Tylor Cunningham is a Ph.D. student at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is currently researching how we can use various kinds of art to advance moral pedagogy. He is mostly interested in how agent focused art, like games, can be used as pedagogical tools.
What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
I think my favorite thing that I’ve written so far is still very much a work in progress and the first steps toward my dissertation. It’s a rough paper about the effects that various narratives can have on an audience’s character. It explores some of the different ways that media can affect the moral characters of an audience, and acknowledges, with Plato, that this can be dangerous. But, it can also be extremely beneficial if utilized in the right ways. It was such a fun piece to write because I got to engage with Christopher Bartel’s work on free will and moral responsibility in video games and with Shannon Musset’s work emphasizing how the use of imagination and engagement in games like Dungeons & Dragons can allow the player to explore topics the game may have never intended.
If I have to pick something more polished, I would have to say my paper, “The Breakdown Between Virtuous and Virtuoso.” This is the paper that really sparked my interest in how we reason when it comes to moral decision making. It also got accepted to a conference in Cape Town, South Africa. So, I got to travel and meet so many incredible people working in the area of practical reason. It’s hard to beat that.
What are you most proud of in your professional life?
I am most proud of the conference that I founded and organized with Alex Richardson as part of UT’s Philosophy Graduate Student Association. The two conferences that we ran together were both international affairs, hosting graduate students from all over the world. We were able to secure enough funding to run both conferences for entire weekends and invite amazing keynote speakers like Susan Brison, Michael Blake, and Amy Reed-Sandoval. But, what was most important to us is that we were able to off-set the often prohibitive cost of attending these conversations for our speakers, and we were able to do that for most of the people who joined us. There are people who attended these conferences that are still in touch with one another about their work. I’m just grateful that I got to be a part of it all.
What are you working on right now?
My dissertation. I’m starting from the beginning with Plato’s critique of poetry in the Republic. Towards the end of Book X he invites a possible defense for allowing poetry into Kallipolis. I’m currently trying to build that defense.
Most of my reading so far has dealt more with how audiences can engage responsibly with different kinds of art. This includes outlining responsible and conscious engagement with works, as well as being aware of what James Harold calls the “automatic processes” of fictions. But, if we’re truly going to defend the poets and allow them back into the city, then the more primary issue is whether they can construct beneficial fictions, and, if so, what that process of creation and pedagogy looks like.
What do you like to do outside work?
Based on the rest of my answers, it’s probably unsurprising that I like to play games outside of work! I have a weekly D&D group with some friends from college, and I have a closet full of board games that I’m always excited to pull out for a game night. I am also a huge fan of a deeply narrative driven video games.
What are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
I’m currently reading C. Thi Nguyen’s book Games: Agency as Art. It’s a truly fascinating look at games as a unique form of art that deals in agency. It does such an amazing job at taking philosophy and applying it to something that some people might see as ‘trivial’ in a really unique, refreshing, and critical way.
Yeah, I highly recommend it!
What’s your top tip or advice for APA members reading this?
Research the things that you love. I think there’s a lot of pressure to fit yourself into some sort of canon or acceptable practice. But, there are so many amazing and unexplored areas that your knowledge can be applied to. Go apply it! Blaze trails!
This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. We’d love for you to be a part of it, so please contact us via the interview nomination form here to nominate yourself or a friend.
Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.
