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Philosophy Professor DeCew seeks solutions to resolve the conflict between the need for personal privacy and the increasing use of computers to store medical information. In her philosophy of law course, students like Abigail Rollings choose a legal case to research, analyze and present to the class. Other students are representing Clark at a local philosophy conference. |
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Meet the researchers: A great learning experience
Interview with Shawn Goodspeed and Ninos Hanna
Matthew Holmes '06 will be representing Clark at the Second Annual New England Undergraduate Conference on Philosophy to be held at Providence College in Providence, R.I. on Saturday, April 1, 2006. His presentation will be an exploration of Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean, in the context of morally inexcusable acts.
Clark was one of 13 colleges and universities from the New England area present at the inaugural conference in 2005. Professors Judith DeCew and Walter Wright sponsored three students whose work was selected by a panel of faculty and students for presentation at the first conference: Shawn Goodspeed '06, Ninos Hanna '06 and Ralf Nawfal '05*. In a recent conversation Shawn and Ninos discussed what it was like participating in the conference.
Shawn, I understand you're completing a double major in philosophy and psychology. How did you come to participate in the conference?
I found out about the conference from Professor DeCew, who announced it in a class I was taking with her.
What about you, Ninos?
I heard about the conference from both Professor Wright and Professor DeCew. At first I didn't feel confident enough about my own work to submit something, but one of my professors encouraged me to submit a particular essay that I had written in the Philosophy of Religion course. My paper was selected as a response to one that would be presented by a student from another college on the same subject.
What was the topic?
Christianity and the Darwinian challenge. The other student argued that Darwinian theory completely neglects theology and proves theology wrong. I gave a rebuttal that presented reasons why theology can still exist regardless of Darwinian theory. It was a pretty heated debate. We tried to keep it calm, but you could tell a lot of students got into our talk.
I remember Professor Overvold once saying that, at first glance, the topic of philosophy will teach you not to be religious and to discard religion all together. However, when you look further, you'll start to see the connection between religion and philosophy and science.
Shawn, what topic did you present?
I submitted an essay titled "Is Religion Beneficial to Humanity?" I'd written the first version for my Philosophy of Religion course and then revised it for the conference. There was a heated debate after I gave my presentation. The professor who moderated the session, while he agreed with me on many points, disagreed on others, so there were contrasting viewpoints. It was fun.
Providence College is a Catholic college, although I didn't know that until I got there and saw the Cross everywhere. I thought uh-oh. Even though my presentation took the position that religion is beneficial, I worried that there were some things that Christians might not like. But they were very welcoming. Nobody got angry. It was just a good discussion.
What are your thoughts about participating in a conference like this?
Shawn: I think for me it was a hugely great experience. I started with an essay that I had written for a class, but then I had to make it more personal, because I was going to have to talk about it. So I made it more personal and even more serious. If I were asked to resubmit that paper now, it would be completely different because of all the feedback I got about it. Participating in the conference also helped me further my argument skills. I'd never had to actually put myself out there like that, and have a group of people pick my ideas apart. It was a great learning experience.
Ninos: I look at it this way. There are two ways you can get through college. There's the way of just sitting in class, doing the bare minimum and getting your degree. Or there's getting involved in everything you can possibly get involved with. In high school you're guided a lot more, but here in college you have to take that initiative. It's part of being a college student. I'm very glad that I was able to get involved in this kind of conference and I think Clark has a great philosophy department. I had to give a lecture over the summer for something different, and I think I did well. Part of that was because I'd had this experience of speaking in public at the conference.
Shawn: You know, it's funny. I didn't do anything my first two years here, but I'm very involved now. There's a huge difference between how I see Clark and how some of my friends see Clark, because they don't do anything extracurricular, or any great research projects. Now that I'm involved, I love Clark, and I love representing Clark. I'll even cherish Clark when I leave.
I'm on the eboard for Clark's Philosophy Club, and one of the things that I want to make sure happens is that we have discussions, kind of like those at the conference, but on a smaller scale and not as serious. Then people can have a chance to explore their ideas before they submit them in a paper for a class.
Ninos, I know that like Shawn you're doing a double major, but for you it's in philosophy and government. I understand you're working on an independent research project for your government major this semester.
Yes. My research is focusing on nationalism of the Assyrian minority and ?? minority living in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. You don't hear a lot about the Assyrians or the Babylonians anymore, but we still exist, we're still out there. I hope my research will shed some light on that, as well as the problems we have within our own community and the reason we're not able to make ourselves known. I'm working with Professor Kristen Williams. She's phenomenal. She does a lot of work on nationalism.
Shawn, what is your research experience as an undergraduate?
I participated for a year on a research project in the psychology department and with the philosophy department I did two projects. Everywhere you turn there's research on campus.
* Ralf Nawfal's presentation was titled "Moses, Jesus, and the Superego: In Search of Monotheism?"
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