Joseph M. Vukov, PhD

Associate Professor; Associate Director, The Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage

Joe Vukov is an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at Loyola University Chicago. He is also Associate Director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola, and an Affiliate Faculty Member in Catholic Studies and Psychology. Nationally, Vukov also serves as the Vice President of Philosophers in Jesuit Education.

Vukov's research explores questions at the intersection of ethics, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind, and at the intersection of science and religion. He regularly publishes and presents on his work. In 2022, he published Navigating Faith and Science, and in 2023, he published The Perils of Perfection. In Spring 2024, he will publish a book that grapples with questions arising from new forms of Artificial Intelligence.

At the graduate level, Vukov advises PhD and MA students, and teaches courses in philosophy of mind and neuroethics. At the undergraduate level, he mentors undergraduate research projects, and teaches courses in philosophy of mind, bioethics, and neuroethics. In Fall semesters, he teaches a course sequence with Dr. Michael Burns (Biology) that uses science fiction novels to introduce near-future moral problems: Philosophy and Biology for the Future. Also with Dr. Burns, Vukov is PI on an approximately $150,000 project funded by the NEH to develop interdisciplinary courses at Loyola focused on near-future problems. In 2020, he was named a Sujack Master Teacher and in 2019, was awarded the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Freshmen.

Professional/Community Affiliations

Vice President, Philosophers in Jesuit Education

Awards

Sujack Master Teacher Award (2020)

Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching Freshmen (2019)

Langerbeck Award for Undergraduate Research Mentoring, Runner-Up (2023)

Alice B. Hayes Award for Advising and Mentoring, Top Finalist (2023)