Graduate Courses

Fall 2025 course offerings

PHIL 673/675 — 001: Philosophy of Education: Tool of State or Tool for the Resistance

It is often assumed that education is the great equalizer. And yet, for far too many, access to education has been less than assured. For centuries, philosophers have considered the role education can and should play in society, questioning its purpose, its goals, and its methods. This course aims to bring into conversation centuries-old thoughts on why we teach what we teach and to whom we teach it with more recent thinking on liberatory pedagogies that resist, considering the long-standing social and political impacts of each. Using Black experiences of education as our guide, students will explore the Philosophy of Education through traditional academic readings, as well as more contemporary writings, making use of the short reflections, discussion facilitation, and academic essay writing activities to ground their learning. 

PHIL 673/675 — 002: Feminist Philosophy of Science

In this course, students will explore research on objectivity, bias and values in science, the social nature of scientific research, and other central concepts in feminist philosophy of science. Students will use these concepts to investigate and evaluate scientific research on sex, sexuality, and race from policy relevant and socially relevant perspectives. Course content will focus on the work of Helen Longino, starting with her early and influential feminist research and ending with a forthcoming edited volume of new research, produced by an international group of philosophers, that extends and applies Longino’s philosophy to a wide range of topics. This course will run as a seminar. The professor will guide students through close readings and discussions of texts and mentor students while they develop and communicate their philosophical arguments and interpretations of this work. This course will be useful for students with a wide range of philosophical interests and career goals, including those interested in science and technology, ethics and social theory, and evidenced-based policy.

PHIL 680A — Academic Freedom

The Pro-Seminar has two components, professionalization and philosophical content.  In the professionalization portion, we'll talk about things like how to navigate the graduate program, writing funding applications, giving talks, asking questions, how to be a helpful and successful philosopher, but also how to apply philosophical skills outside academia.  Our philosophical focus will be on academic freedom, an always important but increasingly contentious notion.  We will examine its history, its relationship to freedom of expression, how it is understood in various legal and academic contexts, and current debates related to academic freedom, both within and outside academia.

Winter 2026 tentative course offerings

PHIL 673/675 — 001: Equality, Sufficiency, and Limit

In social and political philosophy, egalitarians oppose inequalities they argue are unfair, sufficientarians argue for an unconditional guarantee of a decent life for all, and limitarians explain why it is bad if some people have too much. What are the merits of each view? Are they competitors or complementary? What are the key objections, including relational critiques?

PHIL 673/675 — 002: Fairness and Anti-Discrimination in AI

This course focuses on fairness and anti-discrimination in the context of algorithms and AI. Some forms of algorithmic discrimination arise even when algorithms have no access to information about features such as gender and race; this may happen because correlations in the data due to existing inequities lead to discriminatory outcomes. For example, if those in oppressed groups face discrimination in hiring and promotion, hiring algorithms may predict they will be less successful; on this basis, they may be less likely to be hired, leading to further oppression. Informally, it is said that algorithms "bake in" background social injustice. Through readings from philosophers, legal theorists, computer scientists, and others, we will consider how philosophical views of fairness and oppression apply to these contexts, how algorithmic unfairness and discrimination have been or should be defined, and how algorithmic oppression could be addressed and eliminated. 

PHIL 680 B — Academic Freedom (continued)

The Pro-Seminar has two components, professionalization and philosophical content.  In the professionalization portion, we'll talk about things like how to navigate the graduate program, writing funding applications, giving talks, asking questions, how to be a helpful and successful philosopher, but also how to apply philosophical skills outside academia.  Our philosophical focus will be on academic freedom, an always important but increasingly contentious notion.  We will examine its history, its relationship to freedom of expression, how it is understood in various legal and academic contexts, and current debates related to academic freedom, both within and outside academia.