Vanessa de Harven

Vanessa de Harven is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a BA from Pomona College (1991) and a PhD from UC Berkeley (2012). Her research focuses on Stoic metaphysics, particularly corporealism and incorporeals like lekta, as well as Presocratic philosophy and Plato's metaphysics. She is currently completing a book titled Everything is Something: The Unity of Stoic Metaphysics.

Her work spans Hellenistic philosophy, with notable contributions on Stoic theories of void, determinism, and mind. She also engages with Plato’s Protagoras and Socratic intellectualism. As an Undergraduate Advisor, she supports students in their academic journeys.

Her publications appear in journals like Apeiron, Themes in Stoic Metaphysics, and book chapters in collections such as Logical Modalities from Aristotle to Carnap. She has reviewed works on Stoicism, Plato, and ancient virtue ethics for leading journals.