Allen Porter

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Allen Porter is a philosopher from New Orleans with interests in phenomenology, ethics, politics, the philosophy of technology, and the history of philosophy. He will assume the position of Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Center for Arts and Letters at the University of Austin in the summer of 2025.

Dr. Porter is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education. Before that, he was a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rice University in 2021. His dissertation, Social Justice Leftism as Deconstructive Postmodernism, analyzed the philosophical foundations of the political ideology nowadays known as “wokeism” or “woke leftism.” He holds a M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University and a B.A. in German from Princeton University.

Dr. Porter is most known for his work on transhumanism and posthumanism. He is currently producing an edited volume, Phenomenology & Posthumanism(s), for Springer’s Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture book series, and he will contribute the chapter “The Future of Transhumanism” for the new edition of Michel Tibayrenc’s On Human Nature. Dr. Porter’s other lines of research and publication projects are united by his concern to elaborate and apply the Heideggerian existential
phenomenology which provides the primary philosophical and methodological ground for all his work.

Dr. Porter has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and the International Journal of Philosophical Studies, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Law & Liberty, and RealClearPolitics, among others. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. When not preoccupied with philosophy, professional matters, politics, or the mundane necessities of everyday life, he enjoys powerlifting, videogaming, IPAs, and watching Red Letter Media.