Columbia/Princeton Philosopher and Tutor

Conor C.

Hello! I am a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Columbia and former lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Princeton. I received a BA in Philosophy from Princeton in 2011 and a PhD in Philosophy from Columbia in 2021. I have been a TA for a variety of philosophy courses, including Philosophy & Feminism, Nietzsche, and Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy, Introduction to Moral Philosophy, and Introduction to Ancient Philosophy. I also taught a summer course on Existentialism twice over the summers in graduate school and spent two years teaching Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West (CC), a core-curriculum class at Columbia that all sophomores are required to take and which surveys Western ethical, political, religious, and social scientific thought from Plato to today. I subsequently spent three years as a lecturer teaching CC at Columbia as well as to incarcerated students on Rikers Island. I have also spent almost a decade facilitating philosophy discussions with court-involved youth and (formerly) incarcerated people through an organization called Rethink.

I first fell in love with teaching while tutoring underprivileged students in high school and college and found teaching--both one-on-one and in a classroom setting--to be the most satisfying part of my experience getting a PhD. Regardless of the subject, I enjoy meeting students where they are and helping them develop the understanding and confidence to tackle whatever subject matter it is that they're struggling with. Let me know what you're working on and trying to improve in and figure out if we're a good match!

I have also taught classes for incarcerated people on Rikers Island and facilitated philosophy discussions with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. I have extensive experience teaching most all areas of philosophy, as well as teaching writing and reading. I have also had some experience tutoring people for the SATs.