Gregory Gehring

Background

About Gregory Gehring

Incoming 2025 Junior Associate at Mercury (D.C.). Junior studying Political Science, Business-Economics, and Philosophy within the honors college of Notre Dame. My research and senior thesis, through the Department of Philosophy and in conjunction with the Glynn Family Honors Program, investigates Buddhist metaphysics - specifically the doctrine of anattā (non-self)- through a multidisciplinary lens. I analyze how this core element of Buddhist thought challenges Western ideas of personal identity and continuity utilizing a script-based analysis of AppleTV+’s series “Severance” as a contemporary case study in narrative and philosophical storytelling. The project blends transcript analysis with classical Buddhist texts, and is supplemented with an immersive, 1-month experiential learning program in Thailand, where I will reflect and engage directly with a Buddhist Monastery and monastic traditions, offering a cross-cultural perspective on identity, consciousness, and the construction of self in our contemporary world.