He earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2008, where he wrote a dissertation on the philosophy of the Renaissance Platonist Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499). Snyder's research interests are primarily in Renaissance and early modern philosophies, with a special emphasis on Platonic natural philosophies and theories of matter. He has recently published articles in Vivarium and The Journal of the History of Ideas.