The Department of Philosophy returned to full-time in person teaching in the fall of 2021, and in 2022 we have slowly accustomed ourselves to the new reality: continued faculty concern about masking and social distancing while teaching students who are understandably sometimes eager to forget the pandemic. We returned to in-person conferences, and started welcoming colloquium speakers on campus again.

In 2022, we combined the Harris and Singer lectures to bring Jasbir Puar, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, to the department. Puar’s lecture, which had broad interdisciplinary appeal, was entitled “Homonationalism, Militarism, and the Waning of LGBTQ Rights,” and attracted an audience of faculty and students from multiple departments.

This November, Quill Kukla, Professor of Philosophy and Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, presented a paper entitled “Maps and the Epistemic Risks of Visual Representation.”

In spring 2023, we are very excited that Amia Srinivasan, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford University, will deliver the 2023 Singer lecture.

All of these speakers, and our newly appointed diversity & inclusion liaison to the College of Arts and Science’s Academic Diversity Officer’s committee (Emily Zakin) reflect the department’s commitment to the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and initiatives of the College and the University.

Elaine Miller
Professor and Chair
philosophy@MiamiOH.edu

Pascal Massie: Hello Kennedy, could you tell us a bit about you?

Kennedy Hughes: I am a double major in Philosophy and Political Science, and I am currently enrolled in the BA/MA program so I am finishing my Bachelor’s degree and starting a Master’s.

P.M.: I understand that you recently attended a workshop that focused on diversity and inclusion in philosophy. Can you tell us a bit more about it? 

K.H.: It is called Philosophy in an Inclusive Key (PIKSI) and was held at MIT in Boston for a week. It is a summer program designed to encourage undergraduates from underrepresented groups to consider future study in the field of philosophy. It had philosophical lectures from professors from the area and it also had workshop on how to apply to PhD programs, how academia looks like in terms of philosophy, how underrepresented students fare in philosophy. The general idea was to prepare us for the application process but also to create a cohort of other underrepresented identities in philosophy to have a kind of support group.

P.M.: What kind of problems do you think arise, specifically in philosophy, with respect to issues of diversity and identities?

K.H: As a philosophy student, I have observed that philosophy, among the humanities, tends to be dominated by white, cisgender, able-bodied men, and there is research to support that. There is a social component in the classroom that feels exclusive but also in the kind of texts that we read. There is a presumption of what it means to be a philosopher or a human being in general as being a white, middle-class man. The issues and concepts we focus on tend to be those of, in essence, dead white men. Philosophical texts written by women, people of color or queer people are emphasized only in classes that specifically focus on these issues, implying that their worth in the field is dictated by only working in the realm of their identities. There should be an acknowledgement that identity influences philosophizing, but it should not mean that you must only work on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion issues, or feminist philosophy or queer theory to be successful, or taken seriously.

P.M.: Yes, I see what you mean. As you know, I work primarily in Ancient Philosophy and as such, my options seem rather limited. I cannot reinvent the primary texts. They are what they are. Yet, it is possible to observe that the ancient conception of human nature privileges rationality as a defining trait (a faculty that is gendered), or that even apparently very abstracts terms of metaphysics such as substance, form, and matter are saturated with feminine and masculine connotations.

K.H.: Right!

P.M.: I’d like to ask you a personal question if I may. What do you think the department should do or do better to promote diversity and inclusion in our teaching, hiring, our relations with the students?

K.H.: One thing I have been talking with Dr. Pohlhaus is to create a Minorities and Philosophy chapter at Miami University to create a community of students with underrepresented identities. I think focusing on supporting those students is really important and not just by saying that “philosophy is hard;” everybody knows that philosophy is hard! The point is that there are differences among students that makes navigating philosophy and philosophical questions different for each student. I have experienced a lot of support from different professors in the department, and I identify this to be why I stayed in the major. The philosophy department has been one of the most receptive departments at Miami and being able to provide support to students with underrepresented identities is vital. Additionally, having faculty that have those identities. I want to know that this professor has experiences that are like mine. Finally, a big thing is diversifying the sources we study and expanding our view of what a philosopher is. 

It's great to hear from you and the philosophy department (which I miss dearly, of course!). Right now, I'm applying to graduate schools in both physics and (cognitive) psychology for a doctoral degree. This may seem like a bad idea, but I am equally passionate about both and will pursue a philosophical line of study in either. They're both motivated by my passion for reason and knowledge, exploring the interface between ourselves and reality. I do suppose, however, that philosophy people will understand the connection better than those isolated in either field!

I'm living back in my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia for the time being, spending my spare time writing and recovering from undergrad. I also have a job right now as an instructor and professional tutor at West Virginia State University, which I am doing part-time as I work relentlessly on applications.

Again, great to hear from the department, and attached are pictures of my dog Coconut and Fall in West Virginia, which essentially encapsulate my life right now (I don't take many pictures of myself).

Since 2019, I've been living in the Netherlands and teaching philosophy for Leiden University (teaching and having students is wonderful, though a consistent source of professional and personal trouble is that the management of our institute is not so interested in labor law).

I came here to be with my (since the Summer!) fiancé, Michelle, hoping as well to pursue professional philosophical life here. This has been an adventure full of ups and downs as we try to settle amid housing shortages and overwork, but one lovely oasis from the hustle and bustle for us both has been an out-of-hand Saturday lockdown hobby--learning how to run a windmill. It turns out there's a shortage of millers (the average age is almost 70). I'll never look at clouds or the weather in general the same way, I get to feel like the captain of a land galleon, and Michelle and I have gained several adoptive miller-uncles.

I've attached a photo of me securing the mill after a day of turning in the "joyous" position (vreugdstand), where the wings are set at an angle before they pass the door and which traditionally announces life events like births, marriages, or, in our case, a miller's engagement.

We have been in Nashville almost 3 years now, but continue to stay anchored to Ohio, where much of my work takes place. I am going into my 4th year with the Center for Child Policy (child abuse think tank), and have taken on some interesting consulting jobs on the side. In one gig, I am training psychologists who assess refugee children, in order to bolster their asylum claims (mostly Afghan children). In other gig, I am an expert witness in cases where a child abuse victim is suing for monetary damages, but they are suing someone other than the perpetrator (and their claim against the Third Party is questionable). Every single day on the job, I use philosophy that I learned at Miami (logic, ethics, theories of oppression, epistemology, written argument).

Family members are doing great!  Our little Lila is 3.5 years old and growing by leaps and bounds in her intellect and intuition. She attends Montessori school and is learning to play the piano (very simple note patterns she learns by rote). Over the summer I brought her to see Oxford and Miami for the first time - her favorite thing was throwing sticks in the pond at Miami's Dogwood Park. Our au pair Karla has been with us for almost 2 years since she came from El Salvador and she is planning to start community college next year. Spouse Rob continues to work at KPMG, his favorite new hobby is tinkering with a 1975 classic car.