Philosophy Department News

Three College of Humanities professors have been selected as 2026 Faculty Fellows: Isabelle Freiling (communication), Matt Haber (philosophy), and Leandra Hernández (communication). Faculty Fellows receive a semester of full release time from teaching and administrative responsibilities in order to spend time advancing scholarly or creative research projects.

Joyce Havstad, associate professor of philosophy, has been honored with a rare second invitation to serve as a senior visiting fellow at SOCRATES, a research center for the philosophy of science at Leibniz University Hannover.

Learn about the new Medical Humanities major and why it was created.

Click here to read The New York Times' Article on Professor Thi Nguyen's new book, "The Score," where he looks to his personal passions — from video games to yo-yoing — to show how scoring systems teach us what to desire and make our motivations legible to one another.

Professor C. Thi Nguyen's new book, The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game, is set to be released on Jan. 13th. There will be a book launch at the King's English on Jan. 15th. Tickets for this event will be $5 and all proceeds will go directly to the non-profit, Brain Food Books. Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event.

Graduate student Josh Brekel highlighted in College of Humanities News for his research.

Graduate student Heather Hoyt highlighted in College of Humanities News for her research.

Muskan is graduating with a Bachelors degree in Philosophy and Mathematics, which has allowed her to pursue her interest in building mathematical models to address environmental issues and public health.

Robert A. Goldberg Endowed Faculty Prize in Humanities recognizes faculty whose record in teaching and research reflects high merit and provides a stipend to support the faculty member’s ongoing projects.

The Distinguished Faculty Service Award honors faculty who demonstrate sustained commitment to fostering connection between the campus and wider community through a life of active, unpaid community service, and the integration of service with research and teaching.

Vox's "Future Perfect 50" is an annual list recognizing 50 individuals, including scientists, thinkers, scholars, writers, and activists, who are working to create a more positive future, tackling challenges in areas like AI, climate change, and global health.

An extensive open access interview with Professor Chrisoula Andreou was published in the Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics.

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.