Yunus Tuncel, Founder & Director
Yunus Tuncel, Ph.D. (New School for Social Research), teaches philosophy and is the founder and director of Philomobile, an organization that brings people together to explore culture, history and works of art (all kinds of art) and philosophy in situ. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Nietzsche Circle and the Editorial Board of its electronic journal, The Agonist. He is one of the organizers of New York Posthuman Research Group and works with trans- and post-humanists. His book Towards a Genealogy of Spectacle (Eye Corner Press, 2011) addresses issues in theories of art and spectacle. His most recent book, Agon in Nietzsche, came out in 2013 (Marquette University Press). He is the editor of Nietzsche and Transhumanism (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017). In addition to philosophy, his areas of research and interest include literature, music, art, poetry, theater, psychoanalysis, and sport.
Aysegul Kus Durakoglu, Instructor
Since her highly acclaimed New York Recital Debut, pianist Aysegul Kus Durakoglu has concertized widely as soloist and chamber musician throughout Turkey, Russia, Europe, and the United States. She was featured as soloist in the International Istanbul Music Festival with James Galway, Contemporary Music Festivals in Russia, Musical Intersections and International Niagara Chamber Music Festival in Canada. Her recent performances include lecture-recitals on Debussy’s Piano Etudes, a chamber music project titled “A Musical Journey with the Orient Express” at the Jazz at Lincoln Center and Pera Palas-Jumeirah in Istanbul, Turkey. Aysegul began her musical life in Istanbul and received her Bachelor of Music degree at the Istanbul State Conservatory. She received her Master of Music Degree from the Juilliard School and a Ph.D. degree with notable distinction at the New York University where she also served on the piano faculty. Her teachers included Adele Marcus, Gyorgy Sandor, and Gregory Haimovsky. As a member of the NYU Chamber Music Society she premiered numerous works at Merkin Hall and won the NYU’s Chamber Music Special Award. An active performer and researcher, Durakoglu has presented lecture-recitals on the music of Turkish composers and piano music of Claude Debussy. In 1998, she established a Chamber Music Society, Musica Mundana, and continues to perform with her ensemble throughout the United States and Canada. She is also a faculty member at the Stevens Institute of Technology teaching music history and piano classes. Recently, she presented lecture-performances on the music of Turkish composers, Nietzche’s music and philosophy with Dr. Yunus Tuncel, and Turkish tangos at the Borges Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Panos Eliopoulos, Instructor
Panos Eliopoulos received his Ph.D. in philosophy and psychology from the National Kapodistriakon University of Athens in 2010 with a dissertation on Seneca. His areas of knowledge and research are: Ancient Greek Philosophy, Hellenistic Philosophy, Roman Philosophy, Stoic Philosophy, Existentialism (Kierkegaard, Ortega y Gasset, Unamuno), Comparative Philosophy, Eastern Philosophy, NeoHellenic Philosophy, Metaphysics, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Education, and Aesthetics (Poetry). He has taught, presented papers, and published essays and books on a variety of subjects, with a concentration on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. He has been teaching at the University of Peloponnese and the University of Athens since 2011.
Silvia Festuccia, Instructor
Silvia Festuccia teaches Archaeology and History of Art of Ancient Near East at University “Suor Orsola Benincasa” of Naples. She received a Ph.D. in Architecture and Heritage with a dissertation entitled “Sports in the Archaeological Heritage of Ancient Near East. Architectural Contexts, Iconographic and Epigraphic data from 3rd to 1st Millennium B.C.” from the University “Alfonso X El Sabio” of Madrid, a BA degree and a MA in Near Eastern Archaeology at University of Rome “La Sapienza.” She participated in different missions, directing several excavations area at Ebla, Tell Tuqan and Tell Denit (Syria), at Monastiraki (Crete) and at Kharayeb (Lebanon). She has direct and personal knowledge of the countries and of the social and cultural contexts of the Middle East. She collaborates in the underwater archaeological Mycenean project at Vivara (Procida-Italy) and with the Centre for Coordination of Underwater Archaeological Expedition (Lazio-Italy) and works as freelance archaeologist in Rome (Italy). Author of studies on urbanization and metallurgy for the Pre-classical civilizations in the Ancient Near East, she has participated in international conferences and published several contributions related to archaeological excavations directed in the Near East and Italy. Recent books include: La Ricerca Archeologica nel Vicino Oriente. Siria, Anatolia e Iran, 2011; Urbanization in Syria between the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age: an Overview, 2012; and as editor of Studi vari di egeistica, anatolistica e del mondo mediterraneo, 2012.
Emanuele Isidori, Instructor
Emanuele Isidori has earned a PhD in sciences of education from the University of Perugia, a degree in classical philology from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, a degree in philosophy from the University of Siena and an MA degree in Adult Education from the III University of Rome. He is Associate Professor and teaches general pedagogy, philosophy and history of sport and Olympic Education at the University of Rome “Foro Italico”, where he also leads the general pedagogy laboratory. His main research interests focus on tourism studies, ancient philosophy and literature and cultural studies. He is the author of many books and articles. Recent books include Filosofia dello sport (with H. L. Reid), La pedagogia del deporte hoy. Escenarios y desafios (Ed. with A . Fraile) and Outline of sport pedagogy. He has studied in different countries, travelled extensively all over the world and is interested in philo-tourism.
David Kilpatrick, Instructor
David Kilpatrick is Assistant Professor of Literature, Language and Communication at Mercy College, NY. He earned his Ph.D. in comparative literature and M.A. in philosophy at Binghamton (SUNY). His areas of specialization are violence and representation, modernism, history of drama and the theory of criticism. He has published on Nietzsche, Bataille, Mishima, Nitsch, Barker, and is a theater critic for The Brooklyn Rail. He is the author of Writing in Blood: the Sacrificial Dramatist as Tragic Man (Eye Corner Press, 2011) and serves on the Board of Director of the Nietzsche Circle and the Editorial Board of The Agonist.
Gail Linsenbard, Instructor
Gail Linsenbard teaches philosophy at New York University. She received her PhD in philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder where she worked on the moral philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. In addition to other articles and papers on Beauvoir, Sartre and William James, Dr. Linsenbard’s most recent book, Starting With Sartre (Continuum, 2010), explores the impact that Sartre’s most influential and notable predecessors had on his work. Dr. Linsenbard is currently writing a book on “the philosopher within” wherein she considers the multiple ways in which the philosophical attitude and sensibility may alter our lives and improve our sense of well being.
Charles Oliver, Instructor
Charles Oliver teaches ancient philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics at Pace University, New York. Specializes in the history of philosophy and social and political thought. Current research focuses on Plato and the poets, the link between the new science and changes in ethical theory in early modern philosophy, and Cezanne.
Emmanuel Pasquier, Instructor
Emmanuel Pasquier is French and teaches philosophy in Paris. He lived in New York and moderated philosophical discussions at the Cafe Philosophique of the French Institute/Alliance Francaise, while teaching at the Lycee Francais New York. He is “Agrege” and has a Doctorate Degree from the University of Paris 1-Pantheon-Sorbonne. His main area of research is Philosophy of Law; he is also interested in popular culture, in particular, Science Fiction. For Philomobile, he plans to lead two tours: “Enlightenment in Paris” and “The Latin Corner in the 60’s”.
Jared Russell, Instructor
Jared Russell, PhD, is a psychoanalyst in private practice with offices in New York City and in Wilton, Connecticut. He earned his PhD in Philosophy from the Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research, and he trained as an analyst at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) in New York. He is a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association, as well as of IPTAR and the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP), both at which he serves as a faculty member and clinical supervisor. He is Managing Editor of The Undecidable Unconscious: A Journal of Deconstruction and Psychoanalysis (University of Nebraska Press), and he is the author of Nietzsche and the Clinic: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Metaphysics (Routledge 2017) and Psychoanalysis and Deconstruction: Freud’s Psychic Apparatus (Routledge 2019).
Maria Taveras, Instructor
Maria Taveras is a Jungian analyst in New York City with many years of experience in private practice. She is a faculty member at the C.G. Jung Foundation and a former board member at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York and the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. She is also an artist who paints and sculpts archetypal images from her own dreams. She is the recipient of two Gradiva Awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis for her “Dream Art.” Her paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in New York, London, Cape Town, Montreal, San Francisco, and Berkeley. She has recently published two important articles – “Dream Art: Sculpting the Psyche” and “A Jungian Aesthetic: Art, Active Imagination, and the Creative Process.” In 2013, Taveras presented her paper “A Jungian Aesthetic: Art, Active Imagination, and the Creative Process” at the International Congress of the IAAP in Copenhagen. In 2015, she was a keynote speaker at the conference of the Moscow Association for Analytical Psychology. In 2017, she presented a Master Class on Dream Art at the PEREPOSTMODERN Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.
