ADAM J. GRAVES
ADAM J. GRAVES
Welcome to my academic homepage. (If you're looking for information about my films, you can find that here: ANUJA and Cycle Vérité.)
I received a B.A. in South Asia Studies and a Ph.D. in Religious Thought and Philosophy of Religion from the University of Pennsylvania. I am Professor of Philosophy at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where I founded the Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry, a public humanities center that explores the relationship between philosophy, film, literature and history. I teach courses on the history philosophy, phenomenology, film and philosophy, ethics, hermeneutics and the philosophy of religion. I've also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and as part of the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea program. My published work explores themes within phenomenology and the philosophical hermeneutics of religion, as well as problems associated with agency, responsibility and selfhood. I've had the pleasure of sharing this work at conferences and colloquia in well over a dozen countries, including France, Denmark, Russia, and South Africa. In June of 2019, I delivered the English Keynote Lecture ("Eros, Action and Accusation: Reading Kant after Freud") at the Fonds Ricoeur/EHESS in Paris. My book, The Phenomenology of Revelation in Heidegger, Marion and Ricoeur, was published in August, 2021. It is available here. (Feel free to contact me directly for an author's discount.)
After years of teaching film in my philosophy courses, I began making films of my own during the pandemic. I wrote and directed the short film Cycle Vérité (2021), which explores the aporia of the gift and the relationship between truth, deception and forgiveness. I produced and edited a documentary short, The Other Side of the Sun (post-production) about a resourceful homeless man of Anishinaabe descent, who struggles to reclaim a scrap of land in the heart of Hollywood. And am I currently finishing ANUJA (post-production), a narrative short film that follows the story of two sisters who work in a garment factory in East Delhi.
I also host the humanities podcast The Human Context (you can check out our most recent episode on Hitchcock and philosophy here.)
Finally, here are some reviews of my book:
"A groundbreaking work. In this highly compelling and provocative book, Adam Graves accomplishes what no serious thinker has done since Hegel—he demonstrates decisively how the problem of 'revelation' is not just a theological sideshow but an integral problem for philosophy itself in the 21st century."
— Carl Raschke, University of Denver
“Adam Graves’ book on the phenomenology of revelation is itself a stunning revelation. For the uninitiated, Graves provides an accessible orientation into the historical context and key issues at stake in debate over the 'theological turn' of French phenomenology. But this book offers even more value to those who are already familiar with these debates. Graves offers a new path forward by making the case for a hermeneutical approach to revelation that recognizes the full revelatory power of the Word.”
— Scott Davidson, West Virginia University
"Adam Graves’s rigorous comparison of revelation in Martin Heidegger, Jean-Luc Marion, and Paul Ricoeur cogently shows that phenomenology’s 'turn to theology' neither requires a return to primordial ontology nor calls for a retreat into the paradoxes of a prelinguistic givenness, but more simply and radically urges us to begin a long journey in the frequentation of mutually enriching symbols and narratives; only then can we grasp concretely how the Word can make the World."
— Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania and American Academy of Arts and Sciences
“Adam Graves provides a timely revision of phenomenology by revelation and revelation by phenomenology. Contesting the old antagonism between philosophy and theology, he sketches a dialogical hermeneutics of religion in deep conversation with three of the giants of continental philosophy—Heidegger, Marion, and Ricoeur. A bold, challenging, and highly readable book.”
— Richard Kearney, Boston College
I received a B.A. in South Asia Studies and a Ph.D. in Religious Thought and Philosophy of Religion from the University of Pennsylvania. I am Professor of Philosophy at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where I founded the Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry, a public humanities center that explores the relationship between philosophy, film, literature and history. I teach courses on the history philosophy, phenomenology, film and philosophy, ethics, hermeneutics and the philosophy of religion. I've also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and as part of the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea program. My published work explores themes within phenomenology and the philosophical hermeneutics of religion, as well as problems associated with agency, responsibility and selfhood. I've had the pleasure of sharing this work at conferences and colloquia in well over a dozen countries, including France, Denmark, Russia, and South Africa. In June of 2019, I delivered the English Keynote Lecture ("Eros, Action and Accusation: Reading Kant after Freud") at the Fonds Ricoeur/EHESS in Paris. My book, The Phenomenology of Revelation in Heidegger, Marion and Ricoeur, was published in August, 2021. It is available here. (Feel free to contact me directly for an author's discount.)
After years of teaching film in my philosophy courses, I began making films of my own during the pandemic. I wrote and directed the short film Cycle Vérité (2021), which explores the aporia of the gift and the relationship between truth, deception and forgiveness. I produced and edited a documentary short, The Other Side of the Sun (post-production) about a resourceful homeless man of Anishinaabe descent, who struggles to reclaim a scrap of land in the heart of Hollywood. And am I currently finishing ANUJA (post-production), a narrative short film that follows the story of two sisters who work in a garment factory in East Delhi.
I also host the humanities podcast The Human Context (you can check out our most recent episode on Hitchcock and philosophy here.)
Finally, here are some reviews of my book:
"A groundbreaking work. In this highly compelling and provocative book, Adam Graves accomplishes what no serious thinker has done since Hegel—he demonstrates decisively how the problem of 'revelation' is not just a theological sideshow but an integral problem for philosophy itself in the 21st century."
— Carl Raschke, University of Denver
“Adam Graves’ book on the phenomenology of revelation is itself a stunning revelation. For the uninitiated, Graves provides an accessible orientation into the historical context and key issues at stake in debate over the 'theological turn' of French phenomenology. But this book offers even more value to those who are already familiar with these debates. Graves offers a new path forward by making the case for a hermeneutical approach to revelation that recognizes the full revelatory power of the Word.”
— Scott Davidson, West Virginia University
"Adam Graves’s rigorous comparison of revelation in Martin Heidegger, Jean-Luc Marion, and Paul Ricoeur cogently shows that phenomenology’s 'turn to theology' neither requires a return to primordial ontology nor calls for a retreat into the paradoxes of a prelinguistic givenness, but more simply and radically urges us to begin a long journey in the frequentation of mutually enriching symbols and narratives; only then can we grasp concretely how the Word can make the World."
— Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania and American Academy of Arts and Sciences
“Adam Graves provides a timely revision of phenomenology by revelation and revelation by phenomenology. Contesting the old antagonism between philosophy and theology, he sketches a dialogical hermeneutics of religion in deep conversation with three of the giants of continental philosophy—Heidegger, Marion, and Ricoeur. A bold, challenging, and highly readable book.”
— Richard Kearney, Boston College
