BA in Philosophy

Christian Carrozzo, 2010

Christian Carrozzo

Christian Carrozzo has earned both a BA and an MA in philosophy at George Mason University and is a recipient of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean's Challenge Fellowship Award.

Christian started at Mason with an interest in moral psychology and became a philosophy major soon after. There he immersed himself in readings on philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, and contemporary ethical theory. He was encouraged by his professors to continue with his studies as a graduate student, which he did.

Christian's graduate work in ethics earned him a position on Kaiser Permanente's Mid-Atlantic States Regional Bioethics Committee while he was still a student. Part of his work at Kaiser consisted of clinical frontline exposure to bioethical issues arising in a healthcare context while assisting an oncologist with patient care. He gained valuable experience in addressing value-based conflict, as well as issues pertaining to personal identity in terminally ill patients. Additionally, he helped clarify the distinction between moral conflicts in need of a bioethicist and organizational problems that were the ethical responsibility of hospital administrators.

After graduating with his MA in philosophy, Christian accepted the position of ethics educator at MedStar Washington Hospital Center's Center for Ethics. There he serves as program director and faculty member in the design and implementation of bioethics curriculum for medical and surgical residents, organizes normative and applied ethics professional conferences, and is senior editor to The Journal of Hospital Ethics. Currently, Christian is working alongside his colleagues in writing the moral reasoning for a book dedicated to bioethics in critical care medicine for Cambridge University Press. His present philosophical research is in the area of neuroethics, which brings his work in philosophy of mind and bioethics together in relation to questions about human agency.