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Ann Hetzel Gunkel, Ph.D Philosophy

Assoc. Professor Emerita, Columbia College Chicago, is an award-winning educator & scholar and the winner of the College’s 2017 Excellence in Teaching Award. The former Humanities Coordinator, founding member and past Director of the innovative program in Cultural Studies, is a winner of multiple major grants, a two-time Fulbright recipient for both Research (Germany 1991) and Teaching (Poland 2012) and the Harmonia Research Grant from the Polish National Science Center.

A scholar in the fields of Cultural Studies and Polish American Studies, she taught Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Film & Media Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities at Columbia. Her favorite classes to teach were Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophical Issues in Film, and Philosophy of Food & Culture.

Awarded Emerita status in 2025 from Columbia, she is still teaching Philosophy part-time for the sheer love of it at her doctoral alma mater, DePaul University, where she is Adjunct Professor of Film Philosophy n the School of Cinematic Arts.

She resides in her hometown of Chicago where she is a fan of punk, indie, alt country & opera, a film geek and a bird photographer. Playing in the Old Town School of Folk Music’s Alt Country Ensemble is her happy place. Her interest in conservation and ecocriticism has led to seven seasons (and counting) of service as a Monitor for the Chicago Piping Plovers, protecting and documenting the endangered species at Montrose Beach on the Lake Michigan shore.

She is especially fond of coffee & cake, cocktails, film noir, the Music Box theater, midcentury modern design, her German Shorthair Pointer Kiszka (named after Polish barley & blood sausage, another fave), The Hideout, her son Stas’ indie bands, Delilah’s punk night, Johnnie’s Beef, piping plovers and puffins. She fiercely supports live music and musicians. Her life’s dream is to be befriended by a crow.

Be forewarned…she is a fast talker and can become very ebullient when discussing any of the above. LIABILITY DISCLAIMER: Individuals in the blast radius of her passion hereby indemnify her from any resulting potential damages.