal, and has master’s degrees from University of Colorado in Boulder and SOAS in London, with emphais on modern Hinduism. Her research interests include Religion and Media, and virtual methodologies. Her third book was published in 2024 titled American Apocalyptic: beliefs, rituals, and expressions of doomsday culture in the US (Palgrave-Macmillian). See website for complete list of publications.

Ethics and Christian Thought

Dr. Causey is a senior lecturer and teaches courses in the core curriculum, ethics, and Christian thought.

RELI 3500 Buddhist Traditions in Asia

GC1Y 1000 Critical Thinking: Religion and Non-violence

RELI 3950 Religious Epics

GC2Y - 2000 Global Perspectives: Religion and Reciprocity 

Caley Smith is a scholar of early South Asian religious history and political imagination. His work focuses primarily on the conceptual continuities and disruptions between the Vedas and emergent ascetic and householder traditions. His current book project, The Invisible Mask, explores the ritual impersonation of the god Indra and its influence on the recitation traditions of early Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

Survey of Philosophy

Dr. Eckley earned his Bachelor’s in political science and philosophy from Ferrum College and his Master’s and Ph.D. in philosophy from Purdue University. Prior to teaching at GCSU, he taught at the University of Portland. His research is primarily in Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist ethics applied to contemporary social and moral topics. He is a visiting lecturer for the 2023-24 academic year. 

Intro/Survey to Philosophy

Austin Kippes earned his PhD in philosophy from Binghamton University in 2025. Austin’s specialization is in Social and Political Philosophy. He also has research and teaching interests in Continental Philosophy, PPEL (Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law), Ethics, and Plato. Austin’s most recent publication is the article “Utopianism and Plato’s Republic” in the journal Theoria. He is also currently working on a book concerning the relationship between theory and practice in social and political philosophy, tentatively titled Theory, Practice, and Utopia.

Dr. Bernstein earned his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His research focuses on the philosophy of technology, AI, and contemporary political thought, with particular interest in how digital technologies transform time, memory, and social life.

Survey of Philosophy; Philosophy and Social Justice

Before joining GCSU, Dr. Racine earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy at Fordham University and taught at Miami University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His research explores the ways that stories in life and literature can be sources of self-understanding and understanding others. He has taught introductory courses in philosophy as well as upper-level electives in ethics, existentialism, philosophy and literature, and social and political philosophy.