Fall 2016
Philosophy Newsletter
Brynn received her B.A. from Davidson College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Before joining the faculty at UAB, she worked at Beloit College in Wisconsin and Emory & Henry College in Virginia, where she taught a range of classes, including bioethics, environmental ethics, and contemporary problems of justice. Brynn’s research and teaching interests are in applied ethics and social/political philosophy. She has published in Social Theory and Practice, Journal of Medical Ethics, Journal of Political Philosophy, and Economics and Philosophy, and she recently delivered a TEDx talk on the absence of multi-dimensional people of color in children’s literature. Her research focuses on whether and to what extent public social justice goals should constrain private individual family decisions, such as what we owe our parents, whether to have children, where to send those children to school, and even what children’s books to purchase. She is thrilled to be living in Birmingham with her son, Ben, a three-year-old elevator aficionado who has already developed a deep affection for the Humanities Building hydraulic lift.
The Student Fellowship of Philosophy (a.k.a. Philosophy Club) is a student organization with members from across campus who share two common interests: philosophy and fun. The Philosophy Club has made tremendous strides in the past few years. It has moved from an unrecognized club that met once or twice per semester to an officially recognized student club that meets weekly or bi-weekly. Club attendance has grown from around 10 students at one or two meetings per semester to 15-30 students each meeting. To say that the Philosophy Club is thriving would be an understatement! Some recent activities (aside from regular meetings) include bringing in guest speakers from places like Notre Dame University and Georgia State University, cosponsoring a “Great Debate” between UAB faculty, and competing in the Homecoming week door decoration contest. The impressive student leaders have many more plans in the works.
This semester (Fall 2016) the club will meet each Wednesday from 3:20pm to 4:20pm in the UAB Philosophy Department Library (HB 425A). The first meeting will be the second week of classes (Wednesday, September 7), and elections for officers will be held the following week (Wednesday, September 14). Everyone is welcome to join the club and/or run for office—it doesn’t matter whether you’re a philosophy major/minor; it doesn’t even matter if you’ve never taken a philosophy class.
Come join us! It’s going to be a great semester!
The Philosophy Department once again held a pair of talks in both the fall and spring terms as part of its ongoing “What’s the Big Idea?” series. Each brief presentation introduces the audience to a relatively simple idea, followed by Q&A. Though the ideas are meant to be big, the aim of the events is to start conversations, rather than be the last word. In the fall, Dr. King explained “Why Socialism is Not a Bad Word”, touting some of the moral attractions of socialist economic systems and warning of some of the moral dangers endemic to capitalist arrangements. In November, Dr. Gray considered the question: “When Will Computers Decide to Kill Us?” Should we reach the ‘singularity’, the point at which artificial intelligences can design their own AIs, how will such intelligences view the human race? The presentation concluded we should be somewhat pessimistic about the answer. In the spring, Dr. May examined empirical evidence from psychology to explore the role that appeals to disgust might have in changing people’s moral views. In “Yuck! The Role of Disgust in Politics”, he took a rather conciliatory position, explaining that while inducing disgust in others probably does affect their moral beliefs, those effect are likely quite limited. In April, Dr. Whall asked, “Can We Choose to Have Free Will?” Given some recent findings regarding so-called implicit bias, it seems the decisions we make can often be influenced by unconscious factors. The presentation considered how our free will might be threatened by forces beyond our awareness. It also discussed strategies we might adopt to make such threats less worrisome. Check out the department’s webpage for information about the upcoming “Big Idea” talks for 2016-2017!
In November of 2015, the Philosophy Department hosted a debate on an important and controversial question of human existence: “Is Believing in God Rational?� The Great Debate was a free event open to the public and featured two Assistant Professors from the Department. Dr. Matt King argued against the rationality of believing in a god while Dr. Kevin McCain provided the defense. The Great Debate was a great success. Volker Hall was packed with hundreds of people from around campus and the Birmingham community for the lively, civil, and structured debate. Afterwards some members of the audience were able to chime in on the issue during a Q&A period. The Department hopes to host similar debates in the future.
Alumni News provides alumni a venue for sharing personal and professional accomplishments. To share your news, email philosophy@uab.edu.
2010s
Aaron Getman-Pickering (2016) is a White House Intern this fall and then a William Jefferson Clinton Scholar at the American University in Dubai. Elora Robbani (2016) is excited about starting UAB Optometry School in August. Samantha Tudor (2016) is pursuing a Masters at UAB in Public Health in Public Health Preparedness Management and Policy. Neha Batra (2016) started medical school at UAB in July and has already helped on her first cesarean birth. Josh Renz (2016) works as a social services caseworker for Alamance County, North Carolina, and hopes to attend law school soon.
Rachael Rosales (2013) Outstanding Philosophy Student, is a fourth year student at Harvard Medical School. She plans to match in Psychiatry. Ethan Mallick Hossain (2013), after being a White House Intern, is ABD for his PhD in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Warren Radford (2013) works as an Outreach Specialist, Division of Family and Community Engagement, Department of Education in New York City. Ian Hoppe (2013) is a reporter and data analyst for Al.com. He also volunteers in Girls Rock Birmingham and Redemptive Cycles. He just started Blackburn Music Hall, pop-up shows featuring local bands.
Charles Camp (2015) works in computer support at the Birmingham Public Library and at Iron City Grill.
Christopher Graves, MD (2012) graduated from UAB Medical School and started a residency in Pediatrics in Greenville, SC. He will marry Julia Beasley next year in Birmingham.
Harris Frank (2015), Outstanding Philosophy Student, is in his second year of law school at Birmingham School of Law.
Andrew Cook (2010) worked for two years for AmeriCorps in New York City, and this fall started a program to become a Physician’s Assistant.
Kevin Jiang (2014), Outstanding Philosophy Student, is a third year medical student at UAB, rotating now in internal medicine.
Adamu Shauku, MA, JD, (2010), a fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, 2011-2012, earned a Masters in English at UAB and a law degree at Tuscaloosa. He is now ABD for a PhD in Political Science at Alabama, where he also teaches.
Maja Mzombwe (2014) will take a gap year at Vanderbilt Medical School to do investigate diabetes pathogenesis in HIV+ populations in Tanzania. Alex Clay (2014) played soccer at UAB and now plays professionally for the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
2000s
Charles “Dyer” Diskin, MD (2009) is in his final year of residency in Internal Medicine in Memphis and plans to be a Nephrologist.
Shannon Nolen (2009), after getting a Masters at Georgia State University, entered the PhD program at the University of Wisconsin in 2013, where she is now in her third year. Robert Abreu (2008) is a Sustainability Community Manager in Hedonisia, Hawaii. Brad Barnett (2006) works as a City Planner at Sasaki Associates, Boston, Maine. Roshan Patel, MD (2006) is doing a fellowship in oncology at the University of San Francisco Medical Center in San Francisco, California. Matt Malone, MD (2005) began working at Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas in Pediatric Critical Care. Jesse Calhoun (2004) is an English Teacher and Assistant to the Director for the Center for Teaching English, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China. Kexuan Wang, MD (2003) is a hospitalist at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham.
1990s
Rhonda Smith, PhD (1995) is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1970s
David McNaron, PhD (1977) has taught Philosophy for 31 years at Nova International University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and plans to retire next year to Jacksonville, Florida.