Joseph Kupfer

  • University Professor

Contact

jkupfer@iastate.edu

515-294-0058

439 Catt
2224 Osborn Dr.
Ames IA
50011-4009

Bio

Joseph Kupfer is University Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University, where he teaches ethics, aesthetics, medical ethics, and philosophy of law. He has written on such topics as privacy, lying, the parent-child relationship, aesthetics of nature, and the virtues. Recent books are: Feminist Ethics in Film: Reconfiguring Care through Cinema (2012), Meta-Narrative in the Movies: Tell Me a Story (2014), and Aesthetic Violence and Women in Film: Kill Bill with Flying Daggers (2018).

Research areas

Ethics; Aesthetics; Social Philosophy; Modern Philosophy; Philosophy in Film

Courses taught

Moral Theory and Practice
Introduction to Philosophy
Aesthetics
Moral Problems in Medicine
Philosophy of Law
Modern Philosophy
Plato and Popcorn: Philosophy in Film

Selected presentations

  • “What Movies Teach us About Teaching: Excellence and Maleficence in the Classroom,” Annual Film-Philosophy Conference, Lancaster, UK, July 4-6, 2017.
  • “Art and Integrity in The Fabulous Baker Boys,” Keynote Address, Arts and Humanities Conference, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences, Barcelona, Spain, May 15-18, 2018.

 

Education

PhD University of Rochester

BA Queens College

Selected Publications

  • Virtue and Vice in Popular Film (Routledge, 2021).
  • “The Vicious Undertow of Vanity,” Film and Philosophy 25 (2021).
  • “Art and Integrity in The Fabulous Baker Boys,” Film and Philosophy 24 (2020).
  • “The Matrix of Envy in Amadeus,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video (2020).
  • “Creativity in the Classroom: Pedagogical Adaptation in Film,” Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice 20 (2020).