March Update

On Friday, March 1^st, graduate students from across UW’s Faculty of Arts convened for the annual Arts Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) heat. The event serves as a great opportunity for graduate students to share their research ideas with their peers and a rapt audience, perfect their ‘elevator pitch’, and convey the significance of their work. The Philosophy Department was very well-represented at this event!

Kathryn Morrison won the event, and will proceed to the university-wide finals on March 20^th. She spoke on “The Right to Die for Mature Minors”. See this YouTube link for her full presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyy5DlEqH0Y&list=PLE2p6NlgDDSYuQOoVV3eZjxENqVmBKvqn&index=74

Kathryn Morrison speaks on “The Right to Die for Mature Minors” at UW Arts 3MT

 

Chris Wass spoke on “Exploring the Possibility of Professional Ethics for Economists”. See this YouTube link for his full presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVcYWRGHrZE&index=80&list=PLE2p6NlgDDSYuQOoVV3eZjxENqVmBKvqn

Chris Wass speaks about “Exploring the Possibility of Professional Ethics for Economists” at UW’s Arts 3MT

 

On March 7-8, the Department was very happy to host the 26^th annual Philosophy Graduate Student Association (PGSA) conference. Over 10 stimulating formal presentations were delivered, from scholars across Canada, Europe, and the United States, including the keynote address by Dr. Molly Gardner of Bowling Green State University, who spoke on “Doing Harm, Allowing Harm and The Trolley Problem.”

Dr. Molly Gardner, of Bowling Green State University, spoke on “Doing Harm, Allowing Harm, and The Trolley Problem” at the 26th PGSA Conference

 

The week of February 4, Professor John Corvino from Wayne State University visited the Department as our latest Rudrick Visiting Scholar, during which time he gave several talks and met with students and colleagues. Professor Corvino is the author or co-author of several books, including Debating Same-Sex Marriage (with Maggie Gallagher; 2012), What’s Wrong with Homosexuality? (2013), and, most recently, Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination (with Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis, 2017), all from Oxford University Press.

Dr. John Corvino, of Wayne State University, was the 2019 Rudrick Visiting Scholar

Dr. Corvino has appeared on CNN, ABC, FOX, MSNBC, CSPAN, and other TV and radio networks. Until 2011, his column “The Gay Moralist” ran weekly at 365gay.com; he has also contributed to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Detroit Free Press, the Advocate, the Huffington Post, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, and Commonweal, as well as various academic anthologies and journals.

Dr. Corvino is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2004 Spirit of Detroit Award from the Detroit City Council, a 2012 Distinguished Professor of the Year Award from the Presidents’ Council of the State Universities of Michigan, and the 2017 inaugural Community Hero Award from Affirmations LGBTQ Community Center. In the last 25 years he has spoken at over 250 campuses on issues of sexuality, ethics, and marriage. His online videos have received over two million views. The Rudrick Visiting Scholar program honours the memory of Dr. Brian Rudrick, an alumnus and longtime friend of our Department, who died suddenly in 2013.

 

Dr. Shannon Dea was a panelist on 570News’s Friday Four show on February 8. Among other current affairs, she discussed changes to Ontario’s public health system, and the federal SNC Lavalin controversy.

Shannon continues: “On February 11, I published my latest Dispatches on Academic Freedom post in University Affairs: “Two kinds of academic freedom? Lessons from a scholar who fled Turkey” (https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/two-kinds-of-academic-freedom-lessons-from-a-scholar-who-fled-turkey/). And: “On February 20, I gave the opening keynote at UW’s W3 Represents Symposium. “W3” stands for “Waterloo Women’s Wednesdays” – a monthly meet-up event for women and non-binary people on campus. I founded W3 in 2012, and passed on its leadership to successors in 2017. This interdisciplinary conference was the first such event for W3.” Finally, on March 1, Shannon took part in a panel on “Diverse Knowledge in the Academy” as part of University of Toronto’s “Thinking towards Action: 2019 Underrepresented Philosophy Conference.”

 

On February 20, Dr. Katy Fulfer gave a talk entitled “Hannah Arendt, Responsibility, and Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program.” At the W3 Represents Research Symposium, mentioned above. This talk examined the structure of the Private Sponsorship program using Hannah Arendt’s distinction between the public and private realms as a lens of analysis.

Katy also participated in several events to mark International Women’s Day. On March 7 she participated in a panel on “White Feminism in Higher Education – Waterloo Context”, which provided a critical take on how white-centered perspectives are structurally embedded in curricula and other parts of university life.

At the International Women’s Day event, back row (left to right): Dr. Katy Fulfer and Lori Campbell. Bottom row (left to right): Fiqir Worku; Craig Fortier; and Kim H. Nguyen

The Women’s Studies Program is a sponsor of the International Women’s Day Dinner, which this year featured a keynote speech by Dr. Anita Layton, the Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematical Biology and Medicine. Katy represented the program at the dinner:

 

If anyone missed the official UWaterloo story about the launch of the new Gender & Social Justice program, which will replace Women’s Studies as of this coming September 2019, they can read it here.

 

Dr. Doreen Fraser reports that: “A steady stream of prospective students and their parents visited the Philosophy, and Gender and Social Justice, booths at the March Break Open House and packed Dr. Greg Andres’ sample lecture “Why we can’t we have nice things?” Thank you to volunteers Theo Peng, Abigail Willms, Chris Lowry and Greg Andres for helping to make the day a success.”

Dr. Chris Lowry, at left, and Abigail Willms, at the March Break Open House

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January Update

Brian Orend has just published a new book, Seizure the Day: Living A Happy Life with Illness, with Freehand Press [ http://www.freehand-books.com/books/seizure-the-day ]:

Back cover accolades come from Roko Belic, director of the award-winning documentary Happy [ https://www.thehappymovie.com/ ] as well as from Darrin McMahon, Dartmouth historian and author of Happiness: A History. McMahon writes: “This is a beautiful book about struggle and overcoming, told with insight, wisdom, and good cheer. At once smart and funny, it will, quite literally, put a smile on your face.”

Seizure the Day is part medical memoir, part philosophy (leaning, e.g., on Aristotle’s account of well-being) and part empirical research, drawing from social- and political science as well as positive psychology. It’s Orend’s first book to crack the front-of-store display at Chapters/Indigo:

 

Shannon Dea informs us that: “My latest “Dispatches on Academic Freedom” column for University Affairs is “The Price of Academic Freedom.” It was published last week: https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/the-price-of-academic-freedom/

“As well,” she continues, “on December 18, I did interviews with a number of CBC Radio 1 morning shows about Ontario’s new campus free speech policies. I did interviews with Ontario Morning, London Morning, Superior Morning, The Morning Edition, Morning North, and Windsor Morning.” Here’s a link to the Ontario Morning interview: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/ontario-morning-from-cbc-radio/episode/15650872

 

Patricia Marino lets us know that: “In early January I went to NYC to present a paper at the APA Eastern Division Meeting on “Moderate Deontology, Arbitrariness, and the Problem of the Threshold.” In economics approaches to the law, outcomes are typically evaluated in terms of whether their consequences are efficient — just like in consequentialist ethical theory. Like ethical consequentialism, these approaches are criticized for leaving aside other values such as justice — particularly striking in the legal context.”

Patricia Marino gave a conference talk in NYC in January

She continues: “Alternative approaches – such as “moderate deontology” — try to bring consequences together with the kind of constraints found in other ethical theories. Those alternatives are accused of being arbitrary – because they rest on moral judgments. Using the ideas in my 2015 book Moral Reasoning in a Pluralistic World, I show how they are not, in fact, arbitrary at all. Fun fact about my presentation: sitting in the front row was our very own Emeritus Professor Jan Narveson!”

 

Tawnessa Carter reports exciting social media news: “We’ve recently created a YouTube channel for the philosophy department to post interesting and relevant videos by faculty, staff, students and alumni.  We will be posting videos of colloquium talks from here on in (if the speaker grants permission) to ensure that everyone has the ability to hear the talk if they cannot attend.  Please click below to see what we’ve posted so far.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4J67q1qnlf0gc3k0AmVvqA

I encourage you to add comments and likes to our videos.”

 

December 2018 Pre-Holiday Post

Hope everyone is handling end-of-term duties well, and is looking forward to the holidays. Enjoy celebrating! Some recent news from our Department members:

 

Katy Fulfer had a busy November. She reports that, at the start of the month: “UWaterloo Arts welcomed prospective students and their families. Greg Andres, Caroline Dack, Carla Fehr, Katy Fulfer, Theo Peng, and Nick Ray were around to answer questions and share the exciting work students and faculty do in the department. The Open House was also one of the first times we’ve been able to showcase the new Gender & Social Justice programs, which launch in the Fall 2019 term! We couldn’t let guests leave without a little conceptual work either! We asked people to tell us what philosophical questions keep them up at night, and why they need feminism.” See some of the fun:

Dr. Katy Fulfer at the Arts Open House, with an intriguing question

Also at the Open House were Theo Peng and Dr. Nick Ray

The Gender and Social Justice programs launch next Fall

Katy continues: “Philosophy and Women’s Studies also co-sponsored a public talk by queer theorist Jack Halberstam on November 19. Jack’s talk “TRANS* Visual archives of the transgendered body” explored his recent explorations of archival material in search of representations of transmasculinity.” Katy’s latest publication also appeared—”Self-Sufficiency for Surrogacy and Responsibility for Global Structural Injustice”—as a chapter in the book, Surrogacy in Canada: Critical Perspectives in Law and Policy, ed. by V. Gruben, et al, published by Irwin Law. (https://www.irwinlaw.com/titles/surrogacy-canada.) And, at month’s end, the Women’s Studies Program hosted human rights lawyer, peacemaker, and women’s rights advocate, Wazhma Frogh. Wazhma talked about how she developed a consciousness of peace and advocacy work, the work she did in her home country of Afghanistan, and the advocacy work she’s doing now upon moving to Kitchener-Waterloo.

Wazhma Frogh, second in from the right, meeting in November with UW students….

 

… and, at a different event, with Hilary Clinton and Michelle Obama.

 

Carla Fehr recently gave an intriguing presentation on the very topical topic of artificial intelligence (AI), and its manifold implications for our lives. For all the talk, and reality, of AI’s potential to improve and simplify things, Carla’s contribution drew attention to AI’s potential for amplifying prejudices and biases already existing with society. She gave the example of the work of Joy Buolamwini, an African-American computer scientist at the M.I.T. Media Lab, who experienced the bias of facial recognition software firsthand. The software didn’t work on her face, even though it worked on her white friends. Shockingly, Buolamwini could only get the system to recognize her as human when she wore a white mask. She proceeded to conduct a formal, detailed study, finding that commercial face recognition software is bad at identifying women with darker skin tones. The error rate was as high as 46 per cent, which Carla notes is almost no better than a random coin toss. She comments that AI is, after all, set up with initial programming, and this programming can represent biases, and that even smart, well-intentioned people can be quite oblivious to the fact and nature of their own biases, as well as their consequences. For more on Carla’s, plus other presentations at that event, please see: https://uwaterloo.ca/stories/keeping-human-artificial-intelligence.

 

Shannon Dea was featured in the Fall 2018 Waterloo Magazine issue, “Unlocking the Future of Learning”: https://uwaterloo.ca/magazine/fall-2018/feature/how-do-we-learn.

Dr. Shannon Dea, second in from the left, featured with UW students. Photo credit: One For The Wall

Shannon also reports on recent, important graduate student news she’s been connected with:

Matt Silk successfully defended his PhD dissertation, Evaluation and Value Management in Science. Examiners were Lorraine Code (York), Brendon Larson (ERS), Matt Brown (UT Dallas) Patricia Marino and Shannon Dea (supervisor).

Vanessa Lam successfully defended her PhD prospectus, Harm Reduction for Corporations and is now ABD. Vanessa’s committee: Matt Doucet, Mary Hardy (Statistics and Actuarial Science) and Shannon Dea (supervisor).

Congratulations to both Matt and Vanessa on the milestone achievements!

Shannon also gave a recent invited talk on “Academic Freedom in Context” at the Within and Against Academic Freedom symposium at the New School at the University of Toronto. And she reports two new entries of her monthly online column for University Affairs – Dispatches on Academic Freedom:

• (December dispatch) “My Office Door and the Campus Free Speech Crisis That Never Was,” https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/my-office-door-and-the-campus-free-speech-crisis-that-never-was/
• (November dispatch) “Academic Freedom in a Non-Ideal World,” https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/academic-freedom-in-a-non-ideal-world/.

And Shannon had two recent publications:

“Free Speech and the Battle for the University.” Lead article in Academic Matters’s Fall 2018 issue on Debating Speech on Campus (https://academicmatters.ca/print-issues/debating-speech-on-campus/); and

Review of Mara Marin, Connected by Commitment: Oppression and Our Responsibility to Undermine It (Oxford, 2017). APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy 18.1 (2018) 18-20, https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.apaonline.org/resource/collection/D03EBDAB-82D7-4B28-B897-C050FDC1ACB4/FeminismV18n1.pdf.

 

And Chris Lowry reports that he was recently interviewed on 570 News radio. He was on “Kitchener Today with Brian Bourke” to discuss a Chinese researcher’s announcement of the world’s first gene-edited babies, as well as ethical issues related to “designer babies” more generally.

Dr. Chris Lowry recently gave a radio interview about “designer babies.”

The interview was November 28^th, link following, starting at about the 21-minute mark: https://www.570news.com/audio/kitchener-today-with-brian-bourke/. Chris also reports a recent publication: “Universalism, Vulnerability, and Egalitarianism”: a chapter (pp. 5-24) in C. A. Riddle’s ed., From Disability Theory to Practice (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018). Cover image below:

Happy Holidays!

 

 

Mid-Fall Update!

Hope everyone’s Fall term is progressing nicely. Here are some great things our faculty and graduate student community have been up to the past few weeks:

Jackie Feke has a new book, Ptolemy’s Philosophy: Mathematics as a Way of Life, fresh off the press from Princeton UP!  Check out the cover:

At the link {https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13256.html}, you’ll see the book praised by experts as “the first systematic treatment of Ptolemy’s philosophy” and “a significant contribution.” And she crossed The Pond recently to give a talk in London entitled “The Physics of Ptolemy’s Astrology,” at the annual meeting of the European Society for the History of Science, in conjunction with the British Society for the History of Science.

 

Ph.D. Candidate Cait O’Donnell informs us that: “For the duration of my Ph.D., I’ll be working with the Medical Professionalism and Physician Health teams at the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) in Ottawa. I came to the CMA for my advanced research placement. My project will involve a qualitative study that seeks to understand the policy- and systems needs of palliative care physicians (and doctors who specialize in end-of-life-care) across Canada.”

Cait O’Donnell, Philosophy Ph.D. Candidate

She continues: “As the CMA wants to know how to support physicians at the macro level (policy, government), they will be supporting me in my studies so that I can offer recommendations as to how best to support this group of doctors. Working with Dr. Jeff Blackmer at the CMA is a dream come true. I was able to come and work here because of Waterloo, and the incredible Ph.D. in Applied Philosophy.”

 

And a bit of Applied Philosophy in action, so to speak: Dave DeVidi attended a gala opening of LIFEactually, an exhibit of photographs by the highly regarded photographer Pete Paterson, at the Dufferin County Museum. The exhibit features people who live in Dufferin, and who are supported by Facilitation Wellington Dufferin (FWD), doing the things they love in their communities. It’s an eye-opening display of human potential, and a lesson on what people can achieve with support from people who believe in them. FWD provides independent facilitation to adults with developmental disabilities; that is, it provides supports that help people think through what is important to them, to make good decisions of their own about important things like where and with whom they will live and how they will spend their days, and to find the formal and informal resources to put their plans into action.

Dave DeVidi, left, with Marcelle (centre) and Candice (right) at FWD’s LIFEactually Gala

Dave reports that he has spent more than a decade working to help build FWD, and is currently the President of its Board of Directors … “but he works behind the scenes, because he just doesn’t have the skills to be an actual facilitator.” The gala attracted at least 200 people. The LIFEactually exhibit will spend two months at the Dufferin County Museum, then hopes to move to other museums in the areas FWD serves. In the photo with him, above, are: Marcelle, whose own photo should appear when LIFEactually moves to Guelph; and Candice, one of FWD’s facilitators.

 

Another book fresh off the press is the second edition of Brian Orend’s Introduction to International Studies, from Oxford UP. The cover image, below, is an aerial shot of a local, boat-based, flower- and food market in Indonesia.

The second edition—praised by experts on the back cover as “comprehensive” and “excellent”—contains over 35% brand new material (as the first edition was five years ago, and consider how much has changed worldwide since then). This single-authored textbook considers global studies from a different perspective per each of the twelve chapters, ranging from international trade and foreign policy to the natural environment and global public health, and including his own core specialties in armed conflict, international law, and human rights. For more, see the link: http://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780199018840.html

 

John Turri reports: “In order to care for their offspring, parents must be able to re-identify their children in different circumstances. In order to re-pay a favor, we must be able to re-identify the person who showed us kindness originally. What criteria are involved in our ordinary concept of personal identity? For decades philosophers have assumed that, on the ordinary view, one person cannot be in two places at the same time. In a ground-breaking investigation, researchers in the Philosophical Science Lab found that common sense rejects this “one-person-one-place rule”.”

One… or two? 

He continues: “A series of carefully controlled behavioral experiments revealed that most people judge that a person can exist simultaneously in two different locations, perhaps for over a week and despite undergoing different bodily changes in the two locations. This is a major conceptual discovery with far-reaching implications for the philosophy of personal identity. The findings recently appeared in the series Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy. The research was co-authored by Dr. Sara Weaver when she was a Waterloo Philosophy PhD student.”

 

Patricia Marino informs us that: “I was recently in Hanover, Germany for the 2018 joint meeting of the European Network for the Philosophy of Social Science (ENPOSS) and the Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable {https://enpossrt2018.com/}, presenting a paper on “Underdetermination, Methodology, and Normativity in Distinguishing Rational from Irrational Behavior.” This was my first time at a conference specifically focused on the philosophy of social science—and I enjoyed it very much! Looking at the issues from a science perspective was a refreshing change from the more ethics/values perspective I usually take, and there were some excellent talks linking epistemological issues together with social and political ones. We also went on a lovely tour of the Herrenhausen Gardens, which involved some strolling and also some wine drinking—which I regard as a perfect combination of activities.”

Patricia Marino touring the Herrenhausen Gardens in Germany

Patricia continues: “A while ago I participated in a roundtable on the book Religious Freedom in an Egalitarian Age by legal scholar Nelson Tebbe. My contribution — “What is the ‘Social’ in ‘Social Coherence?'”– was recently published, along with other commentaries and the author’s replies. Anyone interested can view it at {https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/jcred/vol31/iss1/5/}

Also: “I was very pleased and proud to be able to hood Andria Bianchi as she received her PhD at the Arts Convocation ceremony on Saturday October 27th! Even though it was raining, it was a lovely day inside. Congratulations, Dr. Bianchi!”

Newly-minted Ph.D., Andria Bianchi, left, with Patricia Marino, at Fall Convocation

 

Doreen Fraser gave a talk entitled “Formal and theoretical equivalence” as part of the Emergence, Effectiveness, and Equivalence session for the 59th annual Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science. Her talk inspired this awesome watercolor painting by physicist and artist Kaća Bradonjić:

A watercolour by Kaca Bradonjic

 

Katy Fulfer, pictured below, recently presented a colloquium on “Welcoming Refugees? Rootlessness, In-Betweenness and Belonging”, to the PHIL Dept at McMaster.

Katy Fulfer delivering a colloquium talk at McMaster University

Katy further reports that Shannon Stettner and Sasha Cocarla—two instructors in the Women’s Studies Program—recently gave presentations on their scholarship at a recent lunch hosted by the Women’s Studies Program. Shannon’s was entitled “Telling Abortion Stories,” and she talked of her work as a historian bringing to light how women spoke about their experiences with abortion in Canada. {Her co-edited book related to the subject is out at: http://projects.upei.ca/isp/news-2/crossing-troubled-waters-3/.} Sasha talked about “Bi In/Visibility: Representations of Bisexuality in Pop Culture,” examining dominant narratives about bisexuality as portrayed in television, and how characters negotiated bisexual identities.

 

And, as ever, Shannon Dea managed to keep up a hectic pace of activity and achievement. She presented a talk, “Does Harm Reduction Need Philosophy? (And Does Philosophy Need Harm Reduction?)” at one of two workshops at McGill, on harm reduction, which she co-organized with Daniel Weinstock. She delivered a talk, “Academic Freedom and Equity”, as part of a panel she co-organized with Barrett Emerick (St. Mary’s College) and Alice MacLachlan (York). This was at the meeting of the Canadian Society for Women in Philosophy (CSWIP) at Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS.

Taking a break on the beach, in Nova Scotia, from CSWIP: Kate Norlock of Trent (left); Shannon Dea (centre); and Barrett Emerick of St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Photo credit: Kate Norlock

 

While at the University of Saskatchewan last week, Shannon gave two talks: a colloquium to the PHIL Dept there on “Viewpoint Diversity and the Final Opinion”; the other, the keynote address to their undergraduate students’ annual event, on “What’s it Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy?” And she had two large recent initiatives related to academic freedom. First, she launched a new online column called “Dispatches on Academic Freedom” for University Affairs, the magazine of Universities Canada. {See the link: https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/.} And she provided advice for the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations leaders’ “Strategizing Response” to the Ontario Government’s new free speech policy requirement for post-secondary institutions in the province.

 

Announcing our New Chairs and Officers!

Hi everyone! We thought it’d be a fun and good idea to have an informal introduction to all the new Dept Chairs and Officers. Below please see personal statements from: Patricia Marino, the new Dept Chair; Carla Fehr, the new Associate Chair, Graduate; and Doreen Fraser, the new Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Following that, we have similar statements from Angela Christelis and Tawnessa Carter, the new Administrative Officers of the Dept.  A great and happy team to lead the Dept moving forward. Hope everyone’s term is off to a strong start! 😊

From left to right: Dr. Carla Fehr, the new Associate Chair, Graduate; Dr. Patricia Marino, the new Department Chair; and Dr. Doreen Fraser, the new Associate Chair, Undergraduate.

 

Patricia

I can’t believe it’s been fourteen years since I joined the Philosophy Department. How time flies! Our department has changed a lot since then: we’ve lost several valued colleagues to retirement and gained many wonderful new people. I am grateful to all the previous chairs I’ve had the pleasure to work with — Richard Holmes, Tim Kenyon, and Dave DeVidi — for shepherding us through the years. I’m eager to build on the initiatives and accomplishments of my predecessors, by strengthening our connections with other disciplines and departments at the University, nurturing our community of students, faculty, staff, and alums, and facilitating my colleagues’ original and creative research. While I work primarily on topics in ethics, epistemology, philosophy of economics, and philosophy of sex and love, I am interested in all different kinds of philosophy, and I enjoy writing on lots of different topics. My next book, “Philosophy of Sex and Love: An Opinionated Introduction,” will be coming out with Routledge Press in 2019, and you can enjoy my reflections on modern life and its discontents, philosophy, literature, politics, and other topics at my blog, TKIN: Accidental Philosopher Encounters Modern Life.

Carla

One of my favourite things about the Waterloo Philosophy Department is the intellectual community we share. The great things about being a professor—the class that went particularly well, a publication I’m proud of, a cool idea that popped into my head while I was buying coffee—are sweeter when I can share them with colleagues. The challenging parts of my job—creating new classes, puzzling through a problem in a grant application, figuring out the details of an argument—are more fun when I’m part of a team. My research focuses on how groups of people work together to create knowledge, and I’m lucky to be part of such a great group of scholars and teachers. As Associate Chair of Graduate Studies, I will continue to nurture our lively and supportive academic community. If you have questions about graduate studies, please stop by my office hours.

Doreen

I am excited to be returning to the role of Associate Chair, Undergraduate. It’s my job to advise Philosophy majors and minors. (The advisor for Women’s Studies majors and minors is Prof. Katy Fulfer [https://uwaterloo.ca/philosophy/about/people/katy-fulfer] and the advisor for Cognitive Science minors is Prof. Chris Eliasmith [https://uwaterloo.ca/philosophy/people-profiles/chris-eliasmith].) My favourite thing about this role is getting to know all of our undergraduates, so students who have not already met me, please introduce yourselves! I usually teach courses in philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, and epistemology. My research focuses on the paradoxes and interpretive puzzles posed by quantum theory, which raise fascinating philosophical issues. I have developed the course PHIL 252 Quantum Mechanics for Everyone to share these intriguing conceptual and historical aspects of quantum mechanics with everyone, especially those who have not studied physics or mathematics. I am currently writing a book on the role that analogical reasoning has played in the formulation of new quantum theories. When I am not advising undergraduates or thinking about quantum theory, I like reading fiction, hiking, camping, and watching my sons play hockey.

 

On the left, Tawnessa Carter; and on the right, Angela Christelis, the new Administrative Officers of the Department

Angela

I’ve had a long and enjoyable history with this department starting with my first philosophy course as an undergrad, after which I promptly switched my major to Philosophy. Thanks to the care, enthusiasm, and encouragement of the faculty and staff, I also chose to do my graduate studies here. In my administrative role, I look forward to supporting the faculty with the same level of care and enthusiasm. I also look forward to supporting our graduate students, who contribute in so many ways to making this department a lively place to work.

Tawnessa

I graduated from Waterloo with a Bachelor’s Degree in English Language and Literature ages ago and, after years of working in several different industries, I find myself back at Waterloo in the role of Undergraduate Coordinator for philosophy, women’s studies and cognitive science.  I love the academic and creative energy on campus, most notably from the undergraduate and graduate students in the philosophy department.  I enjoy finding ways to further engage with our students by always having an open door and providing support for them during their time at Waterloo. Pop by anytime and say ‘hi!’

 

Engaging Philosophy: End of Summer Edition

Welcome back after summer, everyone! Plenty has happened since the last blog posting.

At the June convocation, Shannon Dea was given the Distinguished Teacher Award for her long record of pedagogical excellence. Depicted below, with University President Feridun Hamdullahpur, Shannon’s award is announced here: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/shannon-dea-recipient-distinguished-teacher-award-2018

Shannon Dea being awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award by University of Waterloo President Feridun Hamdullahpur, at Convocation, June 2018.

 

Shannon’s book, Thinking About Sex and Gender (Broadview, 2016) was reviewed both in Hypatia [http://hypatiareviews.org/content/beyond-binary-thinking-about-sex-and-gender] and The APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.apaonline.org/resource/collection/C29D5481-4D0D-4E09-81F3-8C5DC2148822/APANewslettersSpring2018.pdf. She also had an online publication: “Social Metaphysics and Normativity in Mara Marin’s Connected by Commitment.” C4EJournal, 2018: https://c4ejournal.net/2018/03/13/shannon-dea-social-metaphysics-and-normativity-in-mara-marins-connected-by-commitment-2018-c4ej-1/. And she wrote a series of blog posts for Canadian Philosophical Association about academic freedom: https://www.acpcpa.ca/blogs.

 

We are very happy and proud to announce our newest PhD: in July, Andria Bianchi defended her dissertation on “Sex, Consent, and Dementia.” Her supervisor, Patricia Marino, reports: “After an excellent defense, there was some celebration at the grad house,” depicted below. Congratulations, Dr. Bianchi!

Andria Bianchi, far right, celebrates the successful defense of her doctoral dissertation, July 2018, with supporters Chris (far left) and fellow graduate student Catherine Klausen (middle).

Joining in the celebration were: second reader of Andria’s dissertation, Mathieu Doucet (middle); and fellow graduate students Chris Wass (left) and Phil Beriault (right).

 

Speaking of Patricia Marino, she is now the new Chair of the Philosophy Department, the first female Chair in its history. Yet in spite of all the work involved with taking that on, she reports an active summer on the research front as well: “Over the summer, I presented some work on ethics at the University of Helsinki in Finland, and some work on philosophy of economics at a large conference in Lyon, France, on the topic of norms and normativity.”  Furthermore, she was the keynote speaker at the University of Windsor’s graduate student philosophy conference, where she presented on “Science, Sex, and the Search for a ‘Female Viagra’.” She comments: “In addition to an excellent time all around, I also got to see two Waterloo philosophy alums! Paul Simard Smith, PhD Waterloo, who is now based at the University of Windsor, and Eric Bohner, MA Waterloo, who is now a PhD student at the University of Calgary, and was also speaking at the conference.”

 

Patricia Marino (at left), the Department’s new Chair, visiting the University of Windsor and catching up with Waterloo PhD alum Paul Simard Smith (at right).

Patricia (at right) at the same Windsor conference, where she was the keynote speaker, catching up with Waterloo M.A. alum Eric Bohner (at left).

 

Huge congratulations to Katy Fulfer for receiving an Insight Development Grant from SSHRC for a research project entitled: “From Rootlessness to Belonging: An Arendtian Critique of the Family as a Structure of Refugee Assimilation.” She is the Principal Investigator (PI), and will be working with a co-applicant/collaborator, Dr. Rita A. Gardiner, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at Western. Katy, pictured below, elucidates: “Our project applies Hannah Arendt’s critique of the family as a model for political inclusion as a way to think through welcoming refugees into Canadian political communities. We also draw on insights from feminist theory and refugee studies to enrich Arendt’s treatment of assimilation and identity.”

Katy Fulfer was just awarded a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for a project applying Hannah Arendt’s philosophy to current policy efforts at integrating refugees in Canada

 

Jaqueline Feke has been very busy this summer, especially considering she’s on sabbatical! In April, she gave a talk at Caltech, in lovely Pasadena, on “Re-examining the Distinction between Philosophy and the Mathematical Sciences in Greek Antiquity.” And in July, she flew to the Netherlands to deliver a lecture at Groningen on “Ptolemy in Nature.”  And she spent the whole month of May as a visiting scholar at l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, sending this shot of La Tour Eiffel:

Eiffel Tower, courtesy of Jacqueline Feke, in France in May to deliver a prestigious lecture series.

 

While in France, Jackie gave a prestigious five-talk special lecture series on Ptolemy’s philosophy at both l’EHESS and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.  The website for the talks at l’EHESS: https://www.ehess.fr/fr/personne/jacqueline-feke. And for those at CNRS: https://sawerc.hypotheses.org/seminars/ptolemee-mai18. She’s spending her sabbatical as a visiting scholar at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology just down the road at the University of Toronto: http://hps.utoronto.ca/.

 

The Dept was lucky enough to host distinguished philosopher Jennifer Saul in late August. Dr. Saul, of the University of Sheffield in the UK, gave a stimulating, very timely lecture entitled: “Dogwhistles and Figleaves: Shifting Norms of Racist Discourse in the Trump Era.” A dog-whistle, in general, refers to political rhetoric intended to be heard, in a motivating way, only by an intended audience, while for others it may sound neutral or innocuous. Consider, e.g., “state rights” historically in America, which might either be a politically neutral, purely legal term to some, whereas for others signalling deep racial bias. And a fig-leaf would be one of many rhetorical and conceptual devices political actors use to partially cloak, or render softer, racially-charged beliefs, practices, and policies. Dr. Saul’s talk was peppered with many quotes ripped from today’s headlines, and elicited a spirited and appreciative response from a full-house audience. Her picture:

Dr. Jennifer Saul, of the UK’s University of Sheffield, gave a stimulating and appreciated guest lecture at the Department in August.

 

Best wishes for a successful start to the Fall term, everyone.

 

 

 

1 March, 2018: Winter Update

As the spring begins to encroach on winter here in Waterloo, it is time for a late winter news update.

The department has hosted two talks so far this winter.  On January 10, Prof. Frank Zenker (Lund University) gave the talk “From Discovery to Justification: Outline of an Ideal Research Program in Empirical Psychology.”  Then, on January 19, Prof. Anjan Chakravarty (Notre Dame) gave a talk on “Scientific Disagreement:  Rationality and Uniqueness.” Both were well attended and much appreciated.

This Friday March 2, Prof. Govind Persad will be talking about “Authority without Identity: Defending advanced directives via posthumous rights over one’s body.”  Please join us!

On January 24, the Women’s Studies Program (which will officially be renamed the Gender and Social Justice Program in 2019) hosted an Alumni Career Panel. Seven alums, with graduation dates between 1995 and 2016, spoke with students and faculty about the value of their Women’s Studies degrees for their professional and personal lives. Indeed, while this event was designed to provide students some insight into how to translate and market social justice education for the workplace, many of the alums spoke about how their educations have benefitted their lives holistically–at home, in community work, interpersonally, and professionally.

Pictured:  Katy Fulfer, Susan Phillips, Mary Lou Roe, Ronda Lobsinger, Marianne Wylie, Kesseta Black, Alina Balzerson, and Safia Baccus

On February 16, Matt Doucet and Shannon Dea hosted Daniel Weinstock from McGill University’s Faculty of Law and Institute for Health and Social Policy for a day-long workshop on the philosophy of harm reduction – a new area of philosophy, in which Waterloo and McGill are leading the charge. Matt and Shannon, along with Waterloo grad students who are working on the philosophy of harm reduction, will head to McGill in the Fall for the next workshop in this emerging area.

Faculty and students have also been busy traveling and giving talks.

In early January, Teresa Branch-Smith attended Arizona State University’s 6th annual Winter School on Responsible Innovation and Social Studies of Emerging Technologies, held at Saguaro Lake Ranch, just outside Tempe. Graduate students, post-docs, and junior faculty explored the societal aspects of emerging technologies through theoretical framings, analytical tools, and lessons in responsible innovation, anticipatory governance, and real-time technology assessment. Teresa presented her research on “Values in Big Data Analytics,” which she pursued using the STIR methodology (developed at ASU).  About the experience, Teresa says: “The hands-on approach of the instructors, and enthusiasm of the collaborators, made it a dynamic learning environment set against the backdrop of desert sunsets and wild horses!”

Teresa in the Arizona desert.  Remember: Don’t touch the cacti!

Jackie Feke reports that she gave two invited talks over the past couple of months.  On January 10, she gave a talk as part of the Special Sessions on History of Mathematics at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, “the largest mathematics meeting in the world,” which took place in San Diego.  Her talk, “Ancient Greek Geographical Maps vs. Geometrical Diagrams,”  was given to a packed room, with about 100 mathematicians in attendance.

On February 9, Jackie gave a colloquium talk to the Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota, entitled “Ptolemy’s Ethics.”  She reports that “the Program gave me a warm welcome, and about 50 historians were in attendance.”

Heather Douglas traveled in late January to the UK, first to speak at a workshop on “Scientific Governance at the Ground Level” at the University of Cambridge, and then to deliver the J.B.S. Haldane Lecture at UCL on January 31.   Her talk in Cambridge focused on “Governing Science for Responsible Research,” which centered on the challenges of cultivating responsibility within science, while her talk at UCL was about “How the Public can assess Expertise,” particularly without having to develop full expertise themselves.  The video for the Haldane Lecture is now available.

Heather in the lovely Oriel Room at Cambridge

Heather then traveled February 9-10 to the University of Michigan for an event organized and run entirely by graduate students there, the spring colloquium on Science, Values, and the Public, where she gave the talk “Scientific Experts and the Public: How to build trust in a complex world.”  She really enjoyed hearing the other talks and the excellent commentaries by the students.

Finally, she was in Chicago February 22 for the American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting, providing comment in an author-meets-critics session on Kevin Elliott’s recent book, A Tapestry of Values: An Introduction to Values in Science (Oxford 2017).

Closer to home, on February 14, Shannon Dea participated in a book panel at University of Toronto’s Centre For Ethics on Mara Marin’s Connected by Commitment (Oxford, 2017).

Shannon also continues to be a regular presence on contemporary media discussions of important societal issues.  At the beginning of February, she provided comment on the new gender-neutral lyrics of the Canadian national anthem for the BBC’s Outside Source, for the Mike Farwell Show on 570 News (Kitchener-Waterloo)  (starting around minute 19), and for the Rick Gibbons Show, 1310 News (Ottawa).  She also talked about the #metoo movement in Your Say, Gulf News (out of the United Arab Emirates) and on the Mike Farwell Show (starting around minute 20).

Want to read more?

Additional online faculty writings can be found at these blogs:

Daily Academic Freedom

Hot Thought

The Kramer is Now

Philosophy in the World