Message from the Chair

It is with great joy and excitement that I write this message as Chair of the Department of Philosophy; a Department with a bright past, which is determined to have an even brighter future.

Our recently established new tracks complement our traditional Philosophy major.  The two new tracks are: Philosophy, Medicine and Well-Being and Philosophy, Law and Society.  We are also thrilled to share with you our new Honors Program in Philosophy.  

This year we have 5 new graduate students who will join a cohort of over 30 Ph.D. students. By offering competitive packages, and with an entirely redesigned first year, we aim to enhance the quality of our graduate students’ experience.

Thanks to a new placement policy, we are striving to make that experience as effective and successful as possible.  We are excited to announce our new Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow - Em Hernandez - and two new Mellon Fellows, who will teach in Philosophy and in Humanities Core. 

In the meanwhile, we continue to administer and develop our Philosophy major and two highly successful minors in Medical Humanities and in Humanities and Law as well as the Medical Humanities Emphasis. We also continue to participate in the M.A. in Philosophy Political Science and Economics.

The academic year, which has just started, will see the Department engaged in groundbreaking research. Our collaboration with the recently established Research Center in Knowledge, Technology and Society will continue to bring philosophy in conversation with multiple disciplines. The new UCI Social Unity Research Cluster has also launched. 

We have an impressive series of distinguished speakers at our Colloquia. We will have recurring and new series of seminars and workshops: the Medical Humanities Series, the Law, Reason and Value Talks, the Social and Applied Epistemology Series, the Scientia Workshop, the Joint Legal Philosophy Colloquium, the Melden Lectures, the California Phenomenology Circle and the meetings of the Southern California Epistemology Network and of the Southern California Metaphysics Network. 

We are also very proud of our undergrads, who are going to represent UCI at Ethics Bowl. ZOT! ZOT! Thanks to their engagement, we will have a lively Philosophy Club, whose journal - Falsafa - has now entered its fourth year.  

We are striving to grow and our efforts will no doubt be even more effective thanks to the help of our Alumni  – no matter how big or small your donation is, it will make a significant difference.

Sincerely,

Annalisa Coliva