Recent News

First Anna Julia Cooper Fellowship: January 24 - 31, 2010

Kris Fauna Camille Sealey, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University, will be the first Anna Julia Cooper Fellow at Penn State University. The Rock Ethics Institute offers the Anna Julia Cooper Fellowship to Assistant Professors of Philosophy from under-represented groups. The Fellowship gives them an opportunity to present their work in a research environment, to be mentored on publishing toward receiving tenure, and in turn to mentor Penn State philosophy graduate students in preparation for the profession. Professor Sealey will visit Penn State from January 24-31, 2010, to work on a paper on Levinas and a book project on Sartre and Levinas.

Paul C. Taylor to Join Penn State

The Philosophy Department is delighted to announce that Paul C. Taylor will join its faculty in Fall 2010. Professor Taylor received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Morehouse College and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Rutgers University. He writes on aesthetics, race theory, Africana philosophy, pragmatism, and social philosophy, and is the author of the book Race: A Philosophical Introduction (Polity, 2004). His recent work includes a study of video model Vida Guerra, an essay on post-analytic race theory, and keynote lectures to the Philosophical Society of South Africa, the Alain Locke Society, and the Philosophy of Education Society. He is currently at work on a book called Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics (under contract, Blackwell).

Philosophy Department Welcomes New Faculty

The philosophy department welcomes three new faculty members in fall 2009.

Professor Christian Becker joins the philosophy faculty as Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Science, Technology and Society. He took his Ph.D. in economics from Heidelberg University and wrote his second Ph.D.-thesis (Habilitation) in philosophy at Kaiserslautern University, Germany. His primary research and teaching interests lie in environmental and sustainability ethics, business ethics, philosophy of economics, philosophy of sustainability research, particularly with a focus on ecological economics, and in continental philosophy, especially romanticism and German idealism. For more on Professor Becker’s research, click here.

Professor Robert Bernasconi joins the philosophy faculty this fall as Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy. His primary research and teaching interests lie in critical philosophy of race, particularly in relation to the history of philosophy, and Continental philosophy, especially figures such as Sartre, Levinas, and Heidegger. For more on Professor Bernasconi’s research, click here.

Professor Kathryn Gines, who was a 2008-09 Penn State Philosophy and Africana Research Center Post-doctorate Fellow, joins the philosophy faculty as Assistant Professor in Philosophy this fall. Professor Gines’s primary research and teaching interests lie in continental philosophy, Africana philosophy, and philosophy of race and gender. For more on Professor Gines’ research, click here.

Gines to Participate in UNESCO Meeting


Professor Kathryn Gines has been invited to participate in the First Assembly of the International Network of Women Philosophers sponsored by UNESCO. This historic meeting will be held December 14-15, 2009, in Paris, France. The International Network of Women Philosophers was launched in March 2007 with the purpose of assembling women philosophers to examine topics of philosophical and political importance, including but not restricted to issues of gender. For more on the network, please click here.

Grosholz Joins Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos

Emily Grosholz has been invited to join Penn State's Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC). The IGC is a multidisciplinary institute of Penn State researchers dedicated to the study of the most fundamental structure and constituents of the universe. As a member of the institute's faculty, Professor Grosholz will work in the Center for Fundamental Theory. For more information on the IGC, please click here.

Long Produces Philosophy Podcast

As part of his Teaching and Learning with Technology Faculty Fellowship, Christopher Long developed the Digital Dialogue podcast this summer. The podcast is designed to cultivate the excellences of dialogue in a digital age by inviting scholars at Penn State and other universities to engage in dialogue about their work in philosophy, history, politics, and deliberative democracy. The podcast was featured in an article on PSU Live, Penn State's official news wire.

To read more about the podcast, visit Professor Long's blog: Socratic Politics in Digital Dialogue.

Graduate Program Admission Deadline: January 4, 2010


The deadline for applications for graduate admission to Penn State’s Philosophy Department for students beginning their studies in fall 2010 is January 4, 2010. For more on the department’s graduate program, including its dual PhD in Philosophy and Women’s Studies and its partnership program with the University of Freiburg (Germany), please visit the Graduate section of our website. For specifics concerning the application process, see Admissions Information.

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