Dr. Adam Graves

Adam J. Graves received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where he teaches courses in philosophy of religion, ethics, history of philosophy, hermeneutics and phenomenology. He is the founding director of the Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry ( https://www.msudenver.edu/d-phi/ ) and serves as the primary advisor for the Religious Studies program at MSU Denver. Graves has also taught courses on the history of religions at the University of Pennsylvania and as part of the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea program. His publish work explores themes within phenomenology and the philosophical hermeneutics of religion, as well as problems associated with agency and selfhood. He has presented work at conferences and colloquia in nearly a dozen countries, including France, Germany, Russia, and South Africa. Graves will be on sabbatical in spring of 2017, during which time he will be conducting research for a project on agency and confession under the auspices of l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.

In a previous life, Graves studied medieval Sanskrit literature and pursued grant-supported research on Indian temple practice and iconography in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In 2012, he served as Campaign Manager for his father’s nearly successful bid to unseat Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District. They lost by about one percent, after having been outspend 10 to 1 in what proved to be one of the most expensive congressional reelection campaigns in United States history.

On a more personal note, Graves has been an avid traveler since the age of seventeen, when he spent several months on a solo-expedition throughout Asmat, a region of Papua populated by an ethnic group best known for its art and ritual headhunting practices. He just happens to be married to his favorite artist and traveling companion, the incredibly gifted Suchitra Mattai ( www.suchitramattai.com ). They have two sons, both of whom are turning out surprisingly well considering the fact that Graves has neither a theory nor a methodological strategy for parenting them.