The Department of Philosophy is excited to announce that Senior Lecturer Ian Schnee has been awarded the 2020 University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award! This award recognizes UW faculty for outstanding dedication in teaching, mentoring, public service, and commitment to public values. Awardees exemplify extensive knowledge and mastery of their subject matter; innovation in course and curriculum design; ability to inspire, guide and mentor students through independent and creative… Read more
We are extraordinarily proud to announce that philosophy doctoral candidate Paul Tubig has been awarded the 2020 Graduate School Medal! This medal is given to recognize a doctoral candidate whose academic expertise and social awareness are integrated in a way that demonstrates an exemplary commitment to the University and its larger community. From teaching at the Washington Corrections… Read more
Receiving a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant is a key indicator of success for countless faculty. Not only do such grants provide research funding, they also signal a faculty member’s research independence and prestige, which is critical for tenure and promotion. So, when a 2011 study found that Black applicants for NIH R01 grants were significantly less likely to receive funding than white applicants with similar qualifications, the agency launched a contest for ideas to detect… Read more
Persuasion can save the world. Whether it's about COVID-19, climate change, vaccination, or immigration, it's clear that a lot of people really, really need to be persuaded. Everyone will agree that millions of people hold false views about these topics, even as we disagree about which views are false. And everyone will agree that getting these topics right is a matter of life and death.
If the stakes are high enough, then maybe anything goes, and people on the right… Read more
With so many traditional summer activities limited by the pandemic and our thoughts focused on justice and politics, our philosophy faculty members offer a few suggestions for your summer 2020 reading list. Check out the books that our faculty members have read recently or are planning to read this summer. We hope you find something to add to your list.
Michael Blake
Identity Crisis: The 2016… Read more
On Sunday, June 14* we held our first-ever virtual graduation celebration with our graduates, faculty, family and friends. While we missed celebrating all our graduates in person, it was lovely to see all their smiling faces on Zoom. Our celebration included many firsts: our first virtual hoodings of our PhD graduates, our first group undergraduate address, and our first student open mic allowing any student to reflect on their time in the department and address all those in attendance.… Read more
Thank you to everyone who made our first virtual alumni career panel a success. Especially our alumni panelists:
Alisa Bacon, Philosophy and Mathematics BA '16, UX Designer at Microsoft
Zerina Curevac, Philosophy and Art BA '13, Attorney at Lululemon
Gurdeep Gill, Philosophy '18, Ruth Woo Emerging Leaders Fellow at King County
Danielle Malcom, Philosophy and Law, Society & Justice '10, Prosecutor at Seattle City Attorney's Office
Haylee Millikan, Philosophy and English '16, Fact Checker… Read more
Congratulations to Colin Marshall and Ian Schnee on being awarded a Mellon Summer Fellowship for New Graduate Seminars in the Humanities for their project “Advanced Philosophy of Persuasion Courses.” Mellon Summer Fellows receive support to develop graduate-level seminars with a significant focus on the practice of public scholarship.
Colin and Ian plan to build upon their previous work creating the new undergraduate introductory course “… Read more
Congratulations to Michael Ball-Blakely for being chosen as one of the Simpson Center’s Joff Hanauer Graduate Fellows for Excellence in Western Civilization. Michael and the interdisciplinary group of 2020-2021 Hanauer Fellows will participate in a year-long seminar exploring the theme, “Environments in the 21st Century: Migration, Climate, Extinction, In/humanness, Non-Humans and Beyond." The award is intended to foster “creative and critical work in the Western cultural… Read more
Congratulations to Anna Bates and Paul Tubig on being awarded Mellon Summer Fellowships for Public Projects in the Humanities, funded through the UW Simpson Center for the Humanities, for their project, "Philosophy Behind/Beyond Bars: Exploring the Intersection Between Philosophy and Prison."
Anna and Paul have been working in conjunction with the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS), an in-prison college program, to teach philosophy to incarcerated students at the Washington… Read more
Two philosophy doctoral students – Anna Bates and Erika Versalovic – have been awarded a Mellon Collaborative Fellowship for Reaching New Publics in Community Colleges. They will be part of three two-person teams, sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities, who will shadow faculty members at one of Seattle District Colleges during the 2020-2021 academic year.
The fellowship, which facilitates immersive cross-institutional experiences, is part of a program—… Read more
The Department of Philosophy celebrated the achievements of our undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at our annual Awards Reception on May 29, 2020. In light of the on-going pandemic, the awards ceremony was held virtually this year but that did not decrease our pride or dampen our celebration of our award winners’ accomplishments. Our Philosophy community continued its annual tradition of honoring our award winners by having faculty share personal anecdotes from the… Read more