Philosophy News - Spring 2021
With the Spring 2021 semester underway, it’s nice to have this time to reflect on an extraordinary but successful Fall 2020 semester. Working under COVID conditions presented many unexpected challenges last year, but the Department of Philosophy met and handled those challenges. Faculty and teaching assistants adapted well and taught excellent and engaging courses. Staff members did a great job of supporting our mission and our students. And our students kept working hard while enjoying themselves as best they could. I am proud of them all.
Highlights from last semester include the approval of a new minor in Law, Ethics & Philosophy and our first ever service-learning class, Philosophy for Children, as well as two events involving alumni—a panel on "Philosophy & Law" for philosophy students interested in pursuing legal careers, and a presentation by Scott Hershovitz (AB ’98, MA ’98) about his life in the law and philosophy. See below for more information.
I’m also pleased to announce that we have refreshed Peabody Hall and refurbished the graduate student study room on the lower level of the building. That suite of rooms is now one of the most attractive and comfortable spaces in the building, and I am confident that it will make a significant contribution to graduate student success. I hope to be able to report on more refurbishments in the near future, and I hope you have a chance to come see the building in person sometime soon.
As always, we appreciate your interest in the University of Georgia’s Department of Philosophy. Go Dawgs!
Sincerely,
Dr. Aaron Meskin
Professor and Head of Department
Law and Philosophy at UGA
The Department of Philosophy now offers a minor in Law, Ethics, & Philosophy, offering undergraduate students of all majors an opportunity to develop enhanced analytical and critical thinking skills with special emphasis on legal and moral reasoning, increasing their ability to think and argue in a manner that will benefit them in a variety of careers and areas of post-graduate study. This minor, as well as the Pre-Law Track available to philosophy majors, offers undergraduate students significant preparation for law school and/or careers in law. Students interested in law careers benefit from the study of Philosophy, as noted by successful UGA Philosophy and Law School alumni who participated in a panel discussion on “Philosophy & Law” with department undergrads in October 2020. “Philosophy teaches you about different perspectives. Not only must you understand your own argument, but also what the other side is going to say,” explained panelist Rory Weeks.
Philosophy in the Community:
Philosophy For Children Service Learning Class Launched
In partnership with the UGA Office of Service Learning, the Department of Philosophy has launched the class Philosophy for Children (PHIL 3900S), designed and taught by PhD student Michael Lindquist. In this class, UGA students are given the opportunity to do philosophy with K–12 students in Athens via the Grow It Know It program at East Athens Community Center and Thomas N. Lay Park and the afterschool teen program at the Athens-Clarke County Library. They also work with the Barrow County School System’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning in developing materials to guide teachers in doing philosophy in the classroom. “Philosophy has something to offer kids pre-college,” explains Lindquist. “It’s always great to see what kids are capable of… They’re likely to surprise you.”
As mentioned above, the Department hosted a very successful alumni panel on Philosophy & Law in October. We will be planning more alumni events in the near future and we hope to see you at one of them soon! Also in October, UGA Department of Philosophy alumnus Scott Hershovitz gave an online talk on “RBG, Taylor Swift, & Me: A Life in Law & Philosophy” before a UGA audience. Hershovitz has an esteemed career as a University of Michigan professor of law and philosophy, a former US Department of Justice litigator, and a former clerk for departed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This extremely poignant and timely talk focused on issues of justice, resentment, and forgiveness as well as accounts from Hershovitz’s life and career.
Spring 2021 Kleiner Lecture Series
The ongoing Scott & Heather Kleiner lecture series features a distinguished list of scholars from across the country speaking on a wide variety of philosophical issues including Paul Taylor of Vanderbilt University on “third wave” race theory, Barry Smith of the University of Buffalo on artificial intelligence, George Yancy of Emory University on love and racism, Antón Barba-Kay of Catholic University on Kierkegaard’s Either/Or, and Helen De Cruz of St. Louis University on science and religion. Due to the pandemic, these lectures continue to take place online until further notice.
Department of Philosophy faculty remain active in publishing and presenting as conferences across the globe have transitioned to online events: Yuri Balashov continues work on an interdisciplinary project with the UGA Department of Linguistics and published his first essay coming out of that project in Mind & Machines; Chris Cuomo published an essay in The Virtues of Sustainability and presented for University of South Carolina, The Embodied Philosophy Forum, and the International Society of Environmental Ethics; Edward Halper published an op-ed in the New York Daily News, organized conference sessions for the International Plato Society, and presented for the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies; Rene Jagnow published in the Croatian Journal of Philosophy and has a forthcoming talk at the American Philosophical Association; Aaron Meskin was elected Vice President of the Georgia Philosophical Society and published in Aesthetic Investigations as well as the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics published by the Japanese Society for Aesthetics; and Sarah Wright presented for the Southeastern Epistemology Conference at Florida State University and a COGITO workshop at the University of Glasgow.
Department of Philosophy Graduate students continue to achieve in publishing, presenting, earning awards and recognitions, as well as other projects: In addition to organizing a new Philosophy for Children Service Learning Class, currently underway in the Spring 2021 semester, Michael Lindquist was selected to present for the International Association for Environmental Philosophy; Michael Starling has a paper selected for presentation at the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division, was awarded the Jane Mulkey Green and Rufus King Green Graduate Fellowship in Arts and Humanities, and was selected to be a Fellow of UGA Center for Teaching and Learning’s Future Faculty Fellows Program; Justin Simpson received the best Graduate Student Paper Award at the October 2020 International Association of Environmental Philosophy (IAEP) Conference, presented a paper at the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, and published a paper co-authored with Josué Piñeiro in Acta Analytica; Amin Amouhadi and Samuel Bennet published essays on the UGA Intensive Writing Project’s blog reflecting on their approaches to teaching writing.
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