In our April monthly digest, we’re very excited to share job news of some of our members. Tommaso Bruni accepted a position as a Research Associate in the Wellcome Trust funded project “Towards a Humanitarian Research Ethics” at King’s College London. Molly Kao accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Université de Montréal. Alida Liberman has accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Indianapolis. And finally, Andrew Peterson accepted a position as Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy in the Department of Philosophy at George Mason University. Please join us in extending our warmest congratulations to each of them for their success in a very challenging job market!
In addition to this wonderful news, Rotman members have announcements of talks and publications, both recent and forthcoming, as well as an impressive research trip. Listed below (in alphabetical order) are some of the many ways our members have been pursuing their research, and engaging in collaboration with other philosophers and scientists.
- Next month, Gillian Barker and Eric Desjardins will be presenting at the 3rd annual meeting of SrPOISE (The Consortium for Socially Relevant Philosophy of/in Science and Engineering), held May 19-22. They will take part in the session on Environment, Science and Values, presenting “The Geofunctions Project: Collaborative Research for Earth Systems Innovation”.
- Tim Bayne and Adrian Owen published an article in “Trends in Cognitive Science” this month titled, Are There Levels of Consciousness?.
- Yann Benétreau-Dupin gave a talk at the latest Eastern APA conference, held on January 6-9, titled “What role for self-locating beliefs in cosmology?“, with comments by Joel Pust.
- On January 28, Yann Benétreau-Dupin gave a talk at the Université de Montréal, titled “Biais anthropique et biais d’observation en cosmologie“.
- In late February, Yann Benétreau-Dupin took part in a panel discussion for a conference of the Boston Colloquium in Philosophy of Science, “How Can HPS Contribute to Science Literacy and Citizenship?“.
- Samantha Brennan presented a talk titled, ‘Eat Me, Drink Me: Philosophical Reflections on our Attitudes about Children and Food’ at the Food Ethics Workshop at the University of Vermont held on April 15-16. (View the event poster.)
- On April 23rd, Samantha Brennan gave a talk titled, ‘The Exploitation of Children by Parents’ at the Exploitation: Politics, Philosophy, and Economics conference, co-sponsored by the Center for Ethics, Economics, and Public Policy and the Values Institute at the University of San Diego.
- On May 12th, Samantha Brennan will be presenting a talk titled, ‘Making Decisions for Children as if Childhood Mattered: Reflections on Medical Decision Making and the Goods of Childhood’ at the Austro-Canadian Medical Ethics Workshop, Man at the Heart of a Modern Medical Ethics: Challenges and Perspectives at the Universtity of Innsbruck.
- Louis Charland has been invited to join the editorial board of Emotion Review, and accepted. (Impact Factor:3.356 | Ranking: Psychology,Multidisciplinary 15 out of 129 | 5-Year Impact Factor:3.653 | 5-Year Ranking: Psychology, Multidisciplinary 17 out of 129). Louis is also on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, History of Psychiatry, Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology, and the Journal of Ethics and Mental Health. Please let Louis know if there is any way he can help you and if you have any ideas for special issues or submissions to any of these journals.
- On April 22-23, Eric Desjardins participated in the Putting History and Philosophy of Life Sciences to Work workshop, hosted by the Arizona State University Center for Biology and Society.
- Cory Goldstein will give a talk titled, “The Ethics of Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trials in Comparative Effectiveness Research” at the Society for Clinical Trials (SCT) 37th Annual Meeting in Montreal, on May 15-18.
- Melissa Jacquart received a Faculty of Arts & Humanities Graduate Thesis Research Award to support a research trip to Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, and to the Carnegie Institution for Science in Pasadena, California. Melissa’s dissertation examines philosophical issues related to the use of models and computer simulations in astrophysics. This trip provided her the opportunity to discuss her work with astrophysicists, and receive observational training on the 6.5m Baade Magellan Telescope.
- Rotman members Henrik Lagerlund, Anthony Skelton, and Benjamin Hill participated in The Foundations of Methodology in the History of Philosophy workshop, held on April 16 at the Trius Winery, hosted by the Bertrand Russell Research Centre at McMaster University.
- On May 22-24, Alida Liberman will be presenting a paper at the St. Louis Annual Conference on Reasons and Rationality; the paper is called “On the Rationality of Vow Making.”
- Alida Liberman won a Faculty Essay Prize for the upcoming Canadian Philosophical Association conference. Her paper, “Understanding Vows”, will appear on the main programme as a plenary session, and will be accompanied by commentaries from two senior members of the CPA with expertise in the paper’s subject area.
- Stefan Köhler co-authored a paper titled, “Knowing by heart: Visceral feedback shapes recognition memory judgments“, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. The lead author of the study, Chris Fiacconi, is a postdoctoral fellow in Köhler’s lab at the Brain and Mind Institute. The study was featured in an article in Medical News Today, “Cardiac contractions and feelings of familiarity linked“.
- Stathis Psillos delivered a series of three lectures, titled ‘Induction: The History of a Philosophical Problem’, at the University of Cyprus, on April 6-8.
- Emma Ryman won a Student Essay Prize from the Canadian Philosophical Association for her paper entitled, “Fiduciary Duties to Future Persons”.
- On May 26, Mary Stephensen will present her paper, “Are organ donors really dead, or just dead enough? Reassessing the Dead-Donor-Rule” to the 27th Annual Canadian Bioethics Society (CBS) Conference. Co-authors on the paper are Andrew Peterson and Charles Weijer.
- Mary Stephensen will present at the CPA Annual Congress 2016, held in Calgary on May 30. Her paper is titled, “Balancing the Harms of Sex Selection: A Case for Adoption”.
- During this month, Chris Viger gave talks at the McGill University Department of Philosophy, and at The University at Buffalo SUNY. The second talk was delivered as part of the Spring 2016 Colloquia at the Center for Cognitive Science, and was titled, “From Neural Architecture to Cognition”.
Pictured above: Las Campanas Observatory in Chile (photo courtesy of Melissa Jacquart)
