Ian Church,
Principal Investigator
Dr. Ian Church is an assistant professor of philosophy at Hillsdale College and the director of the newly minted Arete Research Center for Philosophy, Science, and Society.
He earned his PhD and MLitt in philosophy from the St Andrews-Stirling Joint Programme in Philosophy. He is the author of numerous articles and two books: Virtue Epistemology and the Analysis of Knowledge (forthcoming) and Intellectual Humility: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Science (2017, co-authored with Peter Samuelson). He also co-edited (with Bob Hartman) The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Psychology of Luck.
Church’s areas of specialization are epistemology and the philosophy of psychology, with specific interests in experimental philosophy, virtue epistemology, social epistemology, and the cognitive and social origins of belief.
He and his wife, Corrie, have been married for 16 years, and they have four children. His hobbies include strength training, travel, ichthyology, and researching academic ancestry.
Mrs. Cindy Hoard,
Project Administrator
Cindy Hoard, project administrator, is in her 20th year at Hillsdale College. She has worked in External Affairs, Career Planning, and recently retired from her full-time position as Aide to the Science Faculty.
Along with the project administrator position, she continues to serve as Aide to the Faculty Deans. In the past, Cindy has served on the school board of a local secondary school, taught Junior Achievement to elementary students, served on the board of Domestic Harmony, and was an official for Volleyball matches.
In her spare time, Cindy enjoys helping others by driving them to appointments, and spending time with her children and three grandchildren. Cindy and her husband, Chuck, enjoy camping, bicycling, kayaking, and hiking.
Dr. Justin Barrett,
Senior Consultant
Justin L. Barrett is President of Blueprint 1543 and honorary Professor of Theology and the Sciences at St Andrews University School of Divinity. Barrett previously taught in Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Psychology, in the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, at the University of Michigan, and at Calvin University.
He is author or editor of over 100 scholarly publications. Much of his work concerns scientific approaches to the study of religious thought and its philosophical and theological implications. Science-informed perspectives on human nature and purpose is another of his scholarly concerns.
Barrett’s books include: Why Would Anyone Believe in God?(2004), Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology: From Human Minds to Divine Minds (2011), Born Believers: The Science of Childhood Religion (2012), The Roots of Religion: Exploring the Cognitive Science of Religion (with Roger Trigg, 2014), and Religious Cognition in China: Homo Religiosus and the Dragon (with Ryan Hornbeck and Madeleine Kang, 2017), and Thriving with Stone Aged Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human Flourishing (with Pamela King, InterVarsity Academic, 2021).
Dr. Blake McAllister,
Project Collaborator
Dr. Blake McAllister is an assistant professor of philosophy at Hillsdale College in the Department of Philosophy & Religion. He received his BA in Philosophy from Pepperdine and his MA and PhD in Philosophy from Baylor.
Since receiving his PhD in 2016, he has published dozens of articles in epistemology, philosophy of religion, and early modern philosophy—often at the intersection of these three fields. His first book, Seemings and the Foundations of Justification: A Defense of Phenomenal Conservatism, is forthcoming with Routledge.
He and his wife, Bess, were married in 2019 and have a beautiful girl together. Blake also strength trains (though he’s not as strong as Ian yet) and enjoys walking with his dogs, reading fantasy, and talking over drinks.
Dr. Paul Rezkalla,
Arete Professorial Fellow
Dr. Paul Rezkalla is the Arete Professorial Fellow at Hillsdale College. He recently earned his PhD in philosophy from Florida State University.
He was a Templeton Cross-Training Fellow at the University of Oxford where he earned a MSc in cognitive and evolutionary anthropology. He also holds a MA in Theology from St. John's University and a MA in philosophy from the University of Birmingham.
His research interests are in normative ethics, philosophy of science, and bioethics, with a particular focus on questions at the intersection of ethics and the life sciences. Paul is a huge fan of English Premier League football (soccer) and he plays the oud.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Long Nguyen
Long Nguyen is a junior double majoring in Math and Philosophy from Hanoi, Vietnam. His interests include epistemology (especially skepticism and more recently, social epistemology), philosophy of science, and history of analytic philosophy. He loves to watch and play soccer, and he is a huge Chelsea fan.
Dylan Palmer
Dylan M. Palmer is a psychology major at Hillsdale College in the Class of 2023. His academic and research interests lie mainly in clinical psychology, particularly in the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety and other internalizing disorders. Dylan also has a keen interest in cognitive psychology, especially within the realms of moral cognition and psychometric measurement. He is on the Hillsdale College Cross Country and Track & Field teams, and a member of Hillsdale College’s Psi Chi chapter, serving as its Vice President. When not in Hillsdale, Dylan can be found at home in Whitefish, Montana.
Chandler Hart
Chandler Hart is a senior philosophy major interested in grad school. There’s lots of things in philosophy that interest him, but most of them have something to do with the general debate about realism: conceptual relativity, changes between conceptual frameworks, anti-reductionism/anti-positivism, and recently more continental stuff like Heidegger and Gadamer. Outside of class, he loves reading fiction and non-fiction, chess, having fun with friends, taking walks, Divine Liturgy, and vegging out.
