Check out Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon on WAMAC’S Northeast Public Radio show “The Roundtable.”
In this episode Professor Gordon discusses his new book, Fear of Black Consciousness, and the historical development of racialized Blackness and the larger issues this type of consciousness leads too. Gordon also discusses the responses Black and non-Black communities display in contemporary struggles for dignity and freedom.
To listen: Click Here
Congratulations to alumni Junyeol Kim, who has been awarded the 2021 APA Routledge Taylor & Francis Prize for the article “The Horizontal in Frege’s Begriffsschrift” (Synthese, 2020). This prize is awarded for the two best philosophical articles written by adjunct professors.
***Abstract from article***
This paper addresses an issue with the sign ‘
’ in Frege’s mature version of Begriffsschrift, i.e., the version in ‘Function and Concept’ and Grundgesetze. The sign is a performative for asserting in that writing down ‘
’ is equivalent to asserting that p. Frege further says that writing ‘
’ is also equivalent to identifying the reference of ‘p’ with the truth-value True. It looks as if he holds that asserting that p consists in identifying the True with the reference of ‘p’. Frege’s commitment to it, however, seems to encounter a number of tensions. This paper aims to show that these tensions can be avoided by endorsing a non-assertive conception of identification under which making an identification is not making an identity assertion. The suggested reading leads to an entirely different understanding of the compositionality of the sign ‘
’ as well as Frege’s conception of assertion and judgment.
Check out alumna Colena Sesanker (2017), quoted in a recent article titled “Concerns raised over community colleges” in the Willimantic Chronicle about the consolidation of the community colleges.
***Excerpt from article***
Colena Sesanker, a philosophy professor at Gateway Community College and chairwoman of the faculty advisory committee to the Board of Regents, challenged Gov. Ned Lamont’s and the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system’s assertion the consolidation is “mostly a streamlining of back office functions.”
“There is a lot of misinformation and it is not by accident,” she said. “Consolidation means the elimination of all 12 community colleges and what that means is that among other things legislators will not be able to take for granted that they will have a full service college.”
Check out Philosophy Graduate Student Drew Johnson’s recent publication titled “Proper Function and Ethical Judgment Towards A Biosemantic Theory of Ethical Thought and Discourse.” You can read the full paper here.
***Abstract***
This paper employs Ruth Millikan’s biosemantic theory of representation to develop a proposal about the function of ethical claims and judgments. I propose that ethical claims and judgments (or ethical ‘affirmations’) have the function of simultaneously tracking the morally salient features of social situations and directing behavior that coordinates in a collectively beneficial way around those features. Thus, ethical affirmations count as a species of what Millikan labels ‘Pushmi-Pullyu’ representations that simultaneously have a descriptive and a directive direction of fit. This proposal supports a version of motivational internalism that can accommodate a surprising range of actual failures of motivation. I also briefly situate this proposal in the metaethical literature, contrasting it with other hybrid views incorporating elements of cognitivism and expressivism.
Check out PhD Student Steven Núñez, #SpookySZN- Autumn 2021 Collection, where he displays a collection of photo’s he has taken this fall around New England! His goal was to capture images that represented what fall is truly from the bright colors to the scenery around town.
Congratulations to graduate student Cody Turner, who’s recent paper titled “Neuromedia, Cognitive Offloading, and Intellectual Perseverance” was accepted for publication at the journal Synthese. To read more check out a preview of the pre-publication version attached below!
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Check out this upcoming workshop, Understanding and Automating Counterspeech, hosted by the research project Giving Voice to Digital Democracies! Professor of Philosophy Lynne Tirrell will participate as a guest speaker along with others from around the world. This workshop’s goal is to bring together experts from different fields to address the issues with counterspeech.
When: September 29, 2021
Time: 6:00 AM-2:20 PM
Check out the “Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy” written by Ann Gary, where Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ayanna De’Vante Spencer, is recognized for her piece of work entitled “Say Her Name: Maladjusted Epistemic Salience in the Fight against Anti-Black Police Brutality.” Ayanna De’Vante Spencer is among those writing about the missing narratives of Black women and girls who have been victims of police brutality
Check out UConn Today’s recent article “New Faculty Bring Antiracism and the Environment to the Forefront,” where they introduce the new CLAS faculty, including our newest member to the department Ayanna Spencer who will work across disciplines to advance Antiracism and Human Interactions with the Environment.
***Excerpt from article***
Ayanna De’Vante Spencer is an incoming assistant professor in philosophy jointly appointed with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. As a survivor-scholar and Black feminist epistemologist, Spencer’s research weaves Black feminist theory, epistemology, sexual violence literature, settler colonial studies, and feminist anti-carceral studies.
Through her work with Girls for Gender Equity, the Firecracker Foundation, and the ‘MeToo’ Movement, Spencer saw first-hand a problematic intersection between criminalization, how Black girl sexual violence survivors are expected to respond to violence, and how the state determines what they know about their own experience(s) of violence. Her research examines structures of knowledge verification that contribute to what is called the “sexual abuse to prison pipeline.” Spencer has long focused on gendered anti-Black racism and state violence, including her noteworthy ‘Say Her Name’ chapter published in The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Feminism (2018).
As a first-generation college graduate and former UNCF/Mellon Mays fellow, Spencer is committed to equity and inclusion in her classes and is a strong proponent of undergraduate research.
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