Philosophy Department News

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics is engaged in an oral history project, Moral Histories, recording some 15 of the early “founding figures” in bioethics in extended interviews conducted by a professional oral historian. Peggy Battin is one of them.

One of our Ph.D. students, Kathryn Petrozzo, won the Neuroethics Essay Contest. The International Neuroethics Society

Listen the New Books in Philosophy podcast as Chrisoula Andreou discusses her new book

Natalia Washington and Jesse Graham have jointly won the Daniels Fund Leadership in Ethics Education Award for the class on moral psychology that they taught in Fall 2021.

"Victims of eugenic sterilisation in Utah: cohort demographics and estimate of living survivors," is co-authored by James Tabery, Nicole Novak, Lida Sarafrazarpatapeh, and Aubrey Mansfield, and is published in The Lancet.

The Karl Jaspers Award Committee of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry has awarded an "Honorable Mention" to Philosophy Graduate Student Katie Petrozzo for her paper, "Less Than Whole: Implications of Reduced Agency". This is the second time in a row that our students have been recognized by the committee. Congratulations Katie!

In honor of the late University of Utah Philosophy professor David Wells Bennett (1927-2014), his family has established an endowed scholarship in his name, so that more Philosophy students can receive the necessary financial assistance to study the subject and carry on his legacy at the University of Utah.

The Tanner Humanities Center recorded its recent “Author Meets Readers” event with Thi Nguyen.

Professor Leslie Francis was interviewed and featured as an expert in health law and bioethics for a recent article on Utah’s abortion laws in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Congratulations to PhD candidate, Louise Pedersen, who has been awarded the 2022 Ramona W. Cannon Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence in the Humanities.

Congratulations to Professor Carlos Santana who has been awarded the 2022 Ramona W. Cannon Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities.

Congratulations to Professor Chrisoula Andreou for being named the 2022 Distinguished Scholar in the Humanities. This award is given by the University of Utah’s College of Humanities to one senior faculty member each year in recognition of that scholar’s significant research contributions.

Congratulations to Professor Natalia Washington who has been awarded the 2022 Rising Star in the Humanities Award. The University of Utah's College of Humanities presents this award to one junior faculty each year, recognizing that person’s significant scholarly accomplishments.

Recently featured in @theU, student-led club InfectED is spreading the word across campus and the community about infectious diseases. With misinformation on the rise especially concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, it was important to the group to that accurate and relevant information was being taught througout the Salt Lake Valley. Professor Margaret Battin helps facilitate the honors course, Infectious Disease on the Run, with discussions on relevant infectious disease issues, as well as pertinent history and background information.

Professor Leslie Francis was awarded the Linda K. Amos Award by the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. This award recognizes an individual staff or faculty member who has selflessly given time and energy to improve the educational and/or working environment for women at the university.

Philosophy graduate student, Bennett Knox, has been awarded the 2022 Karl Jaspers award from the Association of the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry for their paper, “Exclusion of Psychopathologized Standpoints Due to Hermeneutical Ignorance Undermines Psychiatric Objectivity.” Congrats Bennett!

Professor Leslie Francis was awarded the Distinguished Mentor Award by the University of Utah's Graduate School. The award honors and encourages the considerable efforts and accomplishments of faculty who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to the mentorship of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

Check out graduate student, Lida Sarafrazarpatapeh's interview with FAB Gab and their discussion on missing females in cardiovascular research and Lida's Donchin and Holmes Emerging Scholar Prize paper, "Understanding and Correcting Sex Disparity in Cardiovascular Disease Research: Ethical and Practical Solutions."

New York Times journalist Ezra Klein interviewed professor Thi Nguyen about Thi's work on games and gamification. Thi gave his thoughts on the question 'Are We Measuring Our Lives in All the Wrong Ways?' and that to understand modern life, we need to understand how games work.

University of Utah's Black Cultural Center, in collaboration with the Black Faculty and Staff Association, honored philosophy professor, Natalia Washington with the 2022 Malcom X Award of Social Justice.

Professor Leslie Francis was awarded the Service to the Courts award at the Utah Annual Judicial Conference for her work representing people with disabilities. Congrats Leslie!

Professor Thi Nguyen's book, "Games and the Art of Agency," wins the 2021 American Philosophical Association's Book Prize! The Book Prize is awarded in odd years for the best published book that was written by a younger scholar during the previous two years.

Professor Jim Tabery, joined ABC4's Rosie Nguyen on the CW30 News at 7 p.m. for a discussion about vaccine mandates. He talked about why some businesses are more likely to institute a mandate than others, why mandates on government employees are so contentious, his thoughts on some parents letting their kids to make their own decisions about getting the vaccine, and mandates being individual liberty v. public health.

Professor Dustin Stokes was invited to give a series of lectures at the prestigious Institut Jean Nicod in Paris, and as part of that, they conducted an interview about his research on perception, imagination, and creative thought and behaviour.

Philosophy graduate student Lida Sarafrazarpatapeh has been awarded "The Donchin and Holmes Emerging Scholar Prize" by the International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics for her paper "Understanding and Correcting Sex Disparity in Cardiovascular Disease Research: Ethical and Practical Solutions," which has now been published in the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics!

For the second year in a row, an essay by Thi Nguyen, "Moral Outrage Porn" (co-authored with Bekka Williams) has been listed among the 10 best philosophy essay of 2020!

A recent international study by the Demographics in Philosophy project has ranked the University of Utah’s Department of Philosophy first out of nearly 100 prominent philosophy departments in the U.S. for its high proportion (50%) of female faculty who are tenured or on the tenure track

Philosophy Professor Thi Nguyen's article from the Philosophical Review, "Games and the Art of Agency," was placed in the Philosopher's Annual, top 10 papers from 2019!