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The Department of Philosophy and Religion encourages students to integrate their academic work with experiences beyond campus. Here you will find student reflections on their department supported research projects, international coops, conference visits, and other co-curricular experiential learning activities.

Kaleem Ahmid

November 22-24, 2019

In the Fall semester of 2019, The Northeastern University Ethics Bowl team competed in the Northeast Regional Ethics Bowl, held at Salisbury University in Maryland between the 22nd and 24th of November. This was a milestone competition for the team – it was the last time that long-time members Kaleem Ahmid and Jacob Sheehan would be eligible to compete, marking the beginning of a new era of leadership for the team entering its 5th year of existence. The team also carried a weight of expectation into the competition, having expressed their desire to make a leap forward results-wise, by utilizing the experience that they have accumulated over the past couple of years.

The team, consisting of Kaleem Ahmid (captain), Jacob Sheehan, Chinonye Okoli, and Rishika Lakshman, led by Prof. Katy Shorey and Prof. Benjamine Yelle, exceeded their own expectations, and set a high bar to be bettered in the future.  In the first three rounds, answering questions such as “Is it permissible to have children?”, “Should public urination be a crime?”, and “Is the use of geofencing technology by law enforcement permissible?”.  The Northeastern University team defeated St. Francis College, UMBC Maryland, and Salisbury University, ending the first round as the highest-ranked team.

In the quarterfinals, we faced-off against Rochester University. Facing questions such as “Should mothers face manslaughter charges following a miscarriage?” and “Should sites like Craigslist be allowed to advertise sexual solicitations?”, the Northeastern team achieved the highest score in their history (144/150), including a perfect 50/50 from one judge. However, the team was defeated by an incredibly highly-scored Rochester team by just one point!

Overall, the team and the coaches were very proud of their performances, as well as their growing stature as a regularly-competing team in the regional ethics bowl, which was demonstrated by the number of past opponents and familiar coaches and students who were willing to exchange pleasantries and support for the Northeastern team as they reached the quarterfinal stage.  We look forward to building upon this fantastic showing by the team, under the continued mentorship of Professors Shorey and Yelle, and our newly elected captain, Chinonye Okoli.

Kaleem Ahmid

November 21, 2019

During the Fall semester of 2019, the Northeastern University Ethics Bowl team was privileged to host a local Boston-area Ethics Bowl competition, featuring some of the area’s newest collegiate teams. The Northeastern team reached out to teams from Boston College and Harvard University, both of whom agreed to compete. These teams have been connected ever, with the mutually beneficial goal of creating and maintaining a friendly, collaborative collegiate ethics community among schools in the greater Boston area. The competition was organized with the assistance of the Northeastern team’s coaches, Professors Benjamin Yelle and Katy Shorey, and the team’s captain, MPH student Kaleem Ahmid. Beyond the team members themselves, many additional Northeastern students attended the competition, served as judges, and provided constructive feedback to teams. The competition took place on a Friday evening in Renaissance Park, after inter-team socializing around many shared pizzas, and served as a valuable experience-builder in competitive ethical debate for all teams involved. In particular, the Northeastern team found the exercise to be central to their preparation for the National Ethics Bowl competition in Maryland, which they attended later during the semester. Although each team benefited from exposure to an Ethics Bowl style debate, this competition also served as a symbol of the inter-collegiate community that we strive to create. We hope that this partnership and collaboration will continue far into the future, and as a result the region will grow to be a leader in the field. As for the next steps in continuing to grow and strengthen this community, the Northeastern team hopes to host another local Boston scrimmage debate competition during the Spring semester; we hope to see you and your friends there! We take great pride in the fact that newly formed teams feel comfortable working with us, and we are excited to see what the future for Boston-area collegiate Ethics Bowl teams holds.

Isaac Shur

April 6-7, 2019


On the tail-end of my co-op in the department of philosophy and religion, I got to travel to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia to present a (mostly) finalized version of my paper, “Justifying Prison Breaks As Civil Disobedience.” Having previously presented earlier versions in Canada and Poland, this presentation was not nearly as nerve racking. This was also the first conference I’d been to that was specifically for undergraduate research, and it was particularly interesting to see what people my age are doing in philosophy departments all around the country. There was no particular theme, which lead to a vast multiplicity of topics. One of the presenters, Sarah Katherine Thomas, spoke about searching for a definition of information privacy, which tied back to much of our study in the AI & Data Ethics working group here at Northeastern.

The keynote speaker, Chris Tweedt, spoke about problems of evil, death, and suffering, and why these concerns don’t give as many reasons for atheism as one might think. Arguing about the existence of higher powers is always tricky, and Professor Tweedt made of the best cases for greater faith in theism that I’ve ever heard. Conferences are always a great opportunity to learn new things and test your own beliefs, and I can certainly say that my beliefs were tested at this one. Ultimately though, I found myself arriving at a more agnostic conclusion.

I had expected this conference to be pretty similar to previous ones, I share my paper and other people share theirs, we all talk about it, etc. What I didn’t expect was receiving a prize for my paper, which was voted the runner up for best paper at the conference. Academic philosophy is a tough, and often competitive field, (people usually tell me to just not pursue it to begin with) so it was nice to know people found my work worthwhile.

Isaac Shur

February 14-16, 2019


Recently I had an amazing opportunity to travel all the way to Krakow, Poland, to present my research at Jagiellonian University’s annual conference “The Culture of Exclusion.” The theme of the conference was “The Politics of Exclusion,” which was perfect for the work I’ve been doing for my co-op in the department of Philosophy and Religion. My work explores the intersection of civil disobedience and mass incarceration. Although this was the second time I was able to share this research at a conference, it was the first time I had travelled so far internationally, which presented its own set of challenges and new experiences.

Krakow is a gorgeous and historic city, and my great-grandparents were actually from a small village just outside of its limits. It was a great chance to reconnect to my own roots, and exploring the area ended up being just as valuable as the conference itself. I got to see St. Mary’s Tower, Wawel Royal Castle, and Schindler’s Factory among many other sights. This was certainly a culture shock for me, since nothing in America is more than a couple hundred years old, whereas Krakow’s architecture dates back to the middle ages, including the oldest parts of Jagiellonian University.

The conference itself gave me the chance to learn about many new areas of philosophy and political theory that aren’t necessarily as popular and widespread throughout American higher education, such as political applications of the concept of resentment. In feedback and conversation with the other attendees, I was urged to turn my attention to more continental approaches to my research by drawing on theorists like Michel Foucault and Frantz Fanon. I had a bit of experience with this work from classes here at Northeastern, but I got to discuss it in much greater detail with the people I met at the conference. In fact, one of the best parts of the event was making friends with the other attendees, learning about each other’s respective cultures, and just talking about philosophy. When I try to talk to my friends back home about philosophy, they usually just get annoyed, so it was a refreshing change of pace to have some casual conversations with other philosophy students. At times I struggled to keep up with their level of knowledge and breadth of study, but I managed to understand most of what was being said

The journey was long, but the experience was more than worth it. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, how different Poland would be from home and in what ways. Everything was a discovery and an adventure, and I’m so glad the trip and the conference went the way it did.

Isaac Shur

February 9-10, 2019


This semester I had the opportunity to travel to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario to speak at their annual conference, “Imagining Otherwise.” I shared the research I have been working on for my co-op in the department of Philosophy and Religion, which explores the intersection of civil disobedience and mass incarceration. This was the first philosophy conference I had ever attended, so in addition to receiving feedback on my work I was hoping to learn more about conferences in general.

As it turns out, this conference was supposed to be for graduate students rather than undergraduates, but the organizers liked my abstract enough to make an exception. On the one hand, this was so exciting because I got to experience an event that wouldn’t normally be open to undergraduates; but on the other hand, I was very nervous about how my work would compare to the other presenters and whether I would be able understand their projects. Although I did struggle to keep up with a lot of what was shared, overall I learned so much from each presentation, as well as just socializing with the other attendees. Particularly what struck me was the intersectional nature of it all. Of course there were plenty of philosophers there, but also people mainly trained in other disciplines like English, critical studies, international relations, political science, and art history. Yet everyone’s work seemed to overlap and connect with each other. This allowed me to explore new areas of research into things like American Pragmatism, critical race studies, and continental philosophy while also expanding my own areas of research by learning more about the prison abolition movement.

People from all over Canada and U.S. attended the event, so I got to meet graduate students and professors with a diverse range of backgrounds. I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to the conference’s keynote speaker, Lisa Guenther, about mass incarceration and prison resistance. Her research often deals with prisons, particularly solitary confinement, so it was amazing to discuss her work, as it influences my own in many ways. Overall, I can certainly say that the experience was all I could have hoped!

Kaleem Ahmid

December 1-2, 2018


This semester, the Northeastern Ethics Bowl team was once again fortunate to have the opportunity to compete in the Northeast Regional Collegiate Ethics bowl, held on the now familiar and beautiful campus of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY.  We were glad to welcome back several veteran debaters into the fold, as well as six first-timers, as this was the first time that Northeastern entered two teams to compete at the regional level.  This year’s cases included some fascinating and challenging topics, including the legitimacy of trans-racialism, whether Amish midwifery should be punished, whether expletives should be allowed on all TV shows, and whether felons should be able to vote.

What was clear from the first team meeting early this semester to the last pre-competition cram in a hole-in-the-wall pizzeria in Waterbury, CT, was the great team chemistry and determination shared by this group of students. This fantastic team spirit resulted in some of the best individual and team performances that we have achieved thus far in our brief history. We recorded out first ever win in this format, which was followed in quick succession by two more wins, including a victory by unanimous decision against the formidable host team. Ultimately, however, we missed progressing to the semi-finals by a point-differential tiebreaker. Still, we left New York high in high spirits, buoyed by our fantastic performance, and we are looking forward to participating in our second National Bioethics Bowl, in Mobile, AL, in the spring. We would like to thank Professor Yelle, Professor Shorey, and the Philosophy and Religion Department for their continued support and commitment to this endeavor.

Kaleem Ahmid, ’21
NEU Ethics Bowl Team Captain

Miranda Viskatis

Spring 2018


During my Spring 2018 Co-op, I was a Visiting Researcher at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) in Munich, Germany. My research explored the intersection between Gödel’s First Incompleteness Theorem and computational theories of mind in contemporary philosophy. I attended Graduate-level courses taught by leaders in both of the fields, and was able to discuss their research – and my own – with them, frequently. I worked closely with Assistant Professor Lavinia Picollo who taught a course on Gödel, and specializes in philosophy of math and logic, to refine my research methods and goals. To further complement my research, I attended multiple conferences and presentations by guest speakers at the MCMP where I was able to make valuable connections with philosophers from all over the world. Finally, I became a member of the Feminism+ Analytic Philosophy Reading Group and led discussions that were attended by both Masters’ and Doctoral students at the MCMP.

My Co-op at the MCMP was an indispensable experience that opened my eyes to the career that awaits me in Philosophy beyond Northeastern. The faculty and students were incredible to work alongside; they taught me how to navigate through academia and provided me with new tools for thinking about Philosophy in general. I highly recommend this position to anyone considering pursuing Analytic Philosophy at a Graduate-level; if I could do this Co-op again, I would.

Amar Fernald

April 19-21, 2018


A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of traveling to Greencastle, Indiana, to attend the 11 Annual Undergraduate Ethics Symposium at the Prindle Institute for Ethics. DePauw University. The Ethics Symposium occurs annually and was established when the Prindle Institute first opened in 2007 with the goal of fostering thoughtful inquiry into the most pressing ethical concerns of our time. The theme of this year’s conference was “representing disability”. There were 28 students and 3 keynote speakers in attendance – hailing from schools and organizations across the United States and Canada. On the first night, we heard from James Emmett – the owner and CEO of a disability inclusion consulting firm – on “Moving Disability Inclusion from Charity to Business Imperative”.
Most of the Symposium’s activities occurred on the second day with the remaining two keynote speeches and the paper workshops. The paper workshops were held in two sessions, morning and afternoon, and were led by the keynote speakers and a visiting scholar at DePauw. My group consisted of seven students, and was led by Kevin Timpe – a professor of philosophy at Calvin College and president of a non-profit advocacy group for children with disabilities. The only requirement for submitted papers was that they were focused on an ethical issue, and thus not all of the papers examined in my group were related to the theme of representing disability. The workshops were very well structured, however, with each student presenting the work of another, and then posing a discussion question to the author and the rest of the group. The discussions were fruitful and challenging, covering diverse and crucial issues such as: the individual’s responsibility to protect the environment; the clause of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that exempts religious organizations; the representation of people with HIV/AIDs in the media; and the rights of Muslim women to choose whether or not to wear the hijab.
The paper that I submitted focused on the ethics of plural marriage (most often thought of as polygamy) and fostered a rich discussion about what qualifies as informed consent, which flowed nicely into our conversation about wearing the hijab. I wrote my paper in preparation for an in-class debate on the same topic in Prof. Delmas’ Social and Political Philosophy class in the fall, and submitted it to the Symposium after receiving an e-mail from our philosophy department encouraging students to submit their papers. It was very rewarding to have my paper accepted into the Symposium, and my experience there was even better. I gained a new perspective on many important ethical issues from the paper workshops and keynote speeches; learned about McTaggart’s theory of time and other philosophical arguments from my discussions with the other students; enjoyed spending time in the beautiful nature park that surrounds the Prindle Institute; and forged strong connections with students from across the continent. All in all, it was a fantastic experience that has reinforced my drive to pursue philosophy in an academic setting.

Kaleem Ahmid

April 14-15, 2018


Hi my name is Kaleem Ahmid. I am a second year health sciences and philosophy double-major, and one of the members of this year’s Bioethics Bowl team that made the long journey to Mobil, Alabama, to compete at this year’s annual National College BioEthics Bowl. This year’s competition was a notable improvement on our last one: we exited the ‘Bowl’ with a .500 record, which is a significant increase in wins compared to our last year’s competition. As our coach would attest, our overall team performance, strength of argument, and professionalism during rounds were unbelievable.

On that note, I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the rest of my colleagues to thank both Prof. Yelle and Prof. Shorey for their commitment to this project, and sharing their valuable time and expertise with us every week.

At the end of the competition, our 6 members: Sophia Broberg, Julia Crooijmans, Rachel Ghaw, Jamie Spingled, Samantha Hirshland and myself have argued 8 cases, covering controversial topics such as mandated contraception for mentally impaired teenagers, transgender participation in sports, and several cases revolving around doctor-patient confidentiality, to name a few. While on assignment in Mobil, we were also lucky enough to experience two local festivals happening over the weekend when we were there – a southern music festival and a nighttime market, both located in the New Orleans-esque downtown area of the city that I think we all came to enjoy very much. The weather was warm, Prof. Yelle was semi-paternalistic and responsible, and we obviously ate a lot of very good food.

Our team has come a long way since our first competition, both technically and socially, and we are looking forward to making the next step in effort and performance in upcoming competitions. I would like to encourage anyone reading this who is curious about what we do or how to get involved to email Prof. Yelle at b.yelle@northeastern.edu for information about tryouts for Fall 2018, or any further information.

Max Leonov

Spring 2018


My experience at the SUNY Oneonta 23rd Annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference was wonderful all around. It was well organized and the staff were very welcoming. The conference covered a wide variety of subjects from metaphysical to epistemological to ethical topics, such as my own. I learned much about the various subjects discussed and I hope to use that knowledge in my course work at Northeastern. Keynote speaker, Dr. Raymond Belliotti, was also very interesting. He spoke on the idea of love and sex in Plato’s dialogues.
The goal of my presentation was to explore the value theory between nature (i.e. other living organisms) and human beings, predicated on the ideas of active potential and a valuable future, in relation to rationality. I established that the active potential of rational human beings is more valuable than other living organisms including non-rational human beings. Second, I established that a valuable future is not predicated on rationality, but it is instead predicated on the idea of preforming natural function. From this I derived that both human beings and any other living organism preforming natural function can be considered equally valuable based on the valuable future consideration, regardless of rationality. I also derived that based on the active potential consideration, human beings would be considered more valuable than other living organisms.
After my presentation there was a 20 minute Q&A and I fielded some very challenging questions and critiques from the session attendees. One audience member suggested that my argument was a proponent of ‘natural slavery’, while others asked more tame questions with respect to the actual implications of my idea. All the questions helped me further my understanding of the topic and it gave me much to ponder.
Attending the conference encouraged me to continue writing and it has already sparked a few new ideas for exploration! I hope that the Philosophy department will continue to support students in these endeavors as they are not only vital to self-development, but they are also a great opportunity to represent Northeastern and the great work that we do.

Isabella Carlsson

Fall 2017


In the fall of 2017, I was on co-op at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh under the supervision of Prof. Branden Fitelson (Northeastern) and Prof. Adam Bjorndahl (CMU). The contacts I made at a CMU summer school helped me arrange my co-op and my position as a Center for Formal Epistemology visiting scholar. The opportunity was, however, only possible because of the support provided by Northeastern University’s Department of Philosophy and Religion as well as CMU’s Philosophy Department.

CMU is known for being very formal. I learned firsthand that philosophy professors are not necessarily people who have a traditional background in philosophy. One of the professors who set up my co-op received his Ph.D. in mathematics, while another worked in statistics for his doctorate. Faculty in the philosophy department at CMU analyzes philosophical problems with tools not typically associated with philosophy – an area in which is they take great pride.

My typical week consisted of going to classes, doing independent research, and meeting one-on-one with professors. The classes I chose to audit were Hume, Formal Methods I, Formal Methods II, and Incommensurability: Ethics, and Philosophy of Science. The formal methods classes were helpful, because they taught me the basics of decision theory and exposed me to formal notation that I had not seen before in my undergraduate coursework. The incommensurability class was the most interesting to me; it related similar issues within two typically unrelated subfields of philosophy and attempted to solve the issues with formal frameworks.

Meetings usually helped me the most and led me to the next steps in my research. Working on several projects was stressful at times, but proved to be a very valuable experience.  It taught me that the life of an academic is not easy, but it can be very rewarding. I ended up presenting one of my projects, “The Problem of Unconceived Alternatives within a Bayesian Framework”, at the Northern New England Philosophical Association’s Annual Meeting halfway through the co-op. I am very grateful for the opportunities that were made possible by the support of the philosophy departments at Northeastern and at CMU.

Kaleem Ahmid

November 11, 2017


I was part of the Northeastern Ethics Debate team in the Fall semester of 2017.  On the weekend of November 10th, Professor Yelle drove our team, consisting of 10 undergrad students, to Poughkeepsie, NY, to participate in the Northeast Regional Ethics Bowl held at Marist College. It was a raucously good time  – definitely a highlight in my year!

Since this was the first year that Northeastern University attended this competition, the team entered the competition with an open mind-set, unsure of what to expect. We were eager to learn more about the ins-and-outs of the Ethics Bowl, in the hopes that we would be better prepared to be competitive in the future.

In preparation for the competition, our two teams of five students each met once a week for a couple of hours over great food, supplied by the Philosophy department, to discuss the ten cases that were to be argued by all participating colleges at the Ethics Bowl.  All of the cases were controversial in one way or another, and the first few discussions were certainly too heated for competition.

When we arrived at Marist College on the frigid morning of November 11th, we were briefed on how the competition would work –Northeastern University would debate against three different colleges, arguing two cases against other teams. If we scored high enough after those first rounds, we would make the ‘playoff rounds’. Our first opponent was Yale Univesity, which was quite the task for our debut appearance as a team, but we debated superbly. Eventually the panel of three independent judges decided that Yale University was the winner, but we lost by only two points (144 to 142)! The cases against Yale University involved the Dakota Access Pipeline and Fake News censorship.  In the latter rounds the judging was slightly less favorable with our teams arguably getting unjustly beaten by Sacred Heart University and Seton Hall University. Our debaters prepared great arguments on the ethics of ‘quarantining citizens’, Trump’s proposed ‘Muslim Ban’, ‘whether or not can be persons’, and the Goldwater ruling.  Although we had a 0-3 record after the initial rounds but a high accumulative score, we narrowly missed out on the 8th placed-position. We would not argue any further cases at this year’s Ethics Bowl.

The enduring memories of this experience are absolutely not ones of defeat or disappointment. Our team, including Prof. Yelle, all agreed that we performed admirably, remaining competitive at all times and never letting our inexperience show, even against seasoned debate teams. We took away valuable lessons and skills to use in future competitions and that experience could only be learned by diving in ‘head-first’. We met students from other universities and their debate teams, some of whom are still in touch with members of the NEU team and who we look forward to debating again in the future.

Participation in the Ethics Bowl and other debate meetings is a crucial part of what makes our Philosophy Department great – it provides our philosophy students the opportunity to exchange ideas from outside our usual academic space, meet new and interesting people with similar interests from NEU and other colleges, and challenges us to think practically in an open-minded way about arguments that are 100% too sensitive in normal conversation.

I am very excited to be part of the next Northeastern University Ethics Bowl team, which may be competing in the BioEthics Bowl taking place in Alabama in April 2018. I would strongly encourage those interested to come to try-outs during the Spring semester.

Isabella Carlsson

November 3-4, 2017


A few weeks ago, I presented one of my papers at the 2017 Northern New England Philosophical Association (NNEPA) conference. I originally wrote this paper on the problem of unconceived alternatives for a directed study on the philosophy of science with Professor Rory Smead. Inspired by one of the readings he had assigned, I explored scientific antirealism further and set out to determine whether such a view could be formalized under Bayesian conditionalization. My research led me to believe that the two schools of thought are incompatible. Presenting on this topic to a large audience allowed me to improve my work and consider other possible ways to further explore this topic.

Two other philosophy majors and good friends of mine, Aja Watkins and Devin Lane, also presented at this conference. Aja’s talk considered “Behavioral Limitations to School Choice”, and Devin’s discussed the “Taxonomy of Moral Autonomy”. I was happy to learn about their philosophical interests and where their research has brought them. The conference was, however, not limited to undergraduate presentations. Some graduate students presented their Masters or Ph.D. level work. A few professors discussed their current work. Lauren Ashwell’s talk called “Slurs and Groups” was particularly interesting. The talk itself was quite fascinating, and I could tell she had prepared a lot in advance. What struck me the most, however, was the professor’s composure during the Q&A session. She respected everyone’s questions and remarks despite the insensitivity that tinged some of them. Although I’ve often presented on topics that I care about deeply, I can only imagine what it must be like to give a presentation that is so deeply connected to everyone else in the room as well. Seeing Lauren Ashwell present on such an emotionally charged issue taught me that with enough preparation and respect any presentation can be a success.

There were a great variety of topics at the NNEPA conference, so I had the great opportunity of learning about things I haven’t encountered in the classroom. Presenting at the NNEPA was a wonderful experience overall. It gave me the opportunity to meet students and professors in philosophy from other institutions with similar interests while giving me the chance to get feedback on my own work.

Aja Watkins

November 3-4, 2017


I presented recently in the undergraduate portion of the Northern New England Philosophical Association (NNEPA) annual conference. My paper, “Behavioral Limitations of School Choice,” presented an interdisciplinary critique of school choice policies using relevant evidence from cognitive psychology. Whether or not to adopt school choice policies is an important application of concepts from the philosophy of education, to which balancing the authority of the state with the authority of parents is crucial. This was a very interdisciplinary project, and so I was originally uncertain how a primarily philosophy-oriented audience would receive it, but it ultimately went well. I am continuing this research into the current semester, as an Honors Interdisciplinary Thesis project. Two other Northeastern students participated as well.

After the undergraduate session, which was on Friday morning, we spent the rest of Friday and all day Saturday in sessions presented by graduate students and philosophy faculty at schools in the New England area. Topics ranged widely, from topics in logic to philosophy of language to metaethics. I was actually surprised by how well prepared I was by my Northeastern coursework to follow and mostly understand the content of the talks. Some of my favorite talks were an analysis of gendered slurs; an expansion of deontic logic to address concepts such as “the least you could do”; and an argument in favor of “if know P then you know that you know P” based on some undesirable consequences of the principle’s rejection. The keynote speech by Stephen Darwall was about the nature of moral reasons, and it was followed the next day by a plenary session of presentations concerning Darwall’s theory of the second-person perspective. I particularly enjoyed presentations on topics that tangentially related to my coursework at Northeastern, but that expanded upon the material or further developed it in a new direction.

Overall, it was a great experience for my first philosophy conference, a good culmination of my undergraduate coursework as I prepare to graduate. It was very enjoyable to meet other students working on similar or different topics, and I was exposed to many new ideas.

Devin Lane

October 20-21, 2017


What was the conference you attended?
I attended the 12th annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, which coincidentally is the institution where Professor Sandler taught before coming to Northeastern University.

What was the topic of the paper you presented?
The paper I presented was entitled “A Taxonomy of Moral Autonomy: Logical, Epistemological, and Metaphysical.” The paper presents three interpretations of the thesis that morality is autonomous from other disciplines or domains of inquiry. The first claims that one can never construct a valid argument that has all non-moral premises and a moral conclusion. The second claims that non-moral theses are irrelevant to the justification of fundamental moral principles. The third claims that no moral fact is grounded or explained solely by non-moral facts. The paper demonstrates some problems that come with each of these interpretations and ultimately concludes with the modest claim that we should maintain some doubt about the autonomy of morality.

What challenges came up while presenting?
The main challenge that came with presenting this paper was being able to clearly articulate each of the three theses. In a sense, they all say the same thing, just in different ways. So highlighting what made them distinct was difficult. They are also relatively complex, so presenting them succinctly added to the challenge. I found myself repeating a bit in my presentation, but I think that it was helpful for the audience; it helped them see which points I really wanted to emphasize. Nonetheless, this presentation showed me that going forward I need to focus on being able to clearly and succinctly present these topics without relying too much on repetition. Facing these challenges helped me better understand some of the nuances of the topic, and gave me a lot to consider with respect to revisions for the paper.

What were some other topics presented at the conference?
There was an amazingly wide range of topics presented at the conference. One student presented a paper on the criteria of personhood for artificial intelligence. Another defended logical pluralism, the view that there are multiple ‘correct’ logics. Other topics included Kant’s view of nature, the possibility of Marxist-feminist analysis, and a Heideggerian interpretation of Plato’s cave. All of the topics were incredibly interesting, and all of the presenters did a great job. It was an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating experience. I was introduced to a number of topics I had not considered before, and I was pushed to think more carefully on a number of topics that interest me.

In particular, there was one presentation on free will from which I learned a lot. The presenter argued that the libertarian view of free will can only be ruled out if we accept a certain theory of causation, which he then argued against. Some of the metaphysics was a bit over my head, but it got me thinking about different theories of causation. Causation is a topic that I haven’t studied much, but I’m definitely interested in learning more as a result of that presentation! This presentation also led to some discussion between myself, the presenter, and some professors in the audience about the phenomenology of free will – i.e. what it is like to experience free will. We ultimately got into a debate whether the feeling of free will counts as evidence of free will. It was a great conversation, and now I have a lot of new questions to consider about free will! I gained a lot of new ideas and interests from just this one presentation.

The keynote address was given by Professor Philip Kitcher from Columbia University, who has contributed greatly to the philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, and the philosophy of biology. His talk was on the topic of “the human project” – essentially a pragmatist approach to the good life. Professor Kitcher’s talk was really interesting, and he provided great feedback to all of the presenters.

How does this experience relate to your academic/career goals?
I am currently in the process of applying to graduate school, with the hopes of pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy. This experience was beneficial for me and my future career goals in a few ways. First, it is nice to talk about in my statement of purpose for my application. It may help my chances, if only a little bit! But, more importantly, it was great exposure to learn some of the responsibilities of a professional academic philosopher. Conferences are an important part of the job, and this experience gave me a taste of that aspect. It also provided me with an opportunity to get some solid feedback on this paper. The discussion that followed my presentation gave me some great new ideas, which will definitely be helpful if I decide to turn this into a bigger project.

Any last comments?

I want to give a big thank you to the Philosophy Department for supporting me in this endeavor!

The idea for the paper was a result of a reading group in which I participated this past summer. I want to give a special thanks to Professors John Basl, Branden Fitelson, and Ben Yelle, as well as Aja Watkins, Dan O’Leary, Trent White, and Sammy Hirshland who all participated in the reading group and contributed to the great discussion that led to this paper. The paper would not exist, and I never would have gone to this conference, if it were not for them!

Samantha Hirshland

May 7, 2016


After my first philosophy class in fall 2015, Moral and Social Problems in Healthcare, my professor encouraged me to submit an abstract of my final paper, which was about practical harms of so-called “disability-positive” positions in psychiatry, to a graduate conference at the University of Essex in Colchester, England. Since it was my first semester, I was barely aware of what an abstract was, let alone how to write one. I spent most of my winter break learning about what to include in an abstract and eventually submitted it in early January. About a month later, the conference organizers had notified me that my abstract had been selected as one of eight, out of fifty applicants. My professor suggested I practice the talk I would give at the conference by guest lecturing in another section of the class I had written the paper for. I also got feedback on a draft of my speech from my Business and Professional Speaking classmates and Professor.
I went into the experience without many expectations, since at that point; I did not know students who had done anything similar. My main purpose in attending was to learn more about what academic philosophy was like at the graduate level. The other participants were all masters and Ph.D. students in Philosophy, and many of them exposed me to new ideas that were useful when I went back to revise my paper when I returned to Boston.
Going to a conference so early in my college career was good preparation for writing long papers and participating in upper-level seminars. I am still using concepts that I’m learning in my current classes to refine my position on the topic. I am now able to understand what it’s like to work on a long-term academic project. I’m excited to see many other students in the department attending similar conferences.

Here is a link to the program and abstract from the conference: https://www1.essex.ac.uk/philosophy/documents/madness-disorder-society-programme.pdf