Kathryn S. Plaisance, PhD
Associate Professor
Cross-appointed to the Department of Philosophy
Contact information:
Phone: (519) 888-4567 ext. 38612
Office: Environment 1 (EV1), room 203
Email: kplaisan@uwaterloo.ca, ki.ug.associatechair@uwaterloo.ca
Degrees:
PhD Philosophy, University of Minnesota, USA, 2006
MA Philosophy, University of Minnesota, USA, 2004
BS Molecular Biology and Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, USA, 2000
Award:
University of Waterloo Distinguished Teacher, 2016
Research interests:
Philosophy of science, philosophy of the human behavioral sciences, socially relevant philosophy of science, social epistemology, interactional expertise, and interdisciplinary collaboration
Research grants/fellowships - current:
- Research project on “Developing a Collaborative Mindset” (2019-20)
- Funded by a UW/SSHRC Explore Grant
- Research project on “Understanding ‘What Could Be’: Heritability in a Randomized Twin Design” (2017-19)
Research grants/fellowships - past:
- Research project on “Increasing the Impact of Philosophy of Science in Scientific Domains” (2016-18)
- Funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant
- International research partnership on “Communities of Integration” (2014-16)
- Funded by a UW International Research Partnership Grant
- Research project on "Interactional Expertise, Collaboration, and the Philosophy of Science" (2011-12)
- Funded by: Lois Claxton Humanities and Social Sciences Award
- Postdoctoral Fellowship in Philosophy of Biology (2007-2009)
- Funded by: Centre for Philosophy and Ethics of Science (ZEWW), Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany
Recent/key publications:
Published papers:
- Plaisance, Kathryn S., Alexander V. Graham, John McLevey, and Jay Michaud (2019), “Show Me the Numbers: A Quantitative Portrait of the Attitudes, Experiences, and Values of Philosophers of Science Regarding Broadly Engaged Work,” Synthese, in press
- Burt, S. Alex, Kathryn S. Plaisance, and Zach D. Hambrick (2019), “Understanding ‘What Could Be’: A Call for Experimental Behavioral Genetics,” Behavior Genetics. DOI: 10.1007/s10519-018-9918-y
- McLevey, John, Alexander V. Graham, Reid McIlroy-Young, Pierson Brown, and Kathryn S. Plaisance (2018), “Interdisciplinarity and Insularity in the Diffusion of Knowledge: An Analysis of Disciplinary Boundaries Between Philosophy of Science and The Sciences,” Scientometrics.
- Plaisance, Kathryn S., and Eric B. Kennedy (2014), “A Pluralistic Approach to Interactional Expertise”, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 47: 60-68.
- Plaisance, Kathryn S., Thomas Reydon, and Mehmet Elgin (2012), "Why the (Gene) Counting Argument Fails in the Massive Modularity Debate: The Need for Understanding Gene Concepts and Genotype-Phenotype Relationships", Philosophical Psychology, vol. 25(6): 873-892.
- Fehr, Carla and Kathryn S. Plaisance (2010), "Socially Relevant Philosophy of Science: An Introduction", Synthese, vol. 177(3): 301-316.
Edited volumes:
- Plaisance, Kathryn S. and Thomas Reydon, eds. (2012) "Philosophy of Behavioral Biology", Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 282
- Plaisance, Kathryn S. and Carla Fehr, eds. (2010), "Making Philosophy of Science More Socially Relevant", special issue of Synthese, vol. 177(3): 301-492.
Scholarship of teaching and learning grants:
- Learning and Innovation Teaching Enhancement (LITE) grant on “Building Capacity to Teach Collaborative Skills at the University of Waterloo” (2019-20)
- Learning and Innovation Teaching Enhancement (LITE) grant on ““Closing the Collaborative Skills Gap: Assessing the Effectiveness of a University-Wide Course Designed to Teach Students How to Collaborate in Diverse Groups (2018-19)
- Learning and Innovation Teaching Enhancement (LITE) grant on “Breaking Down Barriers: A Student-Led Conference on Interdisciplinary Collaboration” (2015-16)
Courses taught:
- INTEG 210: Making Collaboration Work
- INTEG 220: Nature of Scientific Knowledge
- INTEG 221: The Social Nature of Knowledge
- INTEG 375: Special Topics in Knowledge Integration: Science, Society and Values
- INTEG 420 A & B: Senior Research Project A & B
- INTEG 475: Special Topics in Knowledge Integration: Interdisciplinary Collaboration
- INTEG 475: Socially Relevant Philosophy of Science (held with PHIL 458 and PHIL 673)
