David J. Leichter joined the Marian community in the fall of 2013 after receiving his PhD in philosophy from Marquette University, where he wrote his dissertation on the role that memory plays in forming and maintaining collective identities. In addition to teaching the introductory course Knowledge, Values, and Society, he has taught courses in Bioethics, Existentialism, the Philosophy of Love and Friendship, Monuments and Memory, Philosophy of Food, Civil Disobedience and Non-Violence, Philosophy of Law, the Ethics of Technology, and the Memory and History of the Holocaust.

The relation between teaching and learning is collaborative and dialogical, and so his classes focus on creating new ways for students to participate in an ongoing tradition of philosophical questioning. He has taught courses with faculty from the History Program and Biology program, which gives students the unique opportunity to learn how to develop answers to questions across disciplines. He has designed courses with a study away opportunity, notably traveling to Detroit to understand how urban agriculture is reshaping the city and going to Poland with students where they learn what it means to remember the Holocaust.

In addition to teaching, he has published articles on collective memory and identity, the relationship between food and memory, the philosophical significance of graphic novels, and the importance of narrative ethics for medical practice. When not working, he spends his time crate digging for records to add to his ever-growing LP collection, drinking IPAs, and cooking.