Matthew Lopresti PH.D.
College of Liberal Arts - Department of History, Humanities, and International Studies
Professor of Philosophy and Humanities
Matthew S. LoPresti, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Hawai’i Pacific University where he served as Chair of the Asian and Pacific Studies Program. He is author of Religious Pluralism: Toward a Comparative Metaphysics of Religion (Lexington Books: 2023) as well as numerous peer-reviewed chapters and articles, primarily on comparative (East-West) philosophy and philosophy of religion.
Dr. LoPresti frequently teaches courses on Environmental Ethics, Political Philosophy, Yoga and South Asian Philosophy, general education level philosophy courses and political science. He has had regularly teaching experience in Asian and Pacific Studies, Classical Studies, Logic, Ethics, Religious Studies, and Humanities and his teaching experience extends to various universities in Hawai’i, Ohio, West Virginia, and abroad. He served as Lecturer of Buddhist Philosophy and Field Research Advisor for the Antioch Buddhist Studies Program in Bodh Gaya, India for American university students studying abroad and as a Pre-Doctoral Fellow to bring Buddhist Philosophy to one of the country’s largest land-grant universities at West Virginia University.
Dr. LoPresti has been elected to three terms in the Hawai’i State Legislature, two terms on the Sierra Club’s Executive Committee (O’ahu, Hawaii Chapter), and the ’Ewa Neighborhood Board. He serves as the Vice President of the Sons of the American Revolution, Hawaii Chapter and remains very active and engaged in community affairs at the state and local level – exposing his students to numerous learning opportunities through his network of contacts in government, industry, and non-governmental organizations and unique experience in and with local, state, and federal government.
“Poiesis, Fides et Ratio in the Absence of Relativism,” in Theopoetics, ed, by Roland Faber and Jeremy Fakenthal (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011), forthcoming.
Outside of academia, Matt serves as an elected official in Ewa Beach and invests in his community as an entrepreneur.
