Charles Driker-Ohren

I received my Ph.D in philosophy from Stony Brook University in 2026. From 2023-2024, I lived in Germany and was a visiting scholar at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal.

My research explores questions at the intersection of phenomenology, social philosophy, and disability studies. I am interested in how others shape our sense of self, bodily dependence and vulnerability, and the role differences play in constituting a shared world. My dissertation (A Measure of Justice: Levinas and the Problem of Responsibility) takes up the challenge that Emmanuel Levinas’ hyperbolic ethics cannot generate concrete action. I argue that our responsibility for multiple others requires us to limit our obligation to each person in the name of our responsibility for everyone—sparking a concern for justice.

In addition to two translations, I have published peer-reviewed articles on Husserl's concept of affective awakening (the process mediating between present experience and its retrieval through memory) and the phenomenology of bodily incapacity. I am currently completing a project on blindness and social difference.