About CP

Thanks for stopping by!

My name is Christopher Panza (aka CP), and I am an associate professor at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri (I’ve been there since the fall of 2002). Originally a native of NYC, I completed my B.A. (I double majored in philosophy and literature) at SUNY Purchase (in New York) and I completed my M.A. (1998 ) and Ph.D. (2002) in philosophy at the University of Connecticut. That’s me up there in the picture with my swing-loving (as is apparent in the picture) daughter Parker (she is 3 1/2; I also have another daughter Paige who is 3 months old).

My professional interests are varied. Although my specialization is early modern philosophy (16th – 18th century thought, specifically John Locke, the subject of my doctoral dissertation), somewhere around 2003 or so I developed an interest in virtue ethics and in Confucianism in particular. Ever since, the two (mostly their intersection) subjects have dominated more and more of my current research focus (unfortunately, no fruitful relationship between Locke and Confucius exists that I know about). So, nowadays I mostly find myself mostly bogged down in projects related to these themes (a list of projects can be found under “research”). However, I am also very active in working on pedagogical scholarship, and sometimes the two interests (Confucianism and pedagogy) even meet (which is nice) and result in a journal article (nicer).

On the home front, I am married to Dr. Christie Cathey, a professor of social psychology at Missouri Southern State University at Joplin (we met at U-Conn on a softball team, not here). We live in Mt. Vernon, MO with our daughters Parker (3 years old) and Paige (newborn) and our dogs Gus (a German Shepherd) and Henry (a miniature Daschund) and our cat Bear. Growing up in New York has meant that it has taken a while to get used to all this country (well, I’m still “getting used to it” actually).

My hobbies and personal interests range from a love for traveling (we try to go abroad once a year) to reading (of which I do a ton) and writing (tons of research projects always underway). I’m a big fan of classic rock (60s – 80s) and popular 80s music in general, and when I do watch TV (which is infrequently) I probably tend to watch too much science-fiction (or so my wife always tells me). I also play chess online when I have time (correspondence chess), so if you’re interested, shoot me an email and we’ll figure out how to get a game set up (lots of free sites out there).

If you need to contact me, you can do so at school:

Drury University, Philosophy Department, 900 North Benton Avenue, Springfield, MO 65802

If you are at Drury, you can find me in room 217, Burnham Hall.

…or you can email me at cpanza-at-drury-dot-com.