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Philosophy Grad wins Beer Honour
June 27, 2024 Norman De Bono, London Free Press
For most teens, those first few beers are usually little more than an introduction to a party.
For Londoner Jennifer Tamse, it was an introduction to a lifelong passion and a career that has culminated in being named an honorary beer knight, an honour bestowed from the prestigious Confederation of Belgium Brewers.
Tamse, 36, was honoured at a recent beer festival in Montreal where the Belgium brewers bestowed upon her the knighthood. Annually, a select group from around the globe are recognized for promoting the beers of Belgium, being inducted into the Knighthood of the Brewers’ Paddle, otherwise known as the Belgian Brewers’ Guild.
“It was a tremendous honour to be recognized,” she said. “They presented me with an honorary certificate and a beautiful medal and I had to swear to the knighthood that I am one of them and will continue to educate everyone globally about Belgian beer.”
Tamse was at Western University studying philosophy and her passion for beer came in handy when she took a part-time job at the old APK Live bar downtown that has since closed. Read the full story here.
Remembering Kathleen Okruhlik
June 7, 2024
We are deeply saddened by the death of Kathleen Okruhlik. She suffered a stroke in early May and then passed away on June 6.
A long-time, devoted member of our department, Kathleen was also Dean of Arts (which became Arts and Humanities during her tenure) from 1999 to 2008. And she was a founding member of the Women’s Studies and Feminist Research program at Western, what is now the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies.
To all those who knew her, she was a friend, a colleague, a mentor, an ally, a person of principle and conviction, and a tireless advocate for our department, our Faculty, and our university.
Her family has indicated that there will be no funeral or memorial service; however, we would welcome your reminiscences for a memorial page.
With sympathies for all who share in this loss.
Congratulations to Rosie Smith, winner of the 2023-24 Chair's Essay Prize in Philosophy
June 10, 2024
Congratulations to Rosie Smith, winner of the 2023-24 Chair's Essay Prize in Philosophy for her essay, “Arendt’s Caution: Rethinking the Western Ideology on Global Gender Justice”. The paper was written for Professor Helen Fielding's Continental Philosophy course, Philosophy 3555G. Congratulations on this achievement Rosie!
Congratulations to Jasmine Kordbacheh, winner of the 2023-24 Robert A. Parker Book Prize
April 19, 2024
We are pleased to announce that Jasmine Kordbacheh is this year’s Robert A. Parker Book Prize winner.
The criteria for this award states: Student must be in Year 2 or higher of a four-year degree program with an Honors Specialization, Specialization, or Major in Philosophy who demonstrates academic achievement (minimum 80% academic average) and an interest in or pursuit of a career in business or commerce.
Value: One book and $250 award
Jasmine demonstrates academic excellence while pursuing her dual degrees with the Ivey Business School and Philosophy.
She accredits success within her business internship positions due to her Philosophy courses, where she developed skills in critical thinking, reasoning and argumentation.
Congratulations Jasmine!
Carolyn McLeod Named Distinguished University Professor
Three renowned Western faculty members have been named Distinguished University Professors in recognition of their leadership, research excellence and community service. Established in 2005, The Distinguished University Professor Award recognizes sustained excellence in scholarship over a substantial career at Western. Scholarship is broadly defined to include research, teaching and service to the community.
Read more about this year's recipients and their work via Western News.
Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) Undergraduate Conference 2024
Date: Friday, March 22, 2024
Location: Stevenson Hall, Room 1140/1145
Time: 2:00 - 5:30pm
Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) aims to examine and address issues of minority participation in academic philosophy. Though primarily led by graduate students, MAP also relies on faculty support and encourages undergraduate participation. This conference serves as an opportunity to showcase the excellent work being done by undergraduate students here at Western.
Ethics Bowl
On Feb. 3, 2024, Western Philosophy hosted a regional high school Ethics Bowl in which 6 high school teams competed. The event was a big success thanks to our on-site organizers, Chris Viger and Elisa Kilbourne, our many other volunteers, and of course the students who participated and showed off their debating skills. The winning team was Assumption Socrates’s Smarties. Congratulations to them!
PHD Student Success
Congratulations to our PhD students, Hershy Jaiprakash and Amy MacKinnon, and former postdocs Sarah Arnaud and Jacob Neal, for the publication of their article, “Valuing patient perspectives in the context of eating disorders” in the journal, Eating and Weight Disorders—Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia, and Obesity. Check it out here!
Job news
In job news, Jaclyn Rekis has secured a position as a postdoctoral researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under David Enoch, as part of his 'Liberalism Rekindled' project. She starts Feb. 1st, 2024.
On behalf of the department, congratulations and all the very best for the postdoc, Jaclyn!
Time to Attach
November 29, 2023
On November 29th, Prof. Carolyn McLeod spoke as a witness before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) in its analysis of Bill C-318: An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Labour Code (adoptive and intended parents).
Prof. McLeod was the lead author of a report called “Time to Attach: An Argument in Favour of EI Attachment Benefits,” which she wrote along with Prof. Lorraine Davies and eight graduate students, mostly from Philosophy and including two of our current students, Emily Cichocki and Jaclyn Rekis.
The report was written for Ontario’s Adoptive Parents Association (now Ontario’s Association for kin, customary care, and adoptive parents and caregivers) and the Adoption Council of Canada (now the Child and Youth Permanency Council of Canada). It formed the foundation of a multi-year advocacy campaign by these organizations, which was finally successful this fall in convincing the federal government to add additional leave benefits for adoptive parents (see its Fall Economic Statement 2023, pp. 42-43).
An update: Western News reported on the success of McLeod’s research team on Dec. 13, 2023 (here) and this article was featured in Inside Western on Dec. 22, 2023 (here).
Global Undergraduate Awards Winners in Philosophy
Sept 14, 2023
A BIG congratulations to Nathalie DiBerardino, who was the Global Winner in the Philosophy category for the Global Undergrad Awards! Excellent work Nathalie.
We are also very proud of Kseniya Dybatch, whose paper that won our Chair’s Essay Prize last year was “highly commended” for the GUA. Fantastic Kseniya.
We’re lucky to have great students in Philosophy at Western!
Passing of Cate Hundleby
Aug 29, 2023
The department was very saddened to learn of the death of Cate Hundleby, who completed her PhD in Philosophy with us under the supervision of Kathleen Okruhlik. Cate was a tireless contributor to the feminist philosophy community in Canada and beyond, and she published important work in feminist epistemology and the philosophy of argumentation. She will be deeply missed, especially by former colleagues of hers who are or were feminist philosophers at Western: Kathleen, Samantha Brennan, Helen Fielding, Tracy Isaacs, and Carolyn McLeod. See
https://dailynous.com/2023/08/28/catherine-hundleby-1968-2023/.
Philosophy Student Letter Published in the New York Times
Current Western University Philosophy student Nathalie DiBerardino's letter "The Right is All Wrong About Masculinity" has recently been published in "Letter to the Editor" with The New York Times! Nathalie will be joining our graduate program this autumn.
Angela Armitt Gold Medal Recipient
May 31, 2023
Congratulations to Steve Russell, BA Honours Philosophy, for winning the Angela Armitt Gold Medal for the highest graduation GPA among part-time students from all programs at Western University this June 2023!
Congratulations to Kseniya Dybatch, winner of the 2022-23 Chair's Essay Prize in Philosophy
May 2, 2023
Congratulations to Kseniya Dybatch, winner of the 2022-23 Chair's Essay Prize in Philosophy for her essay, “Female-Presenting Bodies, Spatiality, and the Role of Internet Ideologies.”. The paper was written for Professor Helen Fielding's course. Congratulations on this achievement Kseniya!
SSHRC Success
26 April, 2023
Carolyn McLeod's SSHRC Insight grant application, “Institutional Distrust and Injustice,” was recently successful and so was a SSHRC Connections grant from Chris Smeenk, “Foundations of Quantum Field Theory.” Congratulations to both!
3M Thesis Event
Apr 20, 2023
The 2023 3M Thesis Event was very successful! Thanks to Jackie for organizing the talks and to Elisa, Meghan, and Sarah for getting everything ready behind the scenes. And thanks to the presenters for sharing your thesis projects with us. Our hope is that in the future, all PhD students will summarize their thesis in 3 minutes for this event.
Tenure-track Hire
Apr 6, 2023
The department is thrilled to announce that it has hired Jasmine Gunkel (https://www.jasminegunkel.com) into a probationary tenure-track position. Jasmine is just completing her PhD now at the University of Southern California. She will join us at Western after doing a prestigious postdoc in bioethics at the NIH (National Institutes of Health).
MAP Conference
Apr 5, 2023
Western's Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) chapter held its annual Undergraduate Conference on March 24th. Our graduate students who are MAP representatives and who organized this conference were pleased to hold it in person for the first time in several years. Reflecting the commitments of MAP, the theme of the conference broadly focused on the philosophy of gender, race, sexuality, class, and disability.
Philosophy Outreach to Ontario and London High Schools (2022-23)
As part of our outreach efforts, we have done substantial engagement this academic year with philosophy high-school classes and students.
In November, we brought to Western’s campus students from Central Catholic High School for World Philosophy Day and treated them to talks by three of our faculty members—Tracy Isaacs, Dennis Klimchuk, and Chris Smeenk. Our high-school liaison, Ben Hill, MCed this event.
Then in March, four of our faculty members—Mike Anderson, Robert DiSalle, Rob Stainton, and Chris Viger—travelled to Toronto to serve as judges at the Ontario High School Ethics Bowl (https://www.ontarioethicsbowl.com). They described this experience as “delightful” and the students as “amazingly smart and talented.” Thanks to Corey Dyck and Dean Michael Milde, our department is now a partner and official sponsor of the Ethics Bowl, which is a yearly event.
Also in March, our chair, Carolyn McLeod, and five of our graduate students—Jacob Fawez Abiad, Clair Baleshta, Owen Chevalier, Lindsay Hachey, and Mehmet Nuri Sagbilge—visited A. B. Lucas Secondary School to talk with philosophy students there about taking philosophy at university. This event was also wonderful and wonderfully supported by Lucas’s philosophy teacher, Julianna Beaudoin.
