Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.

Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder

Thomas Graff

Research Fellow, Philosophy & Society

Dr. Thomas Graff is a Research Fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Philosophy & Society Initiative.

Following study in philosophy, theology, and Italian at the University of Notre Dame, he pursued doctoral work at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Rowan Williams. His research considers the relationship between language, love, and power in and across the fields of politics, religion, and literature. In particular, he is drawn to new interdisciplinary forms (epistemological, technological, interreligious, artistic, ecological) of articulating the question of justice today. With a background teaching incarcerated students in the US and UK, he also seeks to understand the liberatory potential of the humanities in an age of mass incarceration, migration, and inequality.

At present, he is editing a volume titled What Is Literature For? Literary, Philosophical, and Theological Perspectives (Routledge, forthcoming), and is developing his first monograph on the late medieval poet, Dante Alighieri. In his free time, he enjoys running, learning about plant life, and wondering at the world with his children.