What a year it’s been. The campus was filled with political activity, including encampments protesting the war in Gaza and a graduate student ASE strike. The Department of Philosophy held its first Town Hall meeting on issues of climate and communication, and undertook an extensive graduate program review. This newsletter contains information on many events from the year, but let me highlight just a few of them:
New faculty
This year, the UW Department of Philosophy welcomed two new faculty members. Dr. Sosseh Assaturian (PhD UT Austin, specializing in ancient philosophy) and Dr. Shawn Tinghao Wang (PhD UC San Diego, specializing in ethics and moral psychology) have been fantastic additions to our philosophical community. A few highlights from their first year:
Sosseh published “Parmenides’ Doxa and the Norms of Inquiry: A Case Study of the Fragments on Astronomy” in Inquiring into Being: Essays on Parmenides, edited by Colin C. Smith (2024), is working on a book on Stoic Assertibles, and taught a new grad seminar on Women in Ancient Philosophy.
Shawn published “Rethinking Functionalist Accounts of Blame” in The Journal of Ethics (2023) 1–17, taught a new 400-level course on moral psychology, and developed a new course on Chinese Philosophy: From Han to the 19th Century that will appear next academic year.
Both new faculty members have been incredibly valuable additions to our philosophical community. In the coming academic year, we will run a search for a new faculty member in philosophy of science.
Emeritus faculty news
Emeritus Professor David Keyt published a new co-edited festschrift for Fred Miller: Principles and Praxis in Ancient Greek Philosophy: Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy in Honor of Fred D. Miller, Jr. (eds. David Keyt and Christopher Shields), Springer 2024.
As David notes, “the volume begins with an intellectual autobiography that includes a description of the department in the late 60's that might interest some of the current members of the department.”
Graduate student news
We’re absolutely thrilled that graduate student Aaron Barker has received a prestigious Fulbright award to work at the Schopenhauer archive at the University of Mainz, Germany, in AY2024-2025.
Aaron Barker was also the winner of the graduate student teaching award, which includes a cash prize starting this year, as a way of honoring our beloved colleague William Talbott. Bill was a fantastic scholar and an award-winning teacher who was committed to the support of both undergraduate and graduate philosophy students. A huge thanks to his family and friends who donated funds in his memory to make this award possible on an annual basis.
New Undergraduate Activities and Outreach Coordinator
This year we offered a part-time position for an undergraduate philosophy major to serve as the department’s Undergraduate Activities and Outreach Coordinator. A huge thanks to Maddie Lewis, who helped with organizing department events (e.g., awards ceremony, graduation), put together an alumni panel and one on getting in graduate school, and ran weekly meetings for the philosophy club, with activities ranging from debate and ethics bowl discussions to philosophical haiku writing (for International Haiku day) and philosophical valentine making to an ice cream social.