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(10/08/26) Conference Presentation
MA student Joe Gordon will be presenting his talk, 'On the image of the sea and Odysseus in Dawn' at the , which will be held in Athens Greece this year.

(08/18/26) Conference Presentation
MA student Isaiah Navarro presented a poster, entitled ‘Blaming ourselves and others’, at this year’s .

(07/16/26) Masters Admission, Tufts University
Congratulations to grad student Margaret Welch, who—after weighing half-a-dozen offers—has decided to start the MS in Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University School of Medicine this fall. We look forward to tracking her progress in the biomedical field.

(07/01/26) CLA Equity Scholar
Congratulations to Emily Richmond, who was selected as one of the CLA Equity Scholars for AY26–27. Welcome aboard!

(05/01/26) Graduate Honors
The OGS Dean awards Graduate Honors each year to select postbaccalaureate students (less than 5% in any program); Liz Sato and Jason Rosencrantz received this award for SP26.

(04/29/26) Honors Presentation
Emmy Pruitt completed not only a philosophy honors thesis, but a university honors thesis as well. Her research, entitled ‘The misguided search for objectivity in language: originalism under the lens of hermeneutics and Wittgenstein’, was supervised by Legal Studies Director Dr. Whitehead. Emmy will present this Thursday April 30 at 10:30am in PH1–101.

(04/20/26) Doctoral Admission, University of California Davis
Congratulations to Toko Dougherty! Having finished his thesis on the epistemic problem of algorithmic opacity, he’s now accepted a fully funded offer of doctoral admission at one of the most up-and-coming Philosophy departments on the west coast; we wish him all the best.

(04/15/26) Doctoral Admission, University of California Irvine
An little-known open secret is that southern California can be pretty awesome—just one of the many reasons why El Nicklin has accepted a fully funded offer of doctoral admission in the Department of Philosophy at UC Irvine. Huzzah! Congrats, El, and good luck with the next chapter of your academic adventure.

(04/12/26) Law School Admission, University of San Diego
A hearty congratulations to ENGL & PHIL double major and SPA president Grant Lowell on his admission to law school. After weighing multiple offers, Grant has decided to pursue his JD at the University of in San Diego, which features not only one of the most beautiful campuses in southern California but also one of the highest-ranked part-time law programs in the nation. Fare thee well, Grant!
 

(03/20/26) … And Even More Conference Presentations!
Congratulations to two MA students who recently had their paper submissions accepted to the in Vancouver: Nathaniel Mines, who will present his critique of Knuuttila & Morgan on deidealization in scientific modeling and Lancy Lopez will give her paper on Korsgaard on lying.

(03/13/26) Conference Presentations
This year’s will feature two presentations by ������ MA students: Lancy Lopez will present her paper on sincerity and apology, and Jamie Carmichael will present his paper on the expression of blame (and also at the Gordon Clark Symposium on the weekend of March 20th).

(03/06/26) Conference Presentation
Lancy Lopez presented her paper, ‘Intervening on autonomy interferences: paternalistic bald-faced lies’ at the 47th annual Graduate Conference at the University of Illinois.

(02/27/26) 38th Annual ������ Student Research Competition
You’re not gonna wanna miss the Humanities and Letters section of this year’s SRC, which will feature a glut of free talks from philosophy students. Oliver Di Martino will lay out the zygote problem for animalists about personal identity; Emma Gonzalez presents on ‘gender games’ and Jamie Carmichael on moral blame; Liz Sato will deliver some remarks from her thesis on Reid’s conception of reason and moral sense; Nathan Wagester will give a talk on independence, infinity, and the breakdown of Tractarian general propositions; and Lancy Lopez will analyze cases of paternalistic bald-faced lying. Wow, what a lineup!

(11/26/25) CLA Equity Scholar
Congratulations to Isaiah Navarro, who will be a CLA Equity Scholar for the coming SP26 term. This program provides research support to individuals membering in groups that have been historically underrepresented in academia.

(09/10/25) Conference Presentation
This coming October 25th, Liz Sato will be in Irvine to present her paper on Hume’s theory of natural belief at the 2025 UCR/UCI Graduate Philosophy Conference.

(08/23/25) CLA Equity Scholar
Welcome to Lancy Lopez, who was selected as the FA25 CLA Equity Scholar. Having finished a BA in Philosophy at Columbia University, Lancy will join the MA program to develop her research interests in epistemology, metaethics, and philosophy of language and logic.

(07/18/25) Fellowship
Congrats to undergraduate majors Zakaria Jannane and Grant Lowell, who were each awarded a ‘Conoley’ fellowship. The university pays fellows $5,000 each to take a two-course sequence in RELG.

(07/10/25) Conference Presentation
The is being held on July 10–11th at the University at Buffalo. Jason Rosencrantz will be presenting a portion of his MA thesis, ‘Consistent nominalism and the metaphysics of thought in Locke’s Essay‘.

(05/25/25) JASSO fellowship
Major congratulations to MA student Liz Sato, who is an AY25–26 recipient of the extramural JASSO fellowship. Much like the prestigious Boren, Fulbright, Rhodes, Soros, or Marshall fellowships here in the United States, Japan’s JASSO fellowship program provides nearly $30,000 in funding to support the research of Japanese students abroad. Liz successfully competed against 463 graduate student applicants in the humanities and social sciences, and will be conducting research on Hume, Reid, and other Scottish enlightenment thinkers. .

(05/16/25) President’s Award
Omar Hussein has been running the Graduate Center since its inception almost a decade ago. For his all of his efforts, he was named the . Definitely richly deserved and long overdue!

(05/06/25) Summer Research Fellowship
Philosophy major and outgoing SPA president Sam Parajuli will be headed to the University of Chicago this summer to work on a project in epigenetics.

(05/05/25) Masters Admission, Cal State Long Beach
Good luck to Philosophy major Isaac Obert, who has accepted admission to the MA in Political Science here at Cal State Long Beach.

(04/23/25) Doctoral Admission, Arizona State University
Abel Peña has accepted a fully funded offer of doctoral admission in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Arizona State University. Good luck on this next adventure, Abel, and congrats!

(04/15/25) Doctoral Admission, University of Texas Austin
Having completed the MA, Daniel Luna will be setting out this fall for Austin to begin the PhD program at the University of Texas. Terrific news, Daniel, congratulations! We wish you the best in this new phase of your academic career.

(04/10/25) SC Research Program
The Sally Casanova program has awarded MA student Abel Peña a $12k fellowship for summer research. Abel will have the opportunity to visit with and assist at the University of California Irvine (his alma mater), where they will spend time developing a research paper on philosophy of physics.

(04/08/25) Doctoral Admission, Indiana University
Congratulations to Travis Barnett. After weighing multiple offers, he is returning home to begin his doctoral studies in Philosophy at Indiana University this coming fall. We wish him the best.

(03/19/25) Conference Presentations
This coming March 29th, Abel Peña will present a paper on housework, technology, and isolation in feminist Marxism at the 46th annual MidSouth Philosophy Conference at Rhodes College. And Liz Sato will present her paper, ‘Empathy as a fiction-ish emotion’ at the inaugural , which will take place April 5th at San Jose State.

(03/15/25) OGS Dean’s List of Graduating Masters Students
The OGS Dean’s List award is limited to 1% of the overall number of students pursuing a Masters degree each year. In the College of Liberal Arts, there are approximately 600 such students, which means that CLA doles out approximately six awards each spring for commencement each year. Congratulations to Travis Barnett on being awarded this honor.

(03/05/25) 37th Annual ������ Student Research Competition
This year’s SRC will feature four talks from philosophy students. In the Humanities and Letters category, Isaiah Navarro is presenting on Blanshard’s coherence theory, Jason Rosencrantz on Locke’s nominalism, and Liz Sato on the nature of empathy. In the Physical and Mathematical Sciences category, Isaac Obert is presenting on polychorons. (Update: Congratulations to Isaac, who came in first place in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences category.)

(02/28/25) Summer Research Assistantship
Graduate student Liz Sato has been awarded a competitive SU25 RAship. She will be assisting on a research project pertaining to Reid’s conception of common sense and the role of that conception in his arguments about moral liberty and free will.

(01/21/25) CLA Equity Scholar
Congratulations to Paige Kim, who was selected to be the department’s CLA Equity Scholar this SP25 term. It’s great to see such deserving students supported.

(09/30/24) UC Irvine LPS Diversity Program
El Nicklin attended a week-long diversity program at UC Irvine LPS, which aims to help students who plan to study graduate-level logic and/or philosophy of science.

(08/30/24) CLA Equity Scholar
Welcome to Daniel Mangondi-Escobar, who was selected to be a CLA Equity Scholar for FA24. This program provides research support to individuals membering in groups that have been historically underrepresented in academia.

(07/01/24) Sally Casanova Predoctoral Fellowship
Abel Peña was awarded an AY24–25 Sally Casanova Predoctoral Fellowship, which comes with $5,000 to offset application fees plus a year of mentorship from in preparation for applying doctoral programs. Outstanding! What’s more, Abel is the fifth philosophy student in four years to win this award.

(06/25/24) Conference Activities
The , and featured a paper on Roman Jakobson and Charles Peirce by Tracie Hoops. Tracie has also been organizing a pragmatism reading group, and will be presenting at on July 27th.

(04/15/24) Doctoral Admission, Florida State University
Congratulations to graduate student Yahui Chen, who will begin her doctoral studies next fall at Florida State University—arguably one of the top places in the U.S. to specialize in philosophy of action. Best wishes for the next chapter of your academic career!

(04/15/24) Masters Admission, Brandeis University
Good luck to Yunong Niu, who will be moving to Waltham next fall to matriculate in the MA program in Philosophy at Brandeis University.

(04/05/24) Conference Activities
Cody Spjut is headed to Seattle for , where he will be commenting on Melle van Duijin’s paper entitled ‘Plato’s Apology as consolation’. Congratulations also to Yahui Chen, who presented her paper on Aristotle at , and, before that, .

(03/25/24) PIKSI Admission
Congratulations to El Nicklin, who was admitted to the PIKSI-Logic program at Northeastern University (PIKSI 2024) and awarded $500 to attend a multi-week seminar.

(03/20/24) OGS Dean’s List of Graduating Masters Students
Impressively, Chavva Olander is one of six students from the liberal arts to be lauded with the Graduate Dean’s List award this year. Only 1% of the overall number of students pursuing a Masters degree get this award. Outstanding work, Chavva!

UPDATE: having now finished her Master’s degree, Chavva will begin teaching a couple of philosophy courses this coming FA24 as the instructor of record. We’re looking forward to having her join the faculty here at ������.

(03/19/24) Outstanding Baccalaureate Finalist
Each year, the College of Liberal Arts names the winners of its extremely competitive commencement award for Outstanding Baccalaureate. Philosophy major El Nicklin was named as one of the AY23–24 finalists for this award. Outstanding, indeed!

(03/18/24) MA thesis
Congrats to Philosophy Department ASC Abigali Judge, who successfully defended her Master’s thesis in the Religious Studies program this week.

(03/08/24) 36th Annual ������ Student Research Competition
This year’s SRC will feature four talks from philosophy students in the Humanities and Letters category: Jason Rosencrantz on the implications of polysemy of natural language quantifiers for metaphysics; El Nicklin on Locke on reflection, Travis Barnett‘s application of Kierkegaard’s meditations about despair to genetic testing, and Cody Spjut on Plato’s theory of forms.

UPDATE: Travis took first place in the Humanities and Letters category, and so shall go on to compete at the , which is being held on April 26th–27th at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Great job, Travis!

(02/28/24) Doctoral Admission, University of California Riverside
After weighing multiple offers, MA alumna Regina Swanson has settled on matriculating at the University of California Riverside for her doctoral studies in the Department of Religious Studies. Congratulations, Regina, you’re on your way!

(12/15/23) CLA Equity Scholar
Congratulations to Sarah Nolte, who was selected to be the department’s next CLA Equity Scholar this SP24 term. (See here for more information.)

(12/01/23) Conference Presentation
Cody Spjut visited his alma mater, Cal Poly SLO, to present his paper ‘‘ and serve as judge for the intercollegiate ethics bowl competition sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE).

(09/18/23) UC Irvine Diversity Program
Congratulations to Yahui Chen and Abel Peña, who were invited to attend UC Irvine’s ‘PhD Summer Camp’, which aims to help members of marginalized groups navigate doctoral study.

(08/23/23) Conference Presentations
The is hosting a conference on concepts of sedimentation this September, and Joe Gordon was awarded a Grad Center travel grant to present his paper on Husserl. Joe has been organizing the Nietzsche Reading Group, and will also be traveling to Sicily in November to present a second paper on Nietzsche on Empedocles, hosted by the .

(07/21/23) Book Review in History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis
Congratulations to graduate student Cody Spjut, whose review of Anna Marmodoro’s Forms and Structure in Plato’s Metaphysics was just published in . Excellent work!

(07/01/23) CLA Equity Scholar
The department welcomes Camille Wold to the MA program this FA23 term and congratulates her on receiving a CLA equity scholarship.
 

(05/16/23) Sally Casanova Predoctoral Fellowship
Cody Spjut is the fourth graduate student in philosophy in the last three years to be awarded a Sally Casanova Predoctoral Fellowship, which comes with mentorship from in preparation for applying doctoral programs and $5,000 to offset application fees. Amazing!

UPDATE: Cody’s summer research project for his Sally Casanova fellowship will be to work on Plato’s late-period theory of forms with Dr. John Proios at the University of Chicago from June 24 to August 16.

(05/15/23) OGS Graduate Fellowship 2023–2024
Congratulations to MA student Manuel Rojas, who was selected as one of the two CLA recipients of the AY23–24 Graduate Fellowship. The university has repurposed these fellowships to advancing its interests in ‘the public good’; we’ll still be on the lookout, though, for some of Manuel’s research in the coming year.

(05/01/23) Phi Beta Kappa
Undergraduate major Elian Leal was lauded as an inductee into Member in Course and graduated with highest Latin honors, summa cum laude. Superior work!

(04/15/23) Doctoral Admission, Saint Louis University
After weighing multiple offers, Pedro Rapallo Zubillaga has decided to begin his doctoral studies in Philosophy at Saint Louis University. Way to go, Pedro!

(04/01/23) Conference Presentations
Pedro Rapallo Zubillaga‘s paper on the problem of imaginative resistance was accepted for presentation at IHPST Graduate Conference this coming May 5–6th. Pedro also presented this paper at the , held at SUNY Binghamton last November 12–13. 

(03/20/23) Summer Research Assistantship
Congratulations to undergraduate major El Nicklin, who has been awarded a SU23 RAship to assist on a research project in early modern philosophy.

(03/10/23) 35th Annual ������ Student Research Competition
of this year’s SRC featured talks on instrumental value, brute facts, decision theory, Aristotle on friendship, color vision, and linguistic meaning, inter alia, by philosophy students Peden Sager, Toko Dougherty, Chavva Olander, Cody Spjut, Donald Davis, Raley Zurcher, and Yahui Chen.

(01/31/23) Publication
Congratulations to graduate student, Jessica Manzo, whose co-authored paper with Dr. Sanem Saner, entitled ‘Respect, resourcefulness, empathy’ was recently published in volume 22 of the journal .

(01/24/23) Conference Presentation
Yahui Chen‘s paper, ‘Aristotle on goodwill in friendships’, was selected for presentation at a to be held at Toronto Metropolitan University this coming March 18th. Chavva Olander‘s paper, ‘Rough Heroes in Fiction and Real Life’, was presented at both the 15th biennial conference of the Radical Philosophy Association last November and will also be presented at the Central Division of the this coming February.

(01/19/23) CLA Equity Scholars
Congratulations to both Victoria Cinquegrani and Frank Mendoza, whom were selected to be the department’s CLA Equity Scholars for SP23. This initiative provides research support to members of groups that are historically underrepresented in higher education.

(01/07/23) UTC Award
The University Transportation Center named recent MA alum James Reuter as the 2022 Masters student of the year for their Pacific Southwest Region ().

(01/01/23) Workshop
The University of Vienna is hosting an online workshop series for early career researchers on the theme . Joe Gordon presents a draft paper, ‘Nietzsche and the doctrine of flux in Twilight of the Idols‘, on January 19th.

(10/12/22) Conference Presentation
a for former students from Shandong University, and Ning Shao has been invited to present a work-in-progress this coming week, too—congratulations.

(08/26/22) CLA Equity Scholar
Welcome and congratulations to the department’s Equity Scholar for FA22, Esther Sims. The CLA EQS initiative provides research support through mentorship and training in the Liberal Arts.

(08/08/22) UC Irvine LPS Diversity Program
Ning Shao attended at UC Irvine LPS, which aims to help underrepresented students who plan to study graduate-level logic and/or philosophy of science.

(06/10/22) UC Davis Envision Program
Congratulations to Chavva Olander, who was admitted to . The program aims to bring promising doctoral applicants from groups historically underrepresented in higher education to campus for exploratory visits.

(05/19/22) Predoctoral Fellowship 2022–2023
Tanner Whitlow will be an AY22–23 recipient of the Sally Casanova Predoctoral Fellowship. The fellowship comes with a $3,000 award for the purposes of applying to doctoral programs.

(05/09/22) Oslo Summer Workshop
Congratulations to Yahui Chen, who was admitted to ‘ at the Institutt for Filosofi at the University of Oslo this coming June.

(04/15/22) Doctoral Admission, University of Pennsylvania
MA student Shawn Hernandez will be off to the University of Pennsylvania this fall, where he will begin his PhD as a Fontaine Fellow. Outstanding, Shawn, your efforts have paid off!

(04/15/22) Doctoral Admission, University of California Riverside
Congratulations to MA student Keilee Bessho, who has just accepted a fully funded offer in Philosophy at UCR, where she will begin her doctoral program as a Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow. We’re looking forward to hearing about all of her future successes!

(04/15/22) Doctoral Admission, University of Texas Austin
MA student Ryan Lam will be moving to Austin to pursue the PhD at the University of Texas. Best wishes for the next chapter of your academic career, Ryan!

(04/11/22) FAF Senate Fellow
Congratulations to this FA22 with the French·American Fund. Sandra will pursue Master’s coursework at Sorbonne Université in Paris and will intern with the French Senator from Normandie, Sonia de la Provôté.

(04/11/22) SC Research Program
Tom Ho was awarded the opportunity to indulge in a summer research experience through the AY21–22 Sally Casanova predoctoral fellowship program. Tom will have the opportunity to visit with at the University of Cincinnati (his alma mater), and will spend his time developing a research paper.

(04/06/22) Best Thesis Award
MA alum Caitlin Mace has won the College of Liberal Art’s award for Best Master’s Thesis in AY21–22. Caitlin’s thesis is a close study of the appeal to optogenetics research as a way of adjudicating the debate reductionists and mechanists in philosophy of neuroscience. Tremendous effort, Caitlin, congrats on being recognized for your work!

(03/24/22) SU22 Research Assistantship
Congrats also to graduate student Ning Shao, who is also one of 34 students university-wide to receive a summer Research Assistantship. Ning will be working with Prof. on the topic of the norms and nature of scientific explanation this summer, with a focus on the fictional approach to model-based idealizations.

(03/23/22) Summer Research Assistantship
Congratulations to Chavva Olander for winning a competitive SU22 Research Assistantship. Chavva will be working with her faculty mentor, , to assess the current state of the debate in the experimental philosophy literature on the phenomenology of agency. This work will also be part of a bigger project about the role of experience in arguments about the nature of free will. We’re looking forward to reading more about this research!

(03/22/22) Graduate Dean’s List
CLA has named its AY21–22 awardees for the OGS Dean’s List award of Graduating Masters Students, which is limited to no more than 1% of the overall number of students pursuing a Masters degree. This year, the Department of Philosophy has, not one, but two students lauded with the award: Shawn Hernandez and Keilee Bessho. Congratulations, both.

(03/18/22) Conference Presentation
Chavva Olander is one of two students invited to present at the SP22 Women’s Research Conference. The hybrid event occurs on Zoom and in-person at the Anatol Center (AS–119). Come hear Chavva discuss ‘Gender nihilism’ at 10:00am.

(03/16/22) Lugano Summer Program
MA student Cody Spjut was admitted to the summer program at the Università della Svizzera Italiana, led by Profs. John Marenbon and Anna Marmodoro. This summer’s topic is on .

(03/11/22) 34rd Annual ������ Student Research Competition
This year’s SRC is back in person! On Friday March 11th in COB–218, four philosophy graduate students will present papers in the Humanities and Letters category: Yahui Chen (‘tbd’ at 9:15am); Pedro Rapallo Zubillaga (‘Impossibly immoral fictions and how to understand them’ at 9:55am); Ning Shao (‘Two conceptions of color’ at 10:15am); and Raley Zurcher (‘Defending adverbialism against the temporal and many properties problem’ at 10:55am).
 

(03/08/22) Vienna Summer Program
MA student Pedro Rapallo Zubillaga was admitted to  (USS-SWC) this coming July. This year’s theme is ‘Representation in Art and Science’, and will feature ten days with Profs. Chiara Ambrosio, Catherine Elgin, & Dominic McIver Lopes.

(02/11/22) Colloquia and Publication
Tanner Whitlow‘s co-authored paper, entitled ‘Categorical phenomenalism about sexual orientation’, was accepted for presentation at the Central Division of the this February; Tanner will also be co-presenting the paper at a colloquium at Rice University on February 18th.

UPDATE: Tanner’s paper was just accepted for publication in the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, which is one of the discipline’s top generalist journals. This is a tremendous achievement!

(01/30/22) CLA Equity Scholar
Congratulations to Chavva Olander, who was selected as a SP22 Equity Scholar (mentored by Prof. Rosenkrantz). The CLA EQS initiative is designed to support access to mentorship and training in the Liberal Arts. We look forward to seeing more of Chavva’s research.

(12/05/21) Publication
Congratulations to MA student Shawn Hernandez, whose paper, ‘‘ (co-authored with Nick Laskowski) was accepted for publication in the journal Analytic Philosophy.

(11/19/21) Conference Presentations
Daniel Sierra will be presenting his paper ‘Mr. Frege, the Platonist’ at the on November 19th. Previously, Daniel also presented his paper at the , which is a members-only reading through the end of August, and the online conference sponsored by HSE University Moscow on June 22nd.

(09/24/21) SEAC and APPE Conference Presentations
With Dr. Sanem Saner, Jessica Manzo will be co-presenting a short video essay at the and the .

(09/21/20) Long Beach City College Internship
Owing in part to her experience with last semester’s special project on social justice pedagogy, LBCC accepted Enoki Nguyen for their AY21–22 Faculty Diversity Internship program. Enoki will participate in various workshops throughout the year; and, with mentor Robert Vitt, she will help plan and implement classes during SP22 and will receive a $750 award, to boot. Congrats!

(08/14/21) Graduate Research Fellow 2021–2022
Ryan Lam has been selected as the recipient of the AY21–22 Graduate Research Fellowship for the College of Liberal Arts. The University awards one GRF per college per year, making this quite an honor for both Ryan and the Department. He will be working with Dr. Laskowski on a project concerning normative realism in metaethics.

(07/20/21) Predoctoral Fellowships 2021–2022
MA students Keilee Bessho and Tom Ho will be AY21–22 recipients of the Sally Casanova Predoctoral Fellowship, which provides support for disadvantaged students with doctoral ambitions. Keilee and Tom will each be awarded $3,000, mentorship from in preparation for applying doctoral programs, and access to a summer research experience at a University of California campus. Congratulations, both!

(07/05/21) CLA Equity Scholar
CLA has inaugurated a new recruitment initiative, which is designed to promote excellence in research and to support access to mentorship and research training in the Liberal Arts. Congratulations and welcome to Ning Shao, who was selected as the FA21 EQS for the Department of Philosophy, and will be mentored by . We look forward to seeing how her research takes shape!

(06/15/21) Conference Presentation
Caitlin Mace will be presenting her poster ‘Beyond metascience in the search for engrams’ (with ) poster at the at 5:00pm EDT on June 28th.
 

(05/06/21) Summer Research Assistantship
Philosophy major Gabriella Labrador has been awarded a 2021 Research Assistantship. Gabby will be working on a project this summer with on topics in aesthetics.

(04/15/21) Doctoral Admission, University of Pittsburgh
After weighing multiple options, MA student Caitlin Mace has decided to accept Pitt’s fully funded offer to begin her PhD in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. The HPS department at Pitt has a long and venerable history, and is arguably the world’s best. What a superb accomplishment!

(04/15/21) Doctoral Admission, University of California Irvine
Graduate student Michael Lara has accepted a fully funded offer to begin the doctoral program in Philosophy at UC Irvine—a top-20 ranked PhD program in the U. S. Terrific news, Michael, congratulations!

UPDATE: Michael successfully completed his PhD in 2026, and now teaches part-time in Philosophy and in Sociology at ������.

(04/15/21) Doctoral Admission, University of Memphis
Miguel Hernandez will be pursuing his doctoral studies in continental philosophy at the University of Memphis, which is among the top places in the U. S. to study social philosophy in the continental and postmodernist traditions. Best wishes for the next chapter of your academic career, Miguel.

UPDATE: Miguel has joined the interdisciplinary at Purdue University, where he will continue his doctoral studies nearer to family.

(04/15/21) Admission, Texas A & M Law School
Faris Babineaux, who is graduating magna cum laude with a double major in Philosophy & Criminal Justice and the Legal Studies certificate, has accepted an offer to attend Texas A&M. Superb!

(04/14/21) Masters Admission, Marquette University
Starting this fall, undergraduate honors student Damon Paffenroth will begin the MA program at Marquette, where he will continue exercising his interests in late 19th and early 20th century continental philosophy.

(04/11/21) Conference Presentations
On Saturday April 17th Ryan Lam will be presenting his paper ‘Moral realism and the two faces of moral truth’ at the annual at 9:00am EDT, and Keilee Bessho will be presenting her paper at the at Cal State San Marcos at 10:15am PDT. Tanner Whitlow will be co-presenting a paper with Nick Laskowski entitled ‘Explaining sexual orientations’ on May 28th at the (with talks on the ‘read-ahead’ model).

(03/31/21) Publication
Congratulations to graduate student Shawn Hernandez, whose co-authored paper with Nick Laskowski, ‘‘ was accepted for publication in volume 37 of the journal Southwest Philosophical Review. What’s more, the paper will also feature a response from Prof. Matti Eklund (Uppsala University).

(03/19/21) 33rd Annual ������ Student Research Competition
Four philosophy graduate students are presenting at this year’s SRC, which takes place on Friday March 19th in zoom room #8: Caitlin Mace (‘Engrams and optogenetics’ at 9:30am); Ryan Lam (‘Moral realism and the two facets of moral truth’ at 9:45am); Keilee Bessho (‘The importance of knowing weighty reasons in deliberation’ at 10:00am); and Michael Lara (‘Intellectualists get a failing grade at gradability’ at 12:00pm). All presentations are in the Humanities and Letters category of the competition.

(01/29/21) PSA Conference Poster
Caitlin Mace will be presenting her poster ‘Leveling with ruthless reductionists about optogenetics’ (with Prof. Wright) at the .

(01/14/21) APA Conference Presentation
Shawn Hernandez will be co-presenting his paper ‘What makes normative concepts normative’, at the 117th annual meeting of the Eastern Division of the APA. Shawn was not only awarded an APA Eastern Division Graduate Stipend to do so, but also had his poster, ‘Single-person twin Earth cases are no threat to naturalists’, accepted as well.

(12/23/20) Triple Major
Student success alert! In an absolutely unique feat of accomplishment, Sandra Avitia completed a triple major—������’s only one so far this century—in Philosophy, French, and International Studies.  Here’s her story.

(12/15/20) SI Award
Of the 30 Supplemental Instruction Leaders last fall, MA Philosophy student Amy Umaña was recognized as ‘SIL of the Semester’ for her outstanding performance teaching the Organizational Behavior course in Human Resources Management. Way to go, Amy!

(12/15/20) Phillips Memorial Fellowship
MA student Daniel Luna is the inaugural recipient of the $5,000 Phillips Fellowship from the , which is open to graduate students whose areas of interest include pragmatic (esp. John Dewey), transactional, or process approaches.

(12/03/20) TIES Internship
Congrats to MA student Jessica Manzo, who was invited to participate in CCCD’s (TIES) program, which is a stipendiary training program for future community college instructors. Jessica will be mentored the Chair of Philosophy at Golden West College, Prof. Noah Levin, and will gain access to an array of ‘hands-on’ experiences in and around the classroom.

UPDATE: Having finished both her TIES internship and her MA degree, Jessica is now teaching Intro to Philosophy at Golden West Community College in SU24.

(11/25/20) Conference Presentation
James Reuter presented his paper ‘A phenomenology of history’ at the 7th annual conference of The Liberal Herald of Bratislava in partnership with the Central European University. This year’s conference is on the theme ‘‘.

(07/01/20) Graduate Research Fellowship 2020–2021
The University awards one Graduate Research Fellowship per college per year, and Michael Lara was selected as the recipient of the AY20–21 GRF for the College of Liberal Arts. He will be working with Dr. Wallis on a project on ‘know how’ in epistemology.

(05/26/20) Summer Research Assistantship
Congrats to graduate student Caitlin Mace, who was one of 35 students university-wide to receive a SU20 Research Assistantship. She will be working with Prof. on the topic of reducative versus mechanistic explanation in molecular neuroscience and psychobiology this summer.

(05/15/20) SLD Leadership Award
SPA President Michael Lara has been recognized by SLD/ASI as Outstanding Officer-of-the-Year for his demonstrated leadership and commitment to advance the mission of the organization.

(04/18/20) Law School Admission, University of California Irvine
Luciano Alvarado, a Physics major and Philosophy minor, has accepted an offer to attend UC Irvine, which has one of the top law schools in the United States. Such a well-deserved success!

(04/15/20) Doctoral Admission, University of Wisconsin
After weighing multiple options, MA student Burgandy Basulto has decided to accept a fully funded offer to begin the doctoral program in Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin—a top-20 ranked PhD program in the US. We wish her the best as she continues on her academic journey in Madison.

(04/06/20) Best Thesis Award
MA student Dean Bruce has won the College of Liberal Art’s award for Best Master’s Thesis in AY19–20. Dean’s thesis was a close study of Abû Hâmid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ġhazâlî’s (fl. 1056–1111 CE) views on occasionalism, natural science, and divine omnipotence. Excellent research, Dean, and a hearty congratulations on being lauded for your work!

(03/16/20) Exceptional Student Award
Unfortunately, the exceptional student awards banquet has been canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the ������ award for outstanding achievement, for seniors graduating magna cum laude with a ≥3.75 GPA, was given to Philosophy majors Tanner Whitlow and Kyle Bollin. Congratulations, both!

(02/21/20) 32nd Annual ������ Student Research Competition
Five philosophy graduate students are presenting at this year’s SRC: Caitlin Mace (‘What we owe other creatures when they pose a threat to our health and safety’ at 10:20am in COB–112); Michael Lara (‘Perceptual attitude mindreading: behavior prediction in non-linguistic animals’ at 1:40pm in COB–110); Shawn Hernandez (‘Alien nurse, the causal theory, and moral truth’ at 1:20pm in COB–110); Amy Harms (‘Descartes’ theory of judgment and faith-based beliefs’ at 1:00pm in COB–110); and Avery Amerson (‘Extended cognition and the evolution of language’ at 12:40pm in COB–110). All five presentations are in  this Friday.

UPDATE: Philosophy minor Nicholas Roy earned first place in the Public Policy, Economics, and Business category, and will now go on—barring COVID-19 cancellation—to compete at the statewide CSU competition at the end of April.

(11/19/19) ������ Graduate Research Conference
Caitlin Mace and Avery Amerson are participating in the 4th annual ������ Graduate Research Conference. In Session A, Caitlin is presenting her research (‘Teaching how without knowing how: Considerations for knowledge-how ascriptions’) at one of the roundtable discussions, which begins at 4:00pm in USU–253. In Session B, Avery is presenting his paper (‘Extended cognition and the evolution of human language’) from 6:30-6:45 in USU–305.

(11/15/19) HGSA Presentation
Leading the way in the cross-fertilization between disciplines is Michael Lara, who presented a talk (‘MLK to Kendrick Lamar: Conspiring Against African American Presidencies’) at the .

(08/18/19) HOGAR Scholarship
For AY19–20, CLA secured five of six possible recruitment scholarships. One of those five recipients is Leandro Mendez, who finished his BA in Philosophy from Florida International University and is beginning the MA program at ������ this FA19.

(08/01/19) Graduate Research Fellowship 2019–2020
MA student Avery Amerson has been selected as an AY19–20 Graduate Research Fellow for the College of Liberal Arts. Avery will be conducting research in biolinguistics and cognitive science, and is being supervised by .

(07/15/19) Pittsburgh Summer Program in Philosophy of Science
Congratulations to Richard Link, who was admitted to the third annual (PSP3) this coming July. PSP3 involves a week of seminars and other events that are designed to provide undergraduates from underrepresented groups with specialized training in Philosophy of Science.

(05/20/19) Mellon Mays Fellow
A big congratulations to Philosophy and Film double major D’Naja Gates, who has been awarded one of the university’s Mellon Mays Fellows for AY19–21. D’Naja will be working on a project in social philosophy and film theory, with mentor Prof. . Cal State Long Beach is one of just 48 schools to particulate in the Mellon Mays program worldwide, and offers only four such fellowships each year. provides fellows with various forms of research support, including special programming, faculty mentoring, stipends for research activities, repayment of undergraduate loans up to $10k, and support for summer research.

(05/01/19) Summer Research Assistantship
Congrats to graduate student Avery Amerson, who was one of a few dozen students university-wide to receive a SU19 Research Assistantship. Avery will be working with on the topic of linguistic ontology.

(04/15/19) Masters Admission, Georgia State University
Undergraduate Honors student and SPA President Richard Link has accepted a fully-funded offer from Georgia State University, which has one of the most well-regarded MA programs in the U. S. Richard will begin in the Neurophilosophy track starting FA19.

(04/14/19) Exceptional Student Award
Congratulations to Philosophy major Amanda Dilger and minor Christopher Laplante, who recently received awards for outstanding achievement over the course of their academic careers at ������. Awardees must have earned a ≥3.75 GPA over four years and have graduated magna cum laude.

(03/27/19) 1st Place, CSU Statewide Student Research Competition
The 33rd annual statewide SRC was held this weekend, bringing together students from all 23 campuses of the CSU system. Avery Amerson was in the Humanities and Letters category for his presentation ‘Wittgenstein, Extended Cognition, and the Problem of Other Minds’, along with a $600 cash prize.

(03/15/19) Doctoral Admission, University of Cincinnati
Philosophy MA student Vincent del Prado has accepted a fully funded five-year offer, including a Yates Fellowship, to begin his doctoral degree in FA19. The PhD Program at is definitely the place to be for things like Philosophy of Biology, Mind, and Cognitive Science, among several others! Congrats, Vincent. We wish you the best of luck.

(02/16/19) 31st Annual ������ Student Research Competition
Several philosophy students are presenting at this year’s SRC, which takes place on Friday February 22nd 2019. Graduate Student Avery Amerson will present his paper ‘Wittgenstein, extended cognition, and the problem of other minds’ (12:00pm–12:20pm), and, incidentally, will also be presenting it at the 13th annual philosophy Grad Student Conference at Texas Tech University. Philosophy minors Blake Dimas and Christopher Laplante will present their papers, ‘Adorno and the potentials of pop’ (11:40am–12:00pm) and ‘Do idealizations have epistemic value?’ (12:20pm–12:40pm), respectively. All three presentations are in the Humanities and Letters category of the competition, which occurs in CBA–140.

(02/13/19) Outstanding Baccalaureate Finalist
Congratulations to History & Philosophy double major and Honors student Richard Link, who was selected as a finalist for the AY18–19 commencement award of Outstanding Baccalaureate.

(11/14/18) 3rd annual ������ Graduate Research Conference
Ryan Shaver will presenting his work-in-progress, ‘A comparative analysis of the predictive processing/Bayesian brain thesis’, as a roundtable discussant in USU–253. Christopher George is presenting his paper, ‘Judicial activism?’, in USU–303. Both are in Session A, which begins at 4:00pm.

(10/22/18) Debate Tournament
Congrats to Philosophy major Danielle Hyslop, who placed as a policy debate semi-finalist at the Las Vegas Classic Debate Tournament at UNLV. Danielle is a member of Beach Forensics, the ������ debate team.

(08/01/18) HOGAR Scholarship
For AY18–19, the College of Liberal Arts secured five of six possible nominations for its HOGAR recruitment scholarships. Miguel Hernandez, who recently finished his BA in English Literature from Cal State Northridge, was one of the five incoming CLA matriculants awarded this scholarship.

(04/19/18) Doctoral Admission, University of Minnesota
Kylie Shahar, an undergraduate Honors student double-majoring in Philosophy & Political Science, has just accepted a fully funded five-year offer, along with a first-year Graduate Scholar Fellowship, to begin her doctoral studies in Fall 2018 in the at the University of Minnesota. We are very proud of Kylie’s achievement, and really excited for her as she begins this next chapter of her career. Congratulations, Kylie!

(04/12/18) Doctoral Admission, University of Connecticut
Graduate student Ahmed Alenaizan has accepted an offer to attend the PhD program at the University of Connecticut. Good luck on this next adventure, Ahmed!

(04/09/18) Summer Research Assistantship
The results of the ORSP competition for Summer Research Assistantships were announced: there were 39 awardees University-wide, four of whom are in the Humanities. Congratulations to Philosophy minor Christopher Laplante, who made the cut! He’ll be assisting on a project about the epistemic value of idealizations in scientific modeling.

(04/01/18) SPAWP Admission
In addition to PIKSI, undergraduate honors student Monica Casares was admitted to . SPAWP is a ten-day program for undergraduate women who are interested in pursuing graduate study in philosophy, and is an absolutely wonderful experience. Congratulations, Monica, and good luck!

(04/01/18) Graduate Research Fellowship 2018–2019
Christopher George will be an AY18–19 CLA Graduate Research Fellow. George will use the fellowship to commence with his research on the normative structure of legal reasoning, and is being supervised by .

(03/25/18) Scholarship Winners
Congratulations to Philosophy minor Nick Roy, who won the Ray & Marge Lancaster Scholarship in Economics ($2,500), and to Philosophy & English double major Jake Teran, who was awarded the Elizabeth Nielsen and the Minerva Davis Endowment Scholarships through the English Department.

(03/24/18) Conference Presentation at the MidSouth
Congrats to Erik Rodriguez Cerda, who was awarded a Student Life & Development travel award to present his paper, ‘Moral ignorance and the impossibility of akrasia’, at the 42nd annual MidSouth Philosophy Conference at Rhodes College in Memphis.

(03/15/18) PIKSI Admission
Undergraduate honors student Monica Casares was admitted to the Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute at MIT (PIKSI 2018). PIKSI is a two-week-long, all-expenses-paid seminar designed to encourage undergraduates from underrepresented groups to consider future study in Philosophy.

(03/14/18) Exceptional Student Achievement
Congratulations to two of our graduating Philosophy majors, Crystal Jones and Jake Teran, each of whom has been lauded for ‘Exceptional Student Achievement’. The award is given for outstanding achievement over the course of the academic career at ������; students must have earned a ≥3.75 GPA over four years and have graduated magna cum laude. Excellent performance!

(03/06/18) Outstanding Baccalaureate Finalist
Congratulations to Philosophy & Political Science double major and Honors student Kylie Shahar, who was selected as a finalist for the AY17–18 commencement award of Outstanding Baccalaureate. Great job, Kylie!

(02/16/18) 30th Annual ������ Student Research Competition
Yet another History & Philosophy double major, Richard Link, was selected to compete in the . Richard will present his paper, ‘Luminosity and its limits’ from 12:40pm–1:00pm. His talk is in the ‘Humanities and Letters’ section, which takes place in CBA–227 on Friday, February 16, 2018. An awards reception immediately follows the symposium in AS–119 (Anatol Center). Good luck, Richard!

(08/01/17) HOGAR Scholarship
For AY17–18, the College of Liberal Arts secured five of six possible nominations for its HOGAR recruitment scholarships. Vincent del Prado, who recently his BA in Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of California Santa Cruz, was one of the five incoming CLA matriculants awarded this scholarship.

(06/28/17) Publications
Congratulations to graduate student, Alex Beard, whose co-authored paper ‘‘ was recently published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. The paper—Alex’s first major publication—developed in part from his 2015 summer RAship on the history of electrophysiological research in the 1950s.

UPDATE: Alex’s review of Explanatory Pluralism has finally appeared in . Congratulations, Alex!

(06/15/17) Masters Admission, Cal State Los Angeles
Starting this fall, undergraduate honors student Jacee Cantler will begin the MA program in Philosophy at CSULA, where she will hopefully be able to continue her study of Astell, Cavendish, Conway, du Châtelet, and other philosophers from the early modern period.

(05/12/17) UC Irvine Research Symposium
Congratulations to another of our undergraduate Honors students, Jacee Cantler, whose paper was accepted for presentation at the 2nd annual . The symposium takes place on Friday May 19th from 9:00am–4:00pm in Room #112 of Social Ecology I on the UC Irvine campus.

(04/27/17) Exceptional Student Achievement
Congratulations to two of our graduating Philosophy majors, Jose Vera Cruz and Nickolas Sackett, who were both lauded at CLA’s Exceptional Students Reception (5:00pm-6:00pm in the USU Ballroom) for having earned a ≥3.75 GPA over four years and graduating magna cum laude. Stellar!

(04/15/17) Doctoral Admission, University of California San Diego
Congratulations to Andrew Bollhagen, who has accepted a five-year SEED Fellowship to begin his doctoral studies in Fall 2017 in the at the University of California San Diego. Being a top-20 ranked PhD program in the US, with many internationally renown faculty, Andrew will be in very good hands. We wish him the best as he continues on to much bigger and better things!

UPDATE: Andrew was the inaugural winner of ! In a triple-blind review process, the Levi prize committee selected Andrew’s essay, ‘Hempel’s Raven Revisited’ to be published in the Journal of Philosophy and receive a $10,000 award. Outstanding, Andrew, we are so proud of you!

(04/15/17) Doctoral Admission, University of Colorado Boulder
Alex Beard has accepted a fully funded, five-year offer to begin his doctoral studies in Fall 2017 in the at the University of Colorado Boulder. Congratulations (again!), Alex, and good luck on your next adventure.

(04/15/17) Doctoral Admission, University of Minnesota
Congratulations to graduate student Nathan Lackey, who has accepted a fully funded, five-year offer to begin his doctoral studies in Fall 2017 in the at the University of Minnesota. Minnesota was one of Nathan’s top choices, given their department strengths in Philosophy of Physics and Mathematics in particular, and Philosophy of Science more generally. Good luck, Nathan!

(03/15/17) CSU Masters Admissions
Two Philosophy students will be starting Master’s degrees this coming fall. Philosophy major and former president of the Student Philosophy Association Jessica Stroke will begin a 60-unit MS degree in School Counseling, which has a research and data-oriented emphasis on social justice. Philosophy minor Brian Huang is beginning the MA in Political Science here at ������. Good luck, both! We wish you the best in continuing your education.

(02/28/17) OGS List of Graduating Masters Students
CLA announced that Alex Beard is one of eight students to receive the Graduate Dean’s List award for AY16–17. (nb: The number of awardees from each college is limited to 1% of the overall number of students pursuing a Masters degree.) Congratulations, Alex, this is a well-deserved honor.

(02/28/17) Iris Marion Young Fellowship, PIKSI Rock
Congratulations to undergraduate Honors student Kylie Shahar, who was awarded an Iris Marion Young Fellowship to attend the Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute (PIKSI 2017) at Penn State. PIKSI is a two-week-long, all-expenses-paid seminar designed to encourage undergraduates from underrepresented groups to consider future study in Philosophy. The seminar will take place at the at Penn State. See the for more information.

(02/18/17) Doctoral Admission in Clinical Psychology
Philosophy minor Nathan Sollenberger has been admitted to the PhD program in Clinical Science in Child and Adolescent Psychology at Florida International University. Nathan will be moving to Miami this summer to begin his research on susceptibility to substance use disorders in adolescents.

(02/17/17) 29th Annual ������ Student Research Symposium
Another graduate student in Philosophy was selected to compete in the 29th Annual Student Research Symposium. Vannessa Malabanan will present her paper, ‘Rule‐Following Paradox Remains Unsolved, But We Get On Anyway’ from 11:10am to 11:30am. Vanessa’s talk is in the category, which takes place in CBA–122 on Friday, February 17, 2017.

UPDATE: Vanessa took first place in the Humanities and Letters category, and will now go on to compete at the , which is being held on April 28th–29th at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Way to go, Vanessa!

(01/27/17) Masters Admission, San Francisco State University
Undergraduate student Robbie Brown was admitted to the MA program in Philosophy at San Francisco State University for 2017. Congratulations, Robbie, on this accomplishment! We wish you the best in continuing your education in Philosophy.

(11/07/16) Inaugural ������ Graduate Research Conference
Two graduate students in Philosophy were selected to present at the 1st annual ������ Graduate Research Conference. Ryan Shaver presented his paper, ‘Reductionist vs. connectionist methods for ‘knowing how,” followed by Alex Beard, who presented his paper, ‘Event segmentation and the epistemic conception of mechanistic explanation’.

(10/14/16) 2016 MSB Essay Competition
Graduate student Vanessa Malabanan has been notified that her paper, ‘Mixed inferences: not a problem for pluralism about truth’, was one of the top ten best submissions to the annual , sponsored by the University of Edinburgh. You can read more about this year’s ten best papers, and the competition more generally, on the . Congratulations Vanessa!

(08/01/16) Book Review in Philosophy in Review
Congratulations to graduate student Nathan Lackey, whose co-authored review of María de Paz & Robert DiSalle (eds.) Poincaré, Philosopher of Science: Problems and Perspectives was published in .

(07/01/16) Pre-Doctoral Research Position in Philosophy of Neuroscience
Graduate student Andrew Bollhagen was selected to become a Pre-doctoral Research Associate in Philosophy of Neuroscience for this coming AY16–17. Andrew will work directly with Prof. John Bickle at Mississippi State University and at the Jackson Medical Center on various projects, including the SEP entry on Philosophy of Neuroscience. Congratulations Andrew!

(06/01/16) External Scholarship
Congratulations to graduate student Nathan Lackey, who recently awarded with a $500 academic scholarship from the Ventura chapter of the Optimist Club, ‘in recognition for outstanding scholarship and community service with an attitude exemplifying the spirit of optimism’.

(04/12/16) Doctoral Admission, University of Rochester
Congratulations to undergraduate student Rafael Perez, who recently accepted a fully-funded offer to begin his doctoral studies this Fall 2016 in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Rochester. Congratulations, Rafael! is a well-regarded, top-50 ranked program with many excellent faculty. We wish Rafael the best as he continues on to bigger and better things!

(03/17/16) Conference Presentation, University of Washington
Congratulations to graduate student Alex Beard, whose paper ‘Brain reward function and HIT: a case of mistaken identity (theory)’ was accepted for presentation at a ‘Values in Science’ conference at the University of Washington this past weekend. Alex was also supported by a Project HOGAR Graduate Student Travel Award.

(03/02/16) 28th Annual ������ Student Research Symposium
Two graduate students in Philosophy were selected to compete in the 28th annual Student Research Symposium (Friday February 19 2016 in CBA–122). Nathan Lackey will present his paper, ‘Congruence, geometry, and space’ from 12:10pm to 12:30pm, and Alex Beard will present his paper, ‘Brain reward function and HIT: a case of mistaken identity (theory)’ from 1:10pm to 1:30pm. (Update: Alex Beard and Nathan Lackey placed among the top three winners in the Humanities and Letters category.)

(08/25/15) Visiting Studentship
MA student Mitch Kaufman begins the academic year studying abroad at the Nosara Yoga Institute and the Qixing Taiji Tao Temple in San Marcos, Guatemala.

(06/01/15) Masters Admission, Cal State Los Angeles
Starting this fall, undergraduate honors student Zackary Ford will begin the MA program in Philosophy at CSULA. We wish him well with his graduate course of study.

(05/15/15) Graduate Research Fellowship 2015–2016
Nathan Lackey has been selected as the recipient of the AY15–16 Graduate Research Fellowship for the College of Liberal Arts. The University awards one GRF per college per year, making this quite an honor for both Nathan and the Department of Philosophy. Nathan will be working with on a project in the epistemology of geometry—specifically, on the philosophical implications of the theory of general relativity for Poincaré’s conventionalism.

(05/07/15) Doctoral Admission, University of Kansas
Congratulations to graduate student Kevin Watson, who recently accepted a fully-funded offer to begin his doctoral studies this FA15 in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kansas. We wish Kevin the best as he continues on to bigger and better things!

(04/18/15) Summer Research Assistantship
Graduate student Alex Beard has won a highly competitive 2015 ������ Student Summer Research Award. Out of university-wide 116 applicants, Alex’s application was one of 37 selected. He’ll be working on a project with regarding the history of scientific research on electrophysiology and psychopharmacology.

(02/14/15) 27th Annual ������ Student Research Symposium
Philosophy MA students Christian Weede and Nathan Lackey were selected to present their papers, ‘Some problems with knowing how: a response to Stanley & Williamson’ and ‘Prohibited content: explaining a slur’s linguistic behavior’, respectively, at ������’s annual SRC.

UPDATE: Christian took first place in the Humanities and Letters category, and will now go on to compete at the statewide CSU competition in May. Excellent job, Christian!

(10/15/14) Book Review in Philosophical Quarterly
Congratulations to graduate student Emily Barrett, whose co-authored review of Lisa Bortolotti’s Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs will be published in .

(05/03/14) AAPP Conference Presentation
As part of her GRF, Emily Barrett is traveling to New York to present her paper, ‘Clinical implications of conversational implicature’, at the 19th annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry.

(05/01/14) Exceptional Student Award
Congratulations to Philosophy and Biochemistry double major Joshua Feng, who was lauded with the College of Liberal Arts’s ‘Exceptional Student Achievement’ Award. The award is given for outstanding achievement over the course of the academic career at ������; students must have earned a ≥3.75 GPA over four years and have graduated magna cum laude. Way to go, Josh!

(04/24/14) Conference Presentation in The Netherlands
Kevin Watson is presenting his paper, ‘Tracing and offloading: a neo-Lockean reply to Johnston’ at the at Radbound Universiteit Nijmegen in The Netherlands. Kevin also received a Rally Travel Grant to boot—excellent!

(04/21/14) Law School Admission, UC Hastings
Philosophy major Celia Guzman is headed to the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco to pursue her JD next fall. (Celia is now a founding partner at at .)

(04/16/14) APA Commentary
Emily Barrett will be in San Diego this week, commenting on Prof. Michael Goerger’s paper, ‘Friendship and the ethics of social technology’, at the 88th annual meeting of the Pacific Division of the APA.

(04/15/14) Summer Research Assistantship
Graduate student Christian Weede has won a 2014 ������ Student Summer Research Award. He’ll be working on a project with Dr. Wallis in epistemology on the topic of know-how. Congratulations, Christian!

(04/08/14) Doctoral Admission, University of Wisconsin
Congratulations to graduate student Emily Barrett, who recently accepted a fully-funded offer to begin her doctoral studies this Fall 2014 in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin. Congratulations, Emily! Wisconsin’s PhD program is one of the top-30 ranked programs in the country, with many excellent faculty. We wish Emily the best as she continues on to much bigger and better things!

(04/01/14) Law School Admission, Northwestern University
Philosophy BA student Robert Garsson has been admitted to Northwestern School of Law, beginning FA14. Congratulations, Rob, we wish you the best in this endeavor!

UPDATE: Rob has just graduated from Northwestern in SP17 with the Juris Doctorate, where he served as a managing editor on the Northwestern University Law Review, and now works at in New York.
 

(04/01/14) Law School Admissions
Philosophy majors and alumni Andrew Grassel, Tessa Nevarez, and Ernest Hinojos will begin their JD programs at the University of the Pacific, Southwestern Law School, and Loyola Law School respectively. Good luck!

(03/08/14) OGS Dean’s List of Graduating Masters Students
Emily Barrett is one of eight students to receive the Graduate Dean’s List award for AY13–14. (nb: The number of awardees from each college is limited to 1% of the overall number of students pursuing a Masters degree.) Congratulations, Emily!

(02/21/14) 26th Annual ������ Student Research Symposium
Kevin Watson was selected to present his paper, ‘When is an organism an altruist?’, at the 26th Annual Student Research Symposium. Kevin took home second place for outstanding research in the Humanities and Letters category.

(01/24/14) Conference Presentation
James Cool‘s paper, ‘Doxastic control and the practical/theoretical distinction’, was accepted for presentation at the 38th annual MidSouth Philosophy Conference at Rhodes College in Memphis on February 21–22.

(12/17/13) Law School Admission, University of Southern California
After being admitted to the Law School at USC, Philosophy graduate student Kristopher Gay has finished his MA thesis and was admitted to the State Bar of California. Kristopher is now beginning his career as a Los Angeles District Attorney.

(05/20/13) Graduate Research Fellowship 2013–2014
Philosophy MA student Emily Barrett has been selected as the recipient of the AY13–14 Graduate Research Fellowship for the College of Liberal Arts. Emily will be working with on a project scrutinizing the doxastic conception of delusions in philosophy of psychiatry.

(05/01/13) Phi Beta Kappa
Congratulations to Joshua Feng, a double Honors double major in Philosophy & Biochemistry, who was lauded as an inductee into , Member in Course.

(04/15/13) Doctoral Admission, University of Connecticut
Congratulations to undergraduate Emma Björngard, who accepted an offer to start her doctoral studies this FA13 in the at the University of Connecticut. UConn happens to be one of the strongest doctoral programs in the world for philosophical logic and is among the top-35 doctoral programs in the US, with a growing faculty and graduate program. Good luck, Emma, and congrats!

UPDATE: Emma successfully defended her PhD in 2018 with a dissertation on theories of affect, and now teaches Philosophy at UConn’s Stamford campus and is an academic advisor in the School of Business.

(04/01/13) Law School Admission, Loyola
Philosophy MA student Neil Richmond has been admitted to Loyola School of Law, beginning FA13. Congratulations, Neil, we wish you the best in this endeavor.

UPDATE: Neil has now graduated from Loyola, receiving both a J.D. and LL.M in taxation. He graduated in the top 10% of his J.D. class, cum laude and Order of the Coif, and received Honors and High Distinction in the LL.M. Outstanding job, Neil!

(02/22/13) 25th annual Student Research Competition
Congratulations to Antonio Mendoza, a double major in Philosophy & History, who recently won second place in the ‘Humanities and Letters’ category at the . Antonio was one of 8 students from the College of Liberal Arts to win an award (out of the 34 students who participated in the competition). Great job!

(04/15/12) Doctoral Admission, Purdue University 
Congratulations to graduate student Josh Folk, who recently accepted a Ross Fellowship to begin his doctoral studies this FA12 in the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University. Congratulations, Josh!

(04/15/12) Doctoral Admission, Texas A&M
Kara Sutton-Jones will begin the PhD program in Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University in College Station.
 

(05/17/11) Graduate Research Fellowship 2011–2012
Philosophy MA student Neil Richmond has been selected as the recipient of the AY11–12 Graduate Research Fellowship for the College of Liberal Arts. Neil will be working with Dr. Wallis on a project in Philosophy of Cognitive Science.

(05/01/11) Phi Beta Kappa
Congratulations to Antonio J. Mendoza, a double major in Philosophy & History, who was lauded as an inductee into , Member in Course.

(04/15/11) Doctoral Admission, University of California Irvine
Congratulations to Amanda Trefethen, who will be starting UCI’s PhD program program in philosophy this fall. Good luck, Amanda!

(04/15/11) Masters Admission, University of California Los Angeles
Congratulations to undergraduate Honors student Rebekah Bonner, who was admitted to the Masters program in Library & Information Science at UCLA starting in FA11. We wish you the best in continuing your education.

UPDATE: Rebekah has since graduated from UCLA, and—after working on an NSF grant and receiving the 2013 UCLA Chancellor’s Marshall Award—is now a faculty member at the University of Utah working as a Research Data Management Librarian at the J. Willard Marriott Library.
 

(04/01/11) McNair Scholarship
Congratulations to Philosophy BA honors student and McNair Scholar Michael Moval, whose paper ‘A critique of external world skepticism’ appeared the in volume 15 of the McNair Scholars Research Journal.

(03/02/11) Graduate Dean’s List
Congratulations to Philosophy MA student John Clevenger for being awarded the OGS Dean’s List award for AY10–11. Each academic year, the list of awardees is limited to no more than 1% of the overall number of students graduating with the Masters degree.

(03/01/11) Law School Admission, Loyola
Philosophy & Criminal Justice double major Edgar Vera has been admitted to Loyola School of Law, beginning FA11. (Having graduated from Loyola and passed the California Bar Exam in SU15, Edgar is now an .)

(05/01/10) Phi Beta Kappa
Congratulations to another of our Honors students in Philosophy, Clinton Packman, who was lauded as an inductee into , Member in Course.

(03/15/10) Doctoral Admission, University of Wisconsin
Philosophy BA student Clinton Packman accepted an offer to begin his doctoral studies this Fall 2010 in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, which happens to be one of the top-ranked programs in the world. Clinton was a McNair Scholar while here at Cal State Long Beach, and we wish him the best as he continues on to much bigger and better things!

UPDATE: Clinton defended his dissertation this past SP18, and will be moving to Miami to start as a TT Assistant Professor at Florida International University in FA18. Excellent, Clinton, we’re very proud of you!

(04/15/10) Law School Admissions, University of California Davis
Philosophy & Political Science double major Samuel Bullock is finishing up his honors thesis, and will begin the JD program at UC Davis Law School this FA10. He will be joined by Philosophy major Matthew Gomory, who is will also begin the program this fall. Good luck, both!

(03/15/10) Doctoral Admission, Rice University
Congrats to Roma Claudia Hernández, who accepted an offer to begin her doctoral studies in Philosophy in FA10 at Rice University. After earning her BA in Philosophy, Roma took some additional classes in Philosophy while studying in the German program for her MA. She was also a recipient of the Sally Casanova Predoctoral Fellowship, and also went on to obtain a Fulbright Research Fellowship to study at the Husserl Archive in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cologne.

(08/15/09) President’s Scholarship
Congratulations to Philosophy major Jon Tryby, who was awarded a four-year President’s Scholarship, valued at approximately $50k, to study at Long Beach State (.) Tryby will work with Patrick Dieveney as his mentor in the University Honors program.

(07/29/09) Gilman Scholarship
Philosophy & German double major Justin Barner was awarded a Gilman Scholarship to study abroad at the University of Tübingen in Germany for AY09–10. Benjamin Gilman International Scholarships are sponsored by the U. S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, with the goal of supporting Pell Grant recipients who have been traditionally underrepresented in study abroad.

(04/06/09) 26th Annual ������ Student Research Symposium
Clinton Packman was selected to present his paper, ‘Clearing the confusion on consciousness: a study of the knowledge argument and its implication’, at the 21st Annual Student Research Symposium. Clinton took home second place in the Humanities and Letters category.

(05/15/08) Phi Beta Kappa
Jonathan Dixon is an inductee into Phi Beta Kappa, Member in Course, and is graduating summa cum laude.

(04/15/08) Masters Admission, Virginia Tech
Congrats to undergraduate honors student Jonathan Dixon, who has accepted an offer to begin graduate study at one of the nation’s top-tier MA programs, Virginia Tech. Good luck, Jonathan.

UPDATE: After the MA Virginia Tech, Jonathan earned the PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in SP21. In addition to having several new publications out in Ratio, Synthese, and Dialectica, he has taken up a position as Visiting Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University. Congrats!

(04/15/08) Admission, Pepperdine Law School
Philosophy major Josiah Parker will begin the JD program at Pepperdine’s Law School this fall. (Josiah is now an associate attorney at .)

(03/15/08) Law School Admission, Chapman University
Philosophy major Stephane Quinn is graduating cum laude and headed to Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law to pursue his JD next fall. (Stephane is now a founding partner at .)

(04/15/07) Law School Admission, University of California Davis
After finishing his Honors thesis and graduating cum laude, Philosophy major Errol Dauis will be headed to UC Davis School of Law to pursue his JD next fall.

(04/06/07) Best Thesis Award
MA student Amanda Trefethen has won the College of Liberal Art’s award for Best Master’s Thesis in AY06–07. Amanda’s thesis, entitled ‘‘, is a study of the interpretation of human rights law. Congratulations on this well-deserved award, Amanda.

(04/01/04) Summer Internship with NEH
Out of more than 200 applicants nationwide, Chhunny Chhean was selected for a 10-week summer internship with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The Internship Program introduces promising students to the programs, policies and operations of the federal agency charged with promoting scholarship, education and public programming in the Humanities in the United States. Interns were selected based on their interest in and commitment to the Humanities, and the conception, clarity, and execution of writing samples, two of which were submitted for the application process. Each intern receives a $4,000 stipend.