Faculty

Jenn Cianca completed her BA (Classics) at Bishop’s University, and her MA and PhD (Religion) from the University of Toronto. She is cross-appointed with the Department of Classics. Her current research interests focus on the domestic art and architecture of the ancient Mediterranean, pilgrimage, and theories of space and place in the human experience. She teaches the LIB 100 Introductory Seminar, as well as foundation courses and the graduating seminar.

Dr. Gilbert has a Ph. D from the Department of Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University, which was preceded by a Bachelors Degree in History from the University of Toronto, a Diploma in Education and Pastoral Care from the Centre for Christian Studies, and a Masters in Religious Studies from McGill University. He has a cross appointment at Bishop’s, teaching in both the Department of Philosophy and the Liberal Arts Program.   Dr. Gilbert’s research, most broadly speaking, is based in dialectical political philosophy.  If dialectic names the process by which humanity learns, then freedom is not merely choice, but is rather our capacity to develop increasingly sophisticated forms of relationship with each other and our environment. His forthcoming book, The Vitality of Contradiction: Hegel, Politics and the Dialectic of Liberal-Capitalism (McGill-Queen's University Press), articulates the philosophical arguments for this view of dialectic and freedom.  Dr. Gilbert also engages in empirical research on this topic, focussing especially on the Movement of Landless Rural Workers of Brazil (MST), a large and very successful social movement which seizes under-utilized estates and builds self-sufficient farming cooperatives on them.  The MST now has some 1.5 million members and its own university near São Paulo.