Mihretu Guta

Mihretu P. Guta completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy at Durham University (UK) under the supervision of Professor E.J. Lowe and Professor Sophie Gibb. Guta was a recipient of the merit based Prestigious Durham Doctoral Studentship Award for three years. While doing his Ph.D., Guta also served as an Academic Tutor in philosophy at Durham University. After completing his Ph.D., he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Durham University within the Durham Emergence Project which was set up with cooperation between physicists and philosophers and funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Guta’s postdoctoral research focused on the nature of the emergence of the phenomenal consciousness taken from the standpoint of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience and quantum physics. He also took short term academic research trainings at Rivendell Institute Summer Seminar at Yale University and at the International Philosophy Summer School at Bamberg University in Germany.

Guta specializes in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. His other research interest areas include philosophy of religion, philosophy of language/logic, epistemology, ethics, philosophical theology, the philosophy of cognitive neuroscience and the philosophy of quantum physics.

Guta’s international academic publications include the special issue he co-edited with Sophie Gibb for the Journal of Consciousness Studies entitled: “Insights into the First-Person Perspective and the Self: An Interdisciplinary Approach”, (Imprint Academic, 2015). He also edited a research volume entitled Consciousness and the Ontology of Properties which was published by Routledge (2018/2019). Currently, Guta is working on a single authored manuscript entitled The Metaphysics of Substance and Personhood: A Non-theory Laden Approach as well as another co-authored manuscript entitled Bracketed Issue: A Case for Metaphysical Foundation for Bioethics. Guta is also working on two edited volumes, one on Companion to Bioethics and the other on E. J. Lowe’s Metaphysics and Analytic Theology.

Moreover, Guta has published articles, short response commentaries and book reviews in notable peer-reviewed international academic journals such as Philosophia Christi, Analysis, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, The Philosophical Quarterly, Appraisal — the Journal of British Personalist Forum and TheoLogica — International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology.

Guta has presented academic research papers and public lectures over 70 times, at locations including Durham University (UK); University of Vienna (Austria); University of Helsinki (Finland); Boston University, MA (USA); Biola University (USA); Azusa Pacific University (USA), Citrus College, Glendora, CA (USA), University of Arizona, Tucson (USA); Dominican School of Theology and Philosophy at Berkeley (USA); Trinity International University; Chicago (USA); Evangelical Philosophical Society- 15th Annual Apologetics Conference, Parker, CO (USA); Wesleyan Philosophical Society- Cleveland TN; Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Evangelical Theological College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Tyndale Fellowship, Wolfson College, Cambridge University (forthcoming).

Currently, Guta teaches philosophy both at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Biola University and Azusa Pacific University in Southern California, USA. He received two master’s degrees from Biola University: one in philosophy with high honors and the other in science and religion with the highest honors.

In the past, Guta worked as an Assistant to the Academic Dean, Lecturer and Field Education Director at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he also received his undergraduate degree with distinction in academic theology. He also did undergraduate coursework in philosophy at Addis Ababa University. Guta served as a visiting lecturer at a number of theological colleges in different regions of Ethiopia and published numerous articles and four books in Amharic (the Ethiopian official language) in the area of reading culture, philosophy of religion and philosophical apologetics.

Follow Mihretu Guta’s academic work at PhilPeople.org and Durham Academia.