Graduate Students

Dorit Bar-On: APA 2025 Pacific Division Meeting

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At this year’s APA Pacific Division Meeting, Professor of Philosophy Dorit Bar-On will be holding an Author Meets Critics session on her recently published book, Expression and Self-Knowledge. This book, co-authored by Crispin Wright, was published as part of Wiley-Blackwell’s Great Debates in Philosophy series. An excerpt from the book’s description can be found below:

In Expression and Self-Knowledge, Dorit Bar-On and Crispin Wright articulate their joint dissatisfaction with extant accounts of self-knowledge and engage in a sustained and substantial critical debate over the merits of an expressivist approach to the topic. The authors incorporate cutting-edge research while defending their own alternatives to existing approaches to so-called ‘first-person privilege’.

In addition, one of our incredible graduate students, Michael Hegarty, has also been invited to chair the session.

The meeting will be held in San Francisco, California starting on April 16th and through April 19th.

Congratulations, Dorit and Michael!

Alex Stamson: “Kinda Radical” Podcast

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Check out graduate student Alex Stamson on the Kinda Radical podcast!

On this week's episode I am joined by philosopher, professor, social epistemologist, writer/author, traveler, and fantasy's biggest fan: Alex Stamson! Alex joins KR to discuss feminism in pop fiction, specifically in fantasy writing, film, and TV. We explore feminist theories in Game of Thrones such as self erasure, self sacrifice (or not), queerness in fantasy, and the interesting outcomes of assault for women characters. Alex also shares the meaning of world building in fantasy and how, when perpetuating stereotypes, it can cement prejudice. Finally, we talk about teaching gender studies and how that is received in the classroom.

Listen to the episode

Michael Hegarty: Publication in Erkenntnis

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Congratulations to graduate student, Michael Hegarty, for being accepted for publication in Erkenntnis!

Check out the abstract for Michael Hegarty’s “Transformative Rationality” below:

Transformative Rationality and the Problem of ‘Creeping Rationalism’

According to ‘transformative’ theories of rationality, human rational mental capacities cannot be completely explained using the theories and concepts of natural science because rational mental states stand to one another in irreducibly normative relations of justification. Certain transformative theorists propose that a capacity counts as rational if a ‘Why?’ question is applicable to some exercises of that capacity. But ‘Why?’ questions are in principle applicable to any intentional action, like walking over there, or deliberately holding one’s breath. Transformative rationality therefore seems to entail that capacities for walking or breathing are rational and hence escape complete scientific explanation. Yet it would be surprising to learn that physiology, medicine, and biology could not completely explain such capacities. Given the ‘Why?’ question criterion for a rational capacity, there is a danger of ‘rationality’ creeping into capacities that (one might think) should submit to scientific explanation, and even into sub-individual processes. This is the ‘Problem of ‘Creeping Rationalism’’. After introducing the problem, I consider potential ways a transformative theorist could try to avoid the problem by limiting the scope of what capacities are ‘transformed’ by rationality. I argue that initially promising proposals to do this are either circular or are incompatible with core commitments of the theory.

Katie Peters: Featured in Feminist Philosophy Quarterly

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Congratulations to graduate student, Katie Peters, for her article, “Not My Fault: Far-Right Women and the Exculpatory Narratives of Misogyny and Infantilization” for being featured in a special issue of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly! The theme of this issue is “Revolutionizing Responsibility.”

Check out Katie’s article: “Not My Fault: Far-Right Women and the Exculpatory Narratives of Misogyny and Infantilization”

Katie Peters: How Not to Excuse Far-Right Women

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Please join us in congratulating Philosophy graduate student Katie Peters on her recent publication of “How Not to Excuse Far-Right Women” on the APA Women in Philosophy Blog. The essay explores the social responsibility of far-right women, as well as the subsequent consequences. You can read an excerpt from the article below:

Why focus on far-right women at all? I think that using the example of far-right women makes it easy to understand who exactly we are exempting from responsibility with the exculpatory narratives of misogyny and infantilization. By insisting that these women, too, are answerable for their actions, we can say that any woman, regardless of whether we agree with her ideology, has the potential to be called upon to answer for her actions and beliefs that harm others.

 

You can read the whole post by clicking here.

Congrats, Katie!

Tiana-Marie Blassingale: Jeezy’s Lessons from Adversity

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Please check out an excerpt from Philosophy Graduate Student Tiana-Marie Blassingale’s new review essay, “Jeezy’s Lessons from Adversity”:

On the surface, it seems like Adversity for Sale is a collection of short stories about a young Black man as he navigates his way through the street life into a position of an established entrepreneur who is capable of providing generational wealth for his family by any means. However, seen through a philosophical lens, the book highlights a new perspective on liberatory virtues and vices. It’s a curation of epistemology, learned through lived experiences, not only by Jeezy, but also by many others in the book and the hood, more generally speaking. The book provides a glimpse into a rich body of knowledge, which could be referred to as “Hood Philosophy,” otherwise known as “street smarts” or “street knowledge.”

You can read the full essay on the Blog of the APA here.

Congratulations, Tiana-Marie!

Alexandra Stamson: Recent Conference Presentations

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Congratulations to one of our graduate students, Alexandra Stamson, for her paper, “Moving Beyond-And-Within Binary Embodiment,” being accepted for presentation at the Hypatia’s Promise: Opening the Archives, Charting Feminist Futures conference.

Alex will also be presenting her paper, “Gender-Neutral or Gender-Forward? Considering Imaginative Engagement and Resistance in Gendered Fictional Narratives,” at the National Women’s Studies Association conference, as well as moderating two panels:

  1. Norms and Antinorms of Transnational Creative Resistance
  2. Creative Resistance in Mainstream Media: Norms and Antinorms in Fiction

Congratulations Alex!

Katrina Kish: Recent Conference Presentations

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Congratulations to one of our graduate students, Katrina Kish, for her recent presentation at the Trust, Hope, and Rationality: Lung Early Career Conference where she presented her paper titled “The Role of Care in Trust.”

A week later, Katrina presented her paper “Good Will Hunting: Reconsidering Annette Baier’s Account of Trust” at the Salzburg Conference for Young Analytic Philosophy.

Congratulations Katrina!