Department of Philosophy

Research and Active Learning

Project Spotlight

  • David Sodi '10, paper accepted at the Philosophy and Popular Culture Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at Endicott College on February 7, 2009, "Sports for Art's Sake."
  • David Sodi '10, presented at The 12th Annual Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference in Forest Grove, Oregon on April 19, 2008, "The Concept of Ambivalence in Existentialism As Depicted in Dostoyevsky."
  • Christina Danko '09,  presented at the New England Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at Providence College on April 19, 2008, "Why is "Truth is Subjectivity" True for Kierkegaard?"
  • George Charles Allen '08, presented at the Southeast Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at Clayton State University on February 16, 2008, "In Defense of the Circular and Contradictory Nature of Descartes' Meditations and an Exegesis of the Mind-Body Problem."

Previous undergraduates who have engaged in research and internships:

  • Gwladys Ngo Tedga, double major in philosophy and government, spent the summer of 2005 conducting research at the Ethics Institute of South Africa in Pretoria.
  • Abigail Rollings researched an 1980 California Supreme Court case involving injuries from a cancer-causing drug.
  • Zachary Galen set out to explore the link between the philosophy of aesthetics and jazz improvisation.
  • Read more about students' work.

Selected senior honors thesis titles:

  • Sara Koehring, Adherence to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV Positive Individuals:  Biological and Ethical Considerations.

  • Zachary Galen, Nietzsche and the crisis of modern art.
  • Jonathan Messinger, Wittgenstein and the crisis of language.
  • Andrew Magnusson, Nietzsche and the return to naturalism.
  • Timothy Nulty, Personal identity: overcoming the Cartesian-Empiricist tradition.
  • Jacqueline Sullivan, A new theory of man: the philosophical ideas of Walker Percy.
  • Jeffrey Bernstein, Foucault's critique of modernity and the project of a therapeutic ethics.

2008 Academic Spree Day posters:

  • Carleen Copper '09 & Justin Villet '09, The Insanity Defense
  • Fasha Onorato '08 & Angela Romeo '08, Paternalism and "John F. Kennedy v. Heston.
  • Tara Hewitson '09, "Grutter v Bolinger" and Affirmative Action:  What does it mean for us students today?

2006 Academic Spree Day posters:

  • Bridget Millman '08, Victim Impact Statements and Capital Punishment: Payne v. Tennessee
  • Irena Kaci '06, Paternalism and Religious Belief:  Kennedy Hospital v. Heston
  • Emma Gabriele '08, The Problem of Consent in Rape Cases:  State v. Rusk

Read about the research of some of our faculty: