These days, most of us offer a qualified answer to even the simplest of questions: How are you? There’s so much to take into consideration given the chaotic state of the world, divisive national politics, and local budgetary issues. Even on a gloriously sunny summer day in the Emerald City, on the grounds of one of the most beautiful campuses in the US, it can sometimes be difficult to appreciate what we have. Still, the poets and philosophers teach us to pause and notice the beauty of the world, to revel in its splendors, to gather with our fellows in solidarity and laughter. Reading and re-reading the works of poet Mary Oliver has helped me through this year. She says that as a poet, her work is loving the world, and “learning to be astonished.” I invite you to take up that stance. We have much work to do – a never-ending supply of it – but there is also so much that deserves our admiration and gratitude.
Here are a few highlights to share:
Graduation
We filled the Intellectual House with philosophy graduates and their families and friends on June 8. Special thanks to our alumna speaker, Jasmin Weaver (BA 2002; now Chief of Staff at the King County Executive’s Office) and our wonderful graduating senior speaker, Zhenya Shapiro. Huge congratulations to all of our graduates! We look forward to seeing how you take philosophy out into the world.
New PhDs
Congrats to our most recent PhD recipients: Dr. Aaron Barker; Dr. Daniel Galley; Dr. Jonathan Milgrim; Kyle O’Dwyer; and Dr. Sofia Savage
Department news
Associate Professor Conor Mayo-Wilson was named one of the inaugural recipients of the Faculty Fellowship at the Center for Statistics in the Social Sciences (CSSS). He will teach a course in game theory two times over the three year term. https://csss.uw.edu/about/news/announcing-inaugural-csss-faculty-fellows
Associate Teaching Professor Paul Franco, who has been serving as our Graduate Program Coordinator for the past four years, has been promoted to Full Teaching Professor! Congratulations, Paul!
Professor Ian Schnee won a new AI-Seed grant from UW with colleague KC Lee in the Department of Linguistics. Their plan is to develop an AI policy tool for faculty to generate course-specific guidance for students on AI use. https://www.ai.uw.edu/aiuw-awards-36-seed-ai-grants-in-its-inaugural-funding-call/
Professor Michael Blake published a short public philosophy article, "How Trump’s Greenland threats amount to an implicit rejection of the legal principles of Nuremberg" in The Conversation. https://phil.washington.edu/news/2026/01/26/prof-michael-blake-featured-conversation
Thanks to a very generous gift from the estate of longtime UW Friend of Philosophy Dan Gerler, we were able to provide one-quarter dissertation fellowships for three graduate students this year. We are deeply grateful for Dan’s vision in supporting this phase of graduate education.
Undergraduate highlights
Congrats to our undergraduate awards winners!
UW College of Arts & Sciences Mary Katherine Mackenzie and Mary Ann Whitmore Endowed Scholarship: Addison Auer
UW College of Arts & Sciences Chester William Fritz Scholarship: Leo Mendoza
UW Department of Philosophy Graduating Senior Awards: Griffin Hehmeyer and Zhenya Shapiro
UW Department of Philosophy Graduate Student Choice Award: Zhenya Shapiro
UW Department of Philosophy Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Award: Addison Auer
UW Department of Philosophy Kenneth Clatterbaugh Undergraduate Scholarship: Jonathon Eaton
UW Department of Philosophy Thomas Hankins Prize in History & Philosophy of Science: Sydney Dykes
UW Husky 100: Andrew Shaw, Sarah D’Souza, Jiaqi Wang
Graduate student highlights
Congratulations to our graduate award winners!
UW Presidential Dissertation Fellowship winner: Kade Cicchella
William Talbott Graduate Philosophy Teaching Award winner: Jesus Raya
Melvin Rader Innovative Summer Philosophy Project Award winners: Julia Pelger and Jesus Raya