Q: How do you pronounce your last name?
A: In North American English, we say the 'i' like in 'Chris', the 'a' as in 'van', and emphasis on the second syllable. (I stole this explanation from my cousin.) If you speak British English, the second syllable may sound more like ZAHN. In the original you get some cool diacritics (Křižan) and it sounds very beautiful, even though the ř is difficult to say...
Q: Where are you from?
A: Michigan! Kalamazoo, to be exact. I've also lived in East Lansing, Michigan; London, UK; Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colorado; Denver, Colorado; Fullerton (Orange County), California; Mobile, Alabama; La Crosse, Wisconsin; and Durham, North Carolina.
Q: No, but where are you from?
A: My father's people went to the US from Prague and Moravia - Krizan is Czech/Moravian. (Not affiliated with the Moravian church - they are Moravian peoples, which is different.)
My mother's father's family came from Greece; her grandfather went to the US from the beautiful island of Samos (or Sisam, in Turkish). Samos is actually the closest Greek island to Turkey, and at the time my great-grandfather left, it was an autonomous Ottoman principality.
Q: Why philosophy?
A: I majored in political science as an undergraduate, intending to go to law school, but got sucked in by the political theory courses.
Although I loved reading historical texts, and especially 'the ancients', I discovered that I enjoyed theoretical philosophy and preferred the methods of the Anglo-American tradition. So, I scrapped law school plans, picked up a second major in philosophy, and got to study historical texts as well as logic and metaphysics!
Q: Why Turkey?
A: At some point, it was time to leave the USA, and I began looking toward Europe - but with a bit of a preference for places a bit further to the east or south, away from the unending grey of Western Europe.
Turkey was a possible country - in part due to its proximity to one of my family's ancestral homelands - and I am happy to have landed here. No country is perfect, but warm people and more of a community-oriented culture help life to seem less stressful than in a hyper-capitalist, individualistic society. Plus, Ankara is a large, modern city, and has nearly perfect weather (for me and probably nobody else).
Q: Why 'Aristotle Rocks'?
A: My research interests in Aristotle tend toward the intersection of natural philosophy and metaphysics: I'm interested in matter, elements, and things made out of them, which happen to include...rocks. I also enjoy rock music and play drums. As a theoretical philosopher and natural scientist, Aristotle is really pretty \m/
Q: What do you do for fun?
A: I enjoy playing the drums and cycling (mainly road cycling, both normal and single speed, with a bit of gravel, and a whole lot of hills). I am also a cat enthusiast.
When I do not have time for fun, people-watching on EGO is okay, as long as I have enough nazar.
Q: What are the photos on the website?
A: All the website header photos (with one exception) are pictures I took in and around Ankara. See if you can find all the places!
The exception is the photograph on the 'Book' page. Since there is no sea in Ankara, I could not take a photo with all the elements. This photo is just off the coast of Samos in October 2023, part of the journey that led to the delay of the book and will someday be the topic of a three-season long Turkish soap opera titled 'Annem, Ailem, Hayatım.'
Q: Will you stay in Turkey?
A: Turkey is my home now, y'all are stuck with me...