News

$500k Gift to Philosophy Department at Buffalo

The family of the late William H. Baumer, a longtime philosopher at the University of Buffalo who died last June, has donated $500,000 to create the William H. Baumer Excellence Fund. The fund will support various initiatives in the Department of Philosophy, including “financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students, supporting graduate student travel an..

Students Object to Philosophy Prof’s Facebook Post About Gaza

Andrew Pessin, professor of philosophy at Connecticut College, is at the center of a controversy at Connecticut College regarding offensive speech for a Facebook post he wrote in August, 2014. In the post, reports Inside Higher Ed,

Pessin describes the situation in Gaza as one in which “a rabid pit bull is chained in a cage, regularly making mass efforts to escap..

From Ordinary Vandalism to the Philosophical (updated)

By now many of you have heard that Kant’s house was spray-painted with the words meaning something like “Kant is an idiot” (the BBC reports that it says “Kant’s a sucker”). The Moscow Times informs us that Kant’s home, in what was known as Prussia but is now Kalingrad, Russia, “is in ruins and has become a hot spot for drinking and debauchery among local youths.”

Dismissal of Undergrad’s Suit Against Northwestern Upheld

The February 2014 lawsuit filed by a Northwestern University undergraduate claiming that the university “didn’t respond adequately after she reported being sexually assaulted by philosophy Prof. Peter Ludlow,” dismissed in November, had its dismissal upheld this past Thursday in response to a motion by the undergraduate to reconsider the decision. The Daily Northwe..

Times Higher Ed University Rankings

Times Higher Education has released its 2015 “World Reputation Rankings” of universities. As its title suggests, this a reputational survey, so, subject to many of the same concerns and cautions that all such surveys raise. THE site says:

Some 10,507 senior scholars took part in this year’s invitation-only Academic Reputation Survey. They provided their time and ..

Ludlow’s Defamation Suit Dismissed

Judge John P. Callahan of the Cook County, Illinois Circuit Court has dismissed Peter Ludlow’s defamation lawsuit against a Northwestern University undergraduate who had accused him of sexual assault (previously; related material here). Ludlow’s lawsuit claimed that “the student knowingly made false statements to news media and Northwestern professors after rebuffe..

Jan Boxill Resigns

Jan Boxill has resigned from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, effective February 28th, 2015. Dr. Boxill, who had been implicated in an academic fraud scheme largely involving student athletes at the school, and whose appointment the university had initiated steps to terminate, had been a teaching professor in the department of philosophy, director of..

Freiburg Ditches “Heidegger” Chair (2 updates)

The University of Freiburg, the academic home of Günter Figal—who recently stepped down from the leadership of the Martin Heidegger Society in the wake of the publication of Heidegger’s Black Notebooks—has decided to convert the faculty chair long dedicated to the Heideggerian tradition to one dedicated to philosophy of language. It has also downgraded the line ..

Dan Kaufman’s Lawsuit Against CU-Boulder is Filed

After filing four notices of claim last August, Dan Kaufman has now officially filed his lawsuit against CU-Boulder, “alleging the school both discriminated and retaliated against him because he has a disability.”

From an article in the Daily Camera:

Kaufman alleges that by kicking him off campus and taking other actions against him, CU violated his rights und..

Update from Abbate on McAdams (updated)

Cheryl Abbate, the former Marquette University philosophy graduate student who had become the target of a smear campaign by associate professor of political science John McAdams, has responded to some of the claims being made in various articles since it was announced that Marquette is seeking to fire McAdams. She writes:

It should be noted that there are a numb..

Marquette Seeks to Fire McAdams

John McAdams, the Marquette University associate professor of political science who posted demonstrably false and damaging statements about philosophy graduate student Cheryl Abbate and her teaching on his blog (see here, here, and here), has been told that the university is starting the process to revoke his tenure and fire him.

The Dean of Marquette’s Klingler ..

Germany’s Heidegger Society Chair Resigns (updated)

Günter Figal (Freiburg) resigned his position this past Thursday as chair of the Martin Heidegger Society in the wake of the publication of Heidegger’s Black Notebooks (Schwarze Hefte), which many believe show that Heidegger’s antisemitism was more central to his thinking than previously thought. Figal, who had held the position since 2003, is reported to have said ..

Philosophers and Theorists on the Charlie Hebdo Attacks (updated)

Yesterday, twelve people were shot dead at the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine. It was reported that the gunmen shouted “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” and “God is Great” in Arabic (“Allahu Akbar”), and so the attack is believed to be the work of militant Islamists in response to offensive cartoons that appeared in the magazine.

New Philosophy of Science Association Officers

Sandra D. Mitchell (Pittsburgh HPS) has been elected President of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA). Professor Mitchell will serve a two-year term (from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2016) as Vice-President and President-Elect of the PSA, after which she will serve a two-year term (January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2018) as President of the Assoc..

Government Attempts to Interfere in Universities in Macedonia

Students and faculty in Macedonia have been protesting attempts by the government there to impose state-supervised exams for university graduates. Response to faculty involvement in the protests has been to propose a requirement that the government’s ministry of education approve the composition of thesis committees and be involved in thesis defenses.

Todd May (Cle..

UNC Trying to Fire Jan Boxill

The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is trying to fire philosopher Jan Boxill for her role in widespread academic fraud at UNC, according to an Associated Press report:

Steps to terminate University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill philosophy professor and former faculty leader Jeanette Boxill started on Oct. 22, the same day that a scathing report into..

Philosophers on Torture

The Report on the C.I.A.’s Use of Torture from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was released several days ago. As we have occasionally done in the past for other events, I would like to open a spot here at Daily Nous for comment on the report, for collecting links to commentary elsewhere from philosophers on this report, for suggestions of philosophical o..

Oregon Philosophy Faculty Removed from Courses (Updated)

“One by one, objecting faculty members are being removed as instructors of record for classes that they teach with graduate teaching fellows or classes taught by GTFs that the department supervises” reports The Register Guard. As Oregon University’s graduate student teaching fellows strike (previously) continues, the university’s administration is now engaging in a..

New Center for Ethics and Education

Harry Brighouse (Wisconsin) and Anthony Laden (University of Illinois, Chicago) are launching the Center for Ethics and Education, the chief aim of which is to bring philosophical thinking to bear on educational policies and practices. The Center will be funded by a $3.5 million grant from the Spencer Foundation. In an article at the University of Wisconsin website,..

University of Tehran Statement on Khatami

The University of Tehran has issued a statement on the plagiarism allegations against Mahmoud Khatami (reported earlier here and here). I have been provided with two translations of the statement. One is by someone who prefers to remain anonymous. It is reprinted below. The other is by Shirzad Peik Herfeh, assistant professor of philosophy at Imam Khomeini Internat..

Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Marquette (updated)

The Westboro Baptist Church, a bizarre anti-gay cult comprised largely of the extended family of its late founder, is planning to picket on the campus of Marquette University this Sunday (correction: next Monday) morning, citing Fox News’ misleading account of Marquette graduate student Cheryl Abbate’s handling of an undergraduate’s desire to discuss same-sex marri..

Colorado Won’t Allow Outside Observer at Barnett’s Hearing (updated)

A faculty group is concerned that David Barnett, the tenured University of Colorado philosophy professor fighting for his job will not be allowed to have an outside observer at his dismissal hearing next week.

Barnett and the Colorado conference of the American Association of University Professors sought to have one of the group’s members watch a closed-door facul..

Update on Khatami Plagiarism Case

University of Tehran philosophy professor Mahmoud Khatami, who has been accused of extensive plagiarism (including his Durham University PhD, several articles, and an allegedly ghost-written book about him) is on sabbatical in Canada and has not yet responded to inquiries about the charges, according to sources in Iran.

The story has been pursued in several Irani..

Philosophers Protest the Murder of 43 Students

Over a month has passed since the forced disappearance of the normalistas (student teachers) of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers College of Ayotzinapa, and still 43 remain missing.

On September 26, members of the Iguala municipal police and the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel ambushed the caravan of students as they traveled by bus within their home state of Gu..

How Many Police Shootings Are Too Many?

Let’s step back and be honest. This is a big country. Thousands of dangerous confrontations occur between police and civilians, decisions need to be made in a split second and under duress. Tragic mistakes will happen. And beyond innocent mistakes” we can surely foresee some “mistakes” that won’t be innocent. In investigating these cases we can, sadly, also predict ..

APA Protests UIUC Treatment of Salaita

The American Philosophical Association (APA) Board of Officers have written a letter in which they “protest the action of the Chancellor and Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in withdrawing the offer of a tenured position to Professor Steven Salaita.” The Board condemns the actions of these officials based on considerations of free ..

Possible Graduate Strike at Univ. of Oregon (Updated)

Graduate student teaching fellows at the University of Oregon have published a letter expressing their intent to strike, starting on December 2nd, over the university administration’s unwillingness to offer the graduate teaching fellows (GTFs) two weeks of paid leave for illness or childbirth. The conflict between the negotiating parties has been exacerbated by the ..

Financial Return on Humanities Degrees

Jeffrey Dorfman, an economics professor at the University of Georgia, has analyzed the value of undergraduate degrees in a variety of fields and reports some of the results in a column at Forbes. Conventional wisdom may hold that philosophy and other humanities fields are “destined to produce underemployed graduates, struggling to pay off their student loans, and pe..