Objectivist Conferences™

Conferences for the rational mind™

Faculty

Rituparna Basu

Rituparna Basu BS, Biology, 2010, Pennsylvania State University
Ms. Basu is a writer and research associate at the Ayn Rand Institute, focusing on health care policy issues. Her writings have been published at such venues as TownHall.com and The Daily Caller. She appears frequently on radio and TV.

Ben Bayer

Ben Bayer PhD, Philosophy, 2007, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Bayer teaches philosophy at Loyola University New Orleans. His research focuses primarily on questions about the foundations of knowledge and the freedom of the will.  

Andrew Bernstein

Andrew Bernstein PhD, Philosophy, 1986, City University of New York
Dr. Bernstein is the author of The Capitalist Manifesto(2005), Objectivism in One Lesson(2008), Capitalism Unbound(2010), Capitalist Solutions(2011) and of numerous essays. Dr. Bernstein lectures widely on Ayn Rand’s novels and Objectivism.

David Berry

David Berry DMA, Composition, 2002, University of South Carolina
Dr. Berry is a professor of music at the Petrie School of Music, Converse College, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He is nationally known as a published and recorded composer and artist, in both the classical and popular music fields. He has also been music director and conductor for operettas and musicals.

Harry Binswanger

Harry Binswanger PhD, Philosophy, 1973, Columbia University
Dr. Binswanger is the author of The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts, the editor of The Ayn Rand Lexicon and co-editor of the second edition of Ayn Rand’s Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Dr. Binswanger is an instructor of philosophy at the Ayn Rand Institute’s Objectivist Academic Center and is a member of ARI’s board of directors. He is currently completing “How We Know,” a book on the theory of knowledge.

Tore Boeckmann

Tore Boeckmann Writer
Mr. Boeckmann has written and lectured extensively on Ayn Rand’s fiction and philosophy of esthetics. He edited for publication Rand’s The Art of Fiction. His own fiction has been published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. He is currently writing a book on Romantic literature.

Yaron Brook

Yaron Brook PhD, Finance, 1994, University of Texas
Dr. Brook is the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He is co-author of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government. He is a columnist at Forbes.com, a frequent guest on national radio and television programs, and a contributing author to both Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea and Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism. A former finance professor, Dr. Brook speaks internationally on such topics as the causes of the financial crisis, the morality of capitalism, ending the growth of the state and US foreign policy.

Debi Ghate

Debi Ghate LLB, Law, University of Calgary, 1995
Ms. Ghate is vice president of Education and Research at the Ayn Rand Institute, where she heads up a variety of educational and policy-related programs. She is also director of the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship, an organization that supports academic scholarship based on Ayn Rand’s work.

Onkar Ghate

Onkar Ghate PhD, Philosophy, 1996, University of Calgary
Dr. Ghate is a senior fellow and vice president at the Ayn Rand Institute. He specializes in Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and is the Institute’s senior instructor and editor. He has published and lectured extensively on many aspects of Rand’s philosophy and fiction, including the application of the philosophy to cultural and political issues.

Gena Gorlin

Gena Gorlin MA, Clinical Psychology, 2012, University of Virginia
Ms. Gorlin is currently pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia. She has two years of experience conducting individual psychotherapy with anxious and depressed young adults. She is a graduate of the Objectivist Academic Center and a board member of The Undercurrent, a national campus publication.

Jonathan Hoenig

Jonathan Hoenig Communications and Philosophy, 1999, Northwestern University
Mr. Hoenig manages Capitalistpig Hedge Fund, LLC. A former floor trader, his first book, Greed Is Good, was published by HarperCollins. Mr. Hoenig has written for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Wired and Smartmoney.com. He was named one of Crain’s Forty Under Forty and appears regularly on Fox News Channel.

Martin F. Johansen

Martin F. Johansen MS, Computer Science, 2009, University of Oslo
Mr. Johansen is a PhD research fellow at SINTEF, the largest independent research institute in Scandinavia. He is currently completing his PhD studies at the University of Oslo as part of an international research project on software testing.

Ellen Kenner

Ellen Kenner PhD, Psychology, 1992, University of Rhode Island
Dr. Kenner is a clinical psychologist and host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show The Rational Basis of Happiness. She and Dr. Edwin A. Locke co-authored The Selfish Path to Romance, a book that offers a mindful alternative to the contemporary view of love by drawing inspiration from the ideas of Ayn Rand.

Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis Postgraduate Diploma of Philosophy, 1994, University of Melbourne, Australia
Mr. Lewis has studied philosophy at the Objectivist Academic Center, the University of Melbourne and the University of Southern California. He worked with Leonard Peikoff on his radio show, has lectured at Objectivist conferences, and is assistant director at VanDamme Academy, where he teaches a three-year history curriculum covering ancient, European and American history.

Edwin A. Locke

Edwin A. Locke PhD, Industrial Organizational Psychology, 1964, Cornell University
Dr. Locke is Dean’s Professor of Motivation and Leadership Emeritus at University of Maryland. He is internationally known for his research and writings on work motivation and philosophy of science and has received numerous scholarly awards. He has given talks and courses at many Objectivist conferences.

Keith Lockitch

Keith Lockitch PhD, Physics, 1999, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
Dr. Lockitch is an instructor and fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, where he manages the Objectivist Academic Center. In addition to speaking and writing on behalf of ARI and teaching classes on writing for the OAC, Dr. Lockitch has developed courses on Rand’s ideas and novels for a variety of audiences.

Robert Mayhew

Robert Mayhew PhD, Philosophy, 1991, Georgetown University
Dr. Mayhew teaches philosophy at Seton Hall University. He is the author or editor of twelve books, the most recent being Prodicus the Sophist, Aristotle: Problems and an expanded edition of Essays on Ayn Rand’s “We the Living.” He is currently working on a book on Theophrastus’s On Winds.

Shoshana Milgram

Shoshana Milgram PhD, Comparative Literature, 1978, Stanford University
Dr. Milgram, associate professor of English at Virginia Tech, specializes in narrative fiction and film. She has lectured on Ayn Rand at Objectivist and academic conferences, and has published on Ayn Rand, Hugo and Dostoevsky. She is editing the draft of her book-length study of Ayn Rand’s life (to 1957).

Jean Moroney

Jean Moroney Certificate, 1996, Objectivist Graduate Center, Ayn Rand Institute;
MS, Psychology, 1994, Carnegie Mellon University;
MS, Electrical Engineering, 1986, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ms. Moroney is president of Thinking Directions, a business she started in 1998 to develop and teach methods in applied psycho-epistemology. She has given her flagship course, Thinking Tactics, to corporate and public audiences across North America.

Adam Mossoff

Adam Mossoff JD, 2001, University of Chicago; MA, Philosophy, 1998, Columbia University
Mr. Mossoff is professor of law at George Mason University School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of intellectual property law, property law, legal history and legal philosophy. He speaks widely on behalf of patent and other intellectual property rights in public policy debates, and has spoken at Objectivist conferences since the 1990s.

Michael Paxton

Michael Paxton MFA, 1984, New York University
Mr. Paxton directed the world premiere of Ayn Rand’s Ideal (1989) and adapted and directed a dramatic presentation of Anthem (1991). His documentary, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, won an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Satellite Award for Best Feature Documentary. He teaches production design and film history at the Art Institute in Hollywood.

Gregory Salmieri

Gregory Salmieri PhD, Philosophy, 2008, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Salmieri is presently a visiting scholar at Boston University, having taught for four years at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has published articles on Aristotle’s epistemology and ethics and on Rand’s philosophy and novels.

Daniel Schwartz

Daniel Schwartz BA, Liberal Arts, 2006, St. John’s College
Mr. Schwartz is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at UC San Diego, where he is working on a dissertation titled “Baconian Foundationalism and the Problem of Certainty.” He specializes in early modern philosophy and the history of the philosophy of science.

Stephen Siek

Stephen Siek PhD, Musicology, 1991, University of Cincinnati
Dr. Siek, professor emeritus at Wittenberg University, has recently published England’s Piano Sage: The Life and Teachings of Tobias Matthay. For many years he has lectured and written about the early work of Frank Lloyd Wright, including a scholarly study of Wright’s 1909 home for Burton Westcott in Springfield, Ohio.

Brian P. Simpson

Brian P. Simpson PhD, Economics, 2000, George Mason University
Dr. Simpson is a professor at National University in San Diego. He is author of the book Markets Don’t Fail! and he has a number of papers published in academic journals. He is currently working on another book titled “Money, Banking, and the Business Cycle,” which he hopes to publish soon.

Tara Smith

Tara Smith PhD, Philosophy, 1989, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Smith is professor of philosophy at the University of Texas, where she holds the BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism and the Anthem Foundation Fellowship. A specialist in moral, legal and political philosophy, she has published books on values, virtues and individual rights, and is now writing a book on objectivity in judicial review.

Carl Svanberg

Carl Svanberg BA, Practical Philosophy, 2008, Lund University
Mr. Svanberg is a Swedish writer. In 2012 he completed the Objectivist Academic Center’s Core Course, winning the Bloomfield Scholarship prize for being the top student in his class. His articles and letters to editors have been published in The Undercurrent blog, Capitalism Magazine and several major Swedish newspapers.

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