Personal.  I was born in 1986 in the rural isolation of northern Minnesota, to a Democratic family that has since mostly left the area.  I moved states with my mom when I was 14.  I then became obsessed with philosophy, which I learned about via David Bowie.  I attended a public high school and state university in Iowa City, a special place I miss; to the right is a silly picture from high school.  As an undergrad, I acquired the name 'Kurt Ludwig Sylvan', lived in the basement of a bookshop, and worked in several bookshops, the Iowa Law Library, a Procter & Gamble factory, and the Iowa Law, Health Policy, and Disability Center.  I moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey in 2008 for graduate school at Rutgers.  Since 2014 I’ve lived in Southampton, England.  David Bowie continues to be my main idée fixe outside academic philosophy.  (He did non-academic philosophy, I would claim.)

​​My brilliant and wonderful partner Kate Sylvan is a dual UK/American citizen who was born in the UK (though we met and got married in America).  In 2016, we were thrilled to bring home our first child, Edward ('Teddy') Felix Sylvan.  At present, his favorite things are art (especially drawing), LEGOs, stories, and asking 'Why?' in odd cases which end up making me sound anti-philosophical.  In 2019, we had our second child, Albert ('Bertie') Ernest Sylvan.  He is 2.  Lately he enjoys singing 'We Will Rock You', disco dancing, chasing the cat, eating blueberries, identifying, counting, and admiring bins, and building puzzling structures with blocks.  We also have a cat (Seneca) from the New Jersey street.  We are trying our best not to relegate him to the margins of the household, though he has fallen to the bottom of this page.

(Last updated July 2, 2021.)​

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