In academic pursuits, I write my name as SJ Cowan. But I usually go by Scott.

In addition to the Philosophy department, I am a part of the Program in Critical Theory here at Berkeley. Beginning in January 2022, I joined (as a visiting PhD fellow) a research group—“Reorganizing Ourselves” headed by Alva Noë—at the Freie Universität in Berlin. And in October 2024, with support from the ASA Dissertation Completion Award, I became a visiting doctoral fellow at the Center for Post-Kantian Philosophy, in Potsdam.

My interests are in thinkers like Kant, the German Romantics, and Wittgenstein, as well as in Critical Theory, and Feminist and Black thought.

My dissertation—which draws heavily on Kant, Schiller, Nietzsche, and Adorno—is (tentatively) titled “The Play of Appearances: Aesthetic Semblance and the Reflective Conception of Art”.

You can find a brief description of my dissertation project: Here.

Prior to coming to Berkeley, I studied photography (BFA, Columbia College), theology (MA, Fuller Seminary), and philosophy (MA, UW-Milwaukee).