Faculty & Staff

 Stuart Glennan is the Harry Ice Professor of Philosophy, the Director of Butler University’s Science, Technology and Environmental Studies Program and the Faculty Director of Butler Overseas.  He also serves on the steering committee of Butler’s Neuroscience Program.

Professor Glennan has taught  courses in philosophy and in support of Butler’s interdisciplinary programs, and he has contributed to Butler’s Core Curriculum in the First-Year Seminar, Text and Ideas, Analytical Reasoning, and the Social World. In recent years, Glennan’s teaching assignment have included Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind, Introduction to Science and Technology Studies, and Logic.  

Professor Glennan’s research is the philosophy of science, with particular attention to biology, psychology and neuroscience.  He has written about causation, explanation, and model building. He is chiefly known for his work on the nature of mechanisms and the role of mechanistic models and explanations across the sciences.  He is author of The New Mechanical Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Causation: The Basics (Routledge,  2024) and he is the editor, with Phyllis Illari, of The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy (2018). He has also written on the topic of religion and science, and science education,and the philosophy of history.  Links to publications can be found on Google Scholar. 

Professor Glennan has a B.A. in philosophy and mathematics from Yale University, and a MA and PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago.  He has worked at Butler University since 1992. 

Nii Kpakpo Abrahams serves as the inaugural Senior Director of Student Experience and Engagement at Butler University. While reporting to the Associate Provost, the office sits between university divisions to partner with and collaborate across campus to cultivate a relationship-rich, high-impact, and seamless student experience that fosters a sense of belonging for all students. He is extremely passionate about helping college students discover, develop, and deploy their giftings and passions. 

Before arriving to Butler in the Fall of 2022, Nii was the inaugural Director of Orientation and First Year Experience at Anderson University (IN) and has held other roles in higher education in admissions and as a communication faculty at Ivy Tech Community College, SNHU Online, and Missouri State University. Prior to his life in higher ed, he spent years in the communication and content strategy industry. He holds both his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Communication from Missouri State University. His thesis work centered on organizational assimilation on a city-wide scale and how municipalities can aid in creating the best environments for young professionals to live and thrive. In his downtime, you can find him spending time with his wife and daughter, playing Monopoly Deal, serving in a volunteer pastoral role at his local church, and searching for the best donut shops in Indianapolis.

Hilary is the Associate Dean of Academics at Butler University’s Lacy School of Business. She is an Associate Professor of Business Law and regularly teaches courses in Business Law and Business Ethics. Before joining Butler, Hilary practiced law at Ice Miller LLP where she specialized in business litigation, product liability defense, franchisor-franchisee disputes, and complex commercial cases, including insurance coverage disputes. She also regularly counseled clients on litigation avoidance strategies. Hilary graduated summa cum laude from DePauw University in 1999 and obtained her J.D. summa cum laude from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 2002.

My research interests include the history and culture of Japan, the anthropology of sport, the anthropology of science, gender studies, feminist theory, historical anthropology, mass/popular culture, theories of embodiment, urban anthropology, and visual culture. Most of my fieldwork has focused on cultures of sport in Japan and while I study and teach about all kinds of sport, football (soccer) is my ultimate passion. I continue to work on my primary project about soccer, corporate sport, the recession of the 1990s, and national identity in Japan, but have also written recently about the new professional women’s soccer league in Japan and the history of women’s professional soccer/football globally; I’m also interested in issues related to trans* athletes in Japan and the U.S.

Dr. Marleen McCormick Pritchard is an Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy in the Lacy School of Business. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration (International Business) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. McCormick Pritchard’s primary teaching areas are International Business, Strategy Capstone, and International Strategy. Her main areas of research are on international entrepreneurship, international strategy in emerging markets, and international business education. Her research has been published in Global Strategy Journal, Small Business Economics, European Business Review, Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, and Journal of International Business Education. 

Dr. McCormick Pritchard is the Outreach Editor of the ie-scholars.net online academic community.

Jesse P. Van Gerven is an assistant professor in the Science, Technology, and Environmental Studies program at Butler University.  He regularly teaches courses in the areas of the social studies of science and technology and environmental studies.  His research focuses on energy policy, food systems, local-sustainable agriculture, and social movements for energy and food justice.  He has published in the areas of race and energy policy and critical methodologies.  He lives, works, and plays in the Indianapolis area with his wife, two sons, and his dog.