MacKenzie completes 5-year term as Department Chair
After a five-year stint that included a global pandemic, ensuing budget cuts, a turbulent political environment, and widespread administrative turnover at CSU, Matt MacKenzie is happily turning over the reins of the department after finishing his term as chair.
Many members of the department agree that MacKenzie led us through these trying times with steady, capable, and forward-thinking leadership—some even claiming that he was “the best chair [they] have ever had.” Among his accomplishments were increasing the professionalization and transparency of department operations, completing four faculty searches, championing intellectual diversity and academic freedom, securing significant salary increases in multiple faculty ranks, and transforming the department into a more pleasant and welcoming place to work and learn—or, as Jeff Kasser explains “bringing order to chaos.” The department extends much gratitude to MacKenzie for the impressive job he’s done.
Kenneth Shockley officially began his term as the next chair on July 1. Katie McShane sums up the department’s anticipation for our next chapter, “We’re excited to have Ken take over as Chair. He has already proved himself to be an excellent colleague within the department, and we look forward to the department’s continued growth and improvement under his leadership.” Best wishes, Ken!
Visiting Scholars
This year, the department hosted a robust selection of public talks and academic workshops. In October, Erin McKenna (University of Oregon) gave the Bernie Rollin Memorial Lecture in Animal Ethics with a pragmatist eco-feminist approach to human-animal relationships. We also welcomed Marion Hourdequin (Colorado College) in November for our second annual Distinguished Lecture in Environmental Ethics for her presentation on Confucian perspectives on intergenerational ethics and sustainability.
In March we hosted the Bodaken Philosophy Symposium with a panel discussion, “Divided Democracy: Polarization, Hate Speech, and the Future of America,” with two guests—Robert Talisse (Vanderbilt University) and Seana Shiffrin (UCLA). Talisse and Shiffrin also shared their current research during informal sessions with department faculty and graduate students.
Professor Collin Rice, along with CSU biology and chemistry colleagues, organized an interdisciplinary science communication workshop that took place in April. The workshop brought together visiting scholars in philosophy, history, science communication, chemistry, and environmental science and policy to discuss different aspects of science communication. The workshop culminated with a keynote address by Naomi Oreskes (Harvard University) on the problems of market fundamentalism for motivating climate action.
We also welcomed friends of the department and regional colleagues for presentations on their latest research, including Matt Slater (Bucknell University) on trust in science, retired CSU professor Phil Turetsky on teaching logic and critical thinking, Bob Pasnau (CU Boulder) on theories of self-control, Lisa Miracchi Titus (University of Denver) on ChatGPT and human-like understanding, and CSU philosophy alumna Kate Schmidt (MSU Denver) on the problematic nature of toxic positivity.
Student News
The Ethics Bowl team took part in the APPE National Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl competition in Cincinnati, Ohio in February. In four rounds of competition, the CSU team went up against last year’s runner-up (Tufts University), a perennial powerhouse and three-time national champion and semi-finalist this year (Whitworth University), the University of Florida, and one of the two finalists for this year (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). Needless to say, the competition rounds were quite tough.
Very proud coach Eric Easley shares that, though the team did not qualify for the quarterfinals, they did manage to go 1-3 (having beat Whitworth) with all three of those losses being close. Easley is proud to say that “all the competition was good (as expected at nationals) and the team stayed positive, friendly, focused, and delivered some excellent arguments and commentary.” This was the team’s second-ever bid to the national competition and their second straight Spirit Award, again showing their hard work, positivity, collegiality, and competitive spirit.
This year Ben Law’s life has “felt like it was shot off an aircraft carrier catapult,” but he’s not complaining. Starting in January of this year, he and his longtime partner Caroline got engaged in Cuenca, Ecuador, and plan to get married next year at the Maroon Bells. This May, Ben successfully defended his thesis, “A Sophisticated Logic of Enhancement,” which worked to reconcile the tensions between human enhancement, the philosophy of medicine, and the philosophy of disability. After walking in CSU’s Spring commencement ceremony, Ben has moved to Houston, Texas to be with his fiancée as she finishes medical school. He is thrilled to be starting work as an AP/Pre-AP English teacher at Westside High School later this year, where, of course, he is excited to continue to refine his Freirean pedagogy.
Graduate student Joseph Schook is completing a paper for an anime-focused issue of Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image. In the essay, Joseph demonstrates how modern anime can blend cultural motifs, characters, and myths with new ideas and foreign cultures. Through an analysis of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), he uses Nishitani Keiji’s notion of embodied knowledge and argues that anime (and film in general) can cultivate embodied knowledge that relates to modern problems like environmentalism and nuclear war.
Staff News
Our Academic Success Coordinator Neely Santeramo welcomed her first child, Marigold, this April. Congrats to the proud parents, Neely and Landon! We’re happy to have Neely back on campus this fall.
Alumni News
An interview with Gabriella (Ella) LaRose (MA 2021), currently a graduate student at the University of Arizona, was featured in the popular philosophy blog, The Daily Nous. Ella discusses the aims and benefits of doing philosophy, the intersection of philosophy of language and aesthetics, and her commitment to syllabus diversity.
Aram Sahakyan (BA 2020) has finished his second year of law school at George Mason University. This summer he worked as an associate at a large local firm in northern Virginia, Odin, Feldman, & Pittleman. He focused on his favorite area of law, commercial real estate, and was exposed to other practice groups as well.
Faculty News
Rod Adams presented a paper at the 17th annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress this August in Boulder. The paper is titled “Three Logic Errors in A.J. Ayer’s Presentation of Emotivism: A Refutation of the Theory.” This was Rod’s first conference presentation.
Andre Archie had a productive year. In addition to the publication of his book, The Virtue of Color-Blindness, he gave a talk to the Program on Constitutional Government in the Department of Government at Harvard on the Ancient Greeks, Character, and Race. He was also featured on Princeton’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions podcast, Madison’s Notes.
Ashby Butnor published “Fusion Philosophy and Epistemic Injustice” in the Journal of Chinese Philosophy this spring. She served on several committees throughout the year, including the steering committee of the College’s Committee for Equity Advocacy, acting as co-chair of the pedagogy working group, and as co-chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Executive Board. This past spring, she joined a TILT Community of Practice to develop a new course on reproductive justice that she hopes to pilot next fall.
This year, Paul DiRado gave a talk about some of the ethical implications of Generative AI technologies like ChatGPT at the CSU 2024 Business Day. He was also involved in several groups advising the University about Generative AI related questions in academia and was part of a panel at TILT’s Summer Conference about Generative AI’s impact on pedagogy in the humanities. Paul’s original research was included in the recently released book “Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy: A Critical Guide,” and will be included in the soon-to-be-published book “Inquiring into Being: Essays on Parmenides.”
Eric Easley developed PHIL 310: Writing and Reasoning, a course designed to help our undergraduate majors and minors build their skills in philosophical writing. The course debuted in the fall and he looks forward to offering it again this year. Eric continued to coach the Ethics Bowl team, who earned their second-ever bid to the national competition along with their second-straight Spirit Award.
In the fall, Moti Gorin taught a new graduate seminar in the philosophy of medicine, an area in which he is also conducting some new research. In the spring, he presented a work-in-progress on the clinical significance of regret at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, which reminded him that traffic in Fort Collins isn’t actually that bad. Moti’s paper, “What is the Aim of Pediatric ‘Gender Affirming’ Care?” was published by The Hastings Center Report in their May/June issue.
Moti is starting to maybe begin possibly thinking about perhaps writing a book on the nature and aims of medicine. After the semester ended Moti drove from Colorado to Maine with his son, their dog, and their cat, and they met up with his wife and daughter, who opted for a flight instead of a road trip. FYI just because a motel says on their website that they are “pet friendly” does not mean they will accept pet cats, and you may have to drive another two hours out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, at midnight, to find non-discriminatory accommodation.
Eirik Harris is very happy to report that his first two MA students here at CSU – Jackson Smith and Vanessa Stahel—both successfully defended excellent theses this past year! Their hard work and dedication is much appreciated! Over the past year Eirik was invited to give a series of talks on Leadership Ethics in the early Chinese tradition at the University of Richmond and visit Colorado College to talk about virtue and law in the Confucian tradition. He is also working on a collaborative project on “Theorizing Vice: Global Perspectives” that included a talk at the Pacific APA on “Confucian Vice.” His book chapter on “Normativity of War and Peace: Thoughts from the Han Feizi appeared this past spring in Routledge’s Warfare Ethics in Comparative Perspective and chapters on “Morality vs. Impartial Standards in the Shenzi Fragments” and “Human Motivations in the fa Traditions” will soon appear in the Dao Companion to China’s fa Traditions and his discussion of “Early Chinese Political Realists: From Shen Buhai to Han Fei” is forthcoming in Bloomsbury’s Chinese Philosophy and its Thinkers.
Eirik and his wife Thai began their summer exploring Canada’s amazing national parks – from Banff and Jasper to Kootenay, Yoho and Glacier and ended the summer with the culinary delights of Saigon.
This year, Alyson Huff’s research focused on her ‘alternative grading’ approach to assessing learning. She presented two days at a summer conference through The Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT) guiding faculty on some of these methods and the data behind the theories. She is co-authoring a manuscript on this topic and is excited about sharing this good work. Alyson earned an Inclusive Pedagogy award from TILT and a certificate of recognition for her contributions to student success and well-being from the NRHH. This summer she plans to spend time camping with her family.
The newest thing about Jeff Kasser is his right knee, which got replaced over the winter break. He then limped through a successful spring semester featuring a graduate seminar on his main men Peirce and James. This allowed Jeff to return to his roots as a textual scholar of early pragmatism (even though he thinks that neither he nor anyone else knows what pragmatism is). He looks forward to committing a lot of philosophy on his upcoming sabbatical, starting with a talk at the Midwest Epistemology Workshop at CU Boulder. Yes, one would expect epistemologists to realize that Boulder is not in the Midwest.
Matt MacKenzie spent the last year focusing on administrative work and is happy to have completed his 5-year term as department chair in July. In fall 2023 he taught a new graduate seminar on bodies, minds, and worlds, drawing on work in Indian Buddhist philosophy, pragmatism, and cognitive science. In spring 2024 he published “Minimal Subjectivity and Reflexive Awareness” in Journal of Consciousness Studies. He is working on a paper on intentionality as well as his second book, Consciousness in Indian Philosophy, and an edited volume, Thinking without Borders, both with Bloomsbury Academic. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with his family, paddle boarding, getting beat up in jujitsu and karate, and seeing live music.
Cheri Noblitt has enjoyed teaching more courses for CSU this past academic year. She developed and taught online versions of PHIL 172 (Religions of the East) and PHIL 103 (Moral and Social Problems) with an inclusive pedagogy focus on presentation and content. This was inspired by her participation in a Best Practices in Teaching (BPit) offering through TILT in the fall semester. Cheri also spent the year settling into her new home with her family, traveling to Arizona over spring break, and welcoming an apparently patriotic member of the family (baby Lily) on the 4th of July!
Collin Rice just had an article accepted for publication in Biology and Philosophy titled “Beyond Reduction and Emergence: A Framework for Tailoring Multiscale Modeling Techniques to Specific Contexts”. He also published a chapter titled “Which Possibilities Improve Understanding?” in an edited volume and gave talks at the University of Stockholm, UCLA, and the Pacific APA in Portland.
While teaching courses on the role of idealized models and values in policymaking and on feminist philosophy of science, Collin organized an “Interdisciplinary Science Communication” workshop that brought in several external speakers from Biology, Science Communication and Philosophy. This summer he’s been working on two papers on the value of misunderstanding and the role of humanities in improving science communication. Besides academic things, Collin went camping and hiking in the Redwoods for a week and is taking his daughter to Yellowstone for the first time. He also played some shows around Fort Collins with his band The Spectrum They.
Domenica Romagni won the Beaney Prize this year in recognition of her contribution to broadening the philosophical canon with her article “’Of the Octave the Relation 2:1’”: How an Exemplary Case of Formal Causation Turned Against the Neo-Aristotelians.” Domenica also published “’To Measure by a Known Measure’: Kepler’s Geometrical Epistemology in the Harmonices Mundi Libri V” HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science and “Music and Modality” the edited volume Modality: A History. Domenica presented a number of papers on Kepler and Descartes this year at Johns Hopkins, Princeton University, and the 15th Biennial Congress of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science in Vienna Austria.
With her partner Morgan, Domenica did some recording for their friends’ Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves’ new album in Princeton this summer. She also visited family in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain in July.
Kenneth Shockley spent much of the academic year finishing a series of papers on vulnerability and environmental harm and pushing a book project, Being Vulnerable, toward publication, while plugging away at an older project on the use of narrative to bridge the justifications we share and the reasons that move us to act. He gave several talks, including a keynote address at the inaugural meetings of the Southern Africa Society for Environmental Ethics, invited talks at the University of Durham and the University of Malawi, a (sadly, remote) talk at the annual Human Development and Capabilities Association in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a talk at the Rocky Mountain Ethics conference in Boulder. Ken’s published work this year include a paper on different forms of vulnerability in environmental policy, another on the relation between respect and the epistemic advantage of multiple points of view, a chapter on Hope, and a coauthored white paper on the future of CSU’s Mountain Campus.
He is very excited about ongoing collaborative projects on the role of agency in public policy deliberation, on the role of culture in attitudes toward wildlife, and on the prospects for successful human-carnivore coexistence. Ken continues to develop and promote the Mountain Campus Program in the Environmental Humanities. In addition, he has enjoyed working with three CSU-based research collaborations: the Global Wildlife Values Project, the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence, and the Climate Adaptation Partnership.
Most recently he accepted the position of department chair, which has occupied a good deal of his summer.