Issue 1 | Spring 2016
Science and Values Conference: Honouring Angus Kerr-Lawson
You’re invited to a Public Lecture and Reception
We’d love to see you there. The lecture will be followed by a reception where you can catch up with people you haven’t seen for a while and maybe talk some philosophy.
The public lecture, funded by a generous donation by the Kerr-Lawson family, honours Angus’s memory. Many alumni will recall that Angus, who died in 2011, taught for decades in the Philosophy department. This conference celebrates his important work as a scholar of American Pragmatism, including the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, and connects the Department's historic strengths in American Pragmatism and its current cutting edge work on science and values and on socially-relevant philosophy of science.
Community members are also welcome to attend any of the sessions at the conference. The conference wraps up on April 27 at 4:30 p.m. with a plenary address on “The Interplay of Evidence and Values in Science” by Dr. Heather Douglas, Waterloo Chair in Science and Society.
Take your Philosopher to Work Day
In recent years the Philosophy Department has been putting extra emphasis on preparing our graduate students for careers both inside and outside academia. Only a minority of our PhD students wind up with careers as tenured professors, but whether or not they work in academia our PhD graduates find interesting, rewarding and socially useful careers. When we get a chance to talk to them about their career choices, we try to ask “what do you know now that you wish you knew when you were finishing grad school?” and we use the answers we get as a way to set up our current graduate students for success.
We are excited to announce what we think is an exciting new initiative: the "Take Your Philosopher to Work Day" program. The idea is to match current Waterloo Philosophy PhD students with community members with Philosophy degrees who are pursuing careers outside of academia. On a mutually convenient date the grad student will join the community member at their workplace, where the student will shadow their host, learning about new ways to apply philosophical training, and building their network in the broader community.
If you are a Philosophy alumnus/alumna working outside the academy who believes in the workplace benefits of a philosophical education, we’d love to have you join the team!
Please consider hosting a PhD student at your workplace for Take Your Philosopher to Work Day.
This is just one example of how the Department is working to do a better job of connecting our current students with our alumni and friends in the community. For instance, some of our alumni recently made themselves available for grad students to practice their networking skills, something traditional graduate training in philosophy doesn’t do much for, at a session we called “Interfacing with humans.”
Current graduate students interfacing with alumni Bob Ewen and Sharon Lee
If you would be willing to take part in events like this, once again we’d be more than pleased to hear from you. Please contact our Undergraduate Coordinator.
Applied Philosophy PhD
Placements allow students to apply Philosophy to practical problems
During the summer of 2016 the Philosophy Department is running a pilot project allowing PhD students to carry out Applied Research Placements.
The idea of these placements is that the student will be hosted for a term by some organization where some philosophically interesting problem might arise. It could be a business, a charitable organization, a hospital, a laboratory, a government department, and who knows what else. The advantage for the host is that the student will work on a problem that it will help them to have solved. The advantage for the student is that by applying philosophical knowledge and skills when trying to solve a practical problem, with all the messy details and complications that involves, they will gain insights they couldn’t get any other way.
The three students piloting the idea will spend the summer at Facilitation Wellington Dufferin (a charity based in Guelph that provides planning and supported-decision-making assistance to adults with developmental disabilities), at Sunnybrook Hospital, and with the Centre for Clinical Ethics. They have spent the Winter term working one-on-one with professors making sure they have the background knowledge they need to make real progress when they arrive at their host organizations. We will provide an update on their results in a later newsletter.
These Applied Research Placements are a distinctive feature of the Applied Philosophy PhD program the Department has proposed. The proposal goes to University Senate in May, and we hope to have governmental approval to officially launch it in Fall 2016.
If you are part of an organization that might be interested in hosting an Applied Philosophy PhD placement, please get in touch with us for more details. You can contact our undergraduate coordinator for the new program.
Women's Studies has a new home
Joins Philosophy Department on May 1, 2016
Left to right: Mary Synnott, Srabani Maitra and Shannon Dea
An administrative decision by the Dean of Arts has become good news for the Philosophy Department.
In any university, it’s hard for interdisciplinary programs to thrive. For instance, a program like Philosophy has a department Chair who has certain sorts of authority conferred by University policy and a seat at the table when certain decisions are made. Programs that are not associated with particular departments don’t have those advantage. The Dean of Arts, Doug Peers, decided three years ago that the best approach to solving the problem for interdisciplinary programs in Arts was to house them, for administrative purposes, in particular departments, so there is somebody who is answerable for the quality and success of the programs.
Women’s Studies has been an interdisciplinary program at Waterloo since the 1970s. However, it has always had to survive on minimal resources, trying to make up for that with the dedication of the faculty and staff and students involved in the program. When the Women’s Studies Board was asked by the Dean to choose a departmental home, they opted for the Philosophy Department.
We expect this to be a benefit for everyone. Philosophy is a natural home for Women’s Studies, since it is now home to several highly productive researchers and excellent teachers with interests in feminist philosophy and other areas related to Women’s Studies. Our newest faculty member, Katy Fulfer, will begin July 1, teaching in both Women’s Studies and in Applied Philosophy. Shannon Dea, a member of the Philosophy Department and the Director of Women’s Studies, has led a year-long effort to redesign the Women’s Studies curriculum from top to bottom. An exciting new program will be announced soon.
Women’s Studies is the second interdisciplinary program to opt for Philosophy as its departmental home. In 2015 Cognitive Science officially moved into the Department.
Philosophy blog
Did you know the Department of Philosophy has a blog? Find out more about our presentations, publications, events and other news of all kinds.
What's new with us?
Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Rational Enquirer, the Department of Philosophy's alumni newsletter.
What's new with you?
It's always great to hear from alumni. We'd love to know what you are up to, so please send an email to our current Undergraduate Coordinator.
COMING
EVENTS
October
2016:
Public
lecture
by
Eva
Kittay
Eva
Kittay
is
an
internationally
renowned
scholar
of
ethics
and
philosophy
of
disability.
She
will
be
the
second
Brian
Rudrick
Visiting
Scholar
in
the
department.
As
part
of
her
visit
she
will
give
a
public
lecture
based
on
book
in
progress
Disabled
Minds
and
Things
that
Matter,
which
will
be
followed
by
a
reception.
Last
year’s
event
drew
a
full
house.
Details
to
follow.
Fall
2016:
Launch
Event
for
Applied
Philosophy
PhD
and
renewed
Women’s
Studies
Program
The
Department
has
reason
to
celebrate.
We’d
like
to
do
it
with
our
alumni
and
friends.
Details
to
follow.
October
1,
2016:
Arts
Reunion
Here
are
some
pictures
from
last
year’s
festivities.
Winter
2017:
Public
lectures
by
Heidi
Grasswick
Heidi
Grasswick
will
spend
the
Winter
Term
at
Waterloo
as
the
Humphrey
Visiting
Professor
in
Feminist
Philosophy.
As
part
of
her
visit
she
will
do
a
series
of
public
talks.
April
2017:
Philosophy
Awards
Ceremony
For
the
past
several
years
Philosophy
has
had
a
ceremony
to
celebrate
outstanding
performance
by
our
students.
Prizes
are
awarded,
mingling
happens,
fun
is
had,
and
alumni
are
invited.
Current
students
love
to
meet
people
who
have
gone
before
them.
Here
are
some
pictures
from
the
2016
event.
If you’d like to receive details about these events as they’re confirmed, get on our mailing list! Contact our administrator for alumni relations, our current Undergraduate Coordinator, and they’ll be sure you’re added to our list.