Volume 8: Spring 2023
This virtual conference, which is supported by Washington and Lee University's Roger Mudd Center for Ethics, is the only open undergraduate conference in the country solely dedicated to the academic study of ethical issues. All accepted speakers will not only have the opportunity to present their papers at the conference, but also to have them published in the The Mudd Journal of Ethics.
The keynote speaker for the 2023 Mudd Center Undergraduate Ethics Conference will be C. Thi Nguyen, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. His lecture will take place on Saturday, March 4, 2023 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Lecture title: "Hostile Epistemology"
"We are limited beings who don't have enough time and energy to understand everything. We have to take risky shortcuts, and that leaves us vulnerable to exploitation. How can a hostile environment exploit our cognitive vulnerabilities?"
Professor Nguyen is interested in how social structures and technology shape what we care about and how we think and behave. He writes about a range of topics related to epistemology, aesthetics, and philosophy of games. He is particularly interested in how our rationality and agency is influenced by designed social structures such as games, echo chambers, and bureaucracies.
Professor Nguyen is a prolific scholar with a voice in public philosophy. His recent book entitled Games: Agency as Art explores games as an art form that shapes different forms of agency. It won the American Philosophical Associations 2021 Book Prize. Recent papers in epistemology include, among others, Transparency is Surveillance, How Twitter Gamifies Communication, and Trust as an Unquestioning Attitude (which earned the Honorable Mention in the 2019 Marc Sanders Prize in Epistemology). More information about Professor Nguyen's work, as well as article links, are available at objectionable.net.
Conference Schedule
Saturday, March 4, 2023
| Time | Presenter | Title |
|
12:30-12:40 pm |
Introductions |
|
|
12:40-1:00 pm |
Esther Ma, UCLA ('23) |
"From the Moral Legitimacy of the State to the Moral Legitimacy of Promising" |
| 1:00-1:20 pm | Response (JC Ward, W&L) and Discussion | |
| 1:20-1:30 pm | Break | |
| 1:30-1:50 pm | Dylan Santella, W&L ('25) | "Gender and the Face: Expanding upon the Butlerian Model of Ethics" |
| 1:50-2:10 pm | Response (Sydney Smith, W&L) and Discussion | |
| 2:10-2:20 pm | Break | |
| 2:20-2:40 pm | Marina Sidlow, New College of Florida ('23) | "The Non-Account of Gender Identity" |
| 2:40-3:00 pm | Response (Margaret Thompson, W&L) and Discussion | |
| 3:00-3:10 pm | Break | |
| 3:10-4:10 pm | Keynote: Professor C. Thi Nguyen | "Hostile Epistemology" |
| 4:10 pm | Closing Remarks |
Catherine Fullarton
Catherine Fullarton is a Faculty Fellow in the Foundation Year Program at the University of King’s College, in Halifax, NS (Canada), and a Doctoral Candidate (ABD) in Philosophy at Emory University (Atlanta, USA). Her current research engages Aristotle’s ethics, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, and feminist care ethics to propose a model of empathy as a form of ethical expertise. She is the Partnerships and Community Relations Officer of the Canadian Bioethics Society / Société canadienne de bioétique (CBS/SCB).
Rowan Bell
Minorities in Philosophy (MAP) PhD Panel
Rowan Bell is a PhD candidate in philosophy at Syracuse University. They work at the intersection of metaethics, feminist metaphysics, and trans philosophy. In short, they seek to understand how systems of oppressive power shape the gender norms and other social norms that guide our behavior. When they're not doing philosophy, they are likely to be found rock climbing, doing fiber arts, or playing with their cat.
Sumeet Patwardhan
Minorities in Philosophy (MAP) PhD Panel
Sumeet Patwardhan is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Michigan, where they are writing their dissertation, "Sex, Blame, and Consent", under the supervision of Ishani Maitra. They work primarily in ethics, moral psychology, feminist philosophy, and social epistemology, and have additional research interests in Indian social and political philosophy.
Corbin Covington
Minorities in Philosophy (MAP) PhD Panel
Corbin is a second year PhD student in Philosophy and Andrew Mellon Critical Theory Fellow at Northwestern University with interests in contemporary black studies, philosophy of race and racism, and aesthetics. He is a native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and a recent graduate of Howard University in Washington, DC. At Northwestern, Corbin also serves as the Co-Director of Academic Support at the Prison Education Program and an active member of the climate committee. In his commitment to diversifying the discipline, he has spent the past two years as curriculum developer for the Philosophy of Law summer program hosted by Cornell University.