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Tag: Department of Philosophy
Each year NIU recognizes and honors outstanding undergraduate teaching. Tenured faculty members are honored with the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and full-time instructors are honored with the Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction Award. Undergraduate students take the lead in the nominating process and student advisory committees in each college nominate faculty members by assembling student...
Steve Daskal
Like many college students, Steven Daskal didn’t have a specific career in mind when he ventured off to Amherst College in 1991. Reflecting on his time in college, the Mt. Prospect native recalled having fleeting thoughts of becoming a novelist. However, after taking a broad range of classes, he found himself being drawn to philosophy....
A photo of "The Thinker"
With the help of a substantial donation from the John Templeton Foundation, NIU’s philosophy department is teaming up with Wi-Phi, an open access philosophy web site that aims to increase the role of philosophy in the public sphere. Launched in 2013 by Gaurav Vazirani, a graduate student at Yale, Wi-Phi publishes videos on philosophical topics...
Geoffrey Pynn
Growing up in Walnut Creek, Calif., Geoffrey Pynn had fleeting thoughts of becoming a musician, a poet, and even maybe an artificial intelligence researcher. He was admittedly a little flaky in his younger years, never really settling on a specific career path; he was intrigued by seemingly everything. A philosophy major at Bates College in...
An advocate for human rights in Sri Lanka will visit campus next month to deliver a talk on recent developments in the island nation, which has seen allegations of a broad range of human rights abuses, particularly against ethnic minority Tamils. Skantha Skanthakumar is a founding member of the Illinois Tamil Human Rights Group, which...
Cathy Doederlein
Cathy Doederlein, internship coordinator for the humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, spent a lot of time on campus growing up: “I definitely consider myself a kid of the university,” she says. Both of her parents, Sue and Arthur Doederlein, came to the area in 1969. Since then, the Doederlein name has...
Tomis Kapitan
When one considers what the practice of philosophy involves, one thing that springs to mind is its employment of the Socratic method of instruction, so brilliantly illustrated in Plato’s dialogues. Many people have a rudimentary notion that this method is intended to enhance understanding through dialogue. A more complete description recognizes that the Socratic method...
Kathy Kelly
Internationally known peace activist Kathy Kelly will talk about her recent visits to Syria and the Gaza Strip at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in the Illinois Room of Holmes Student Center on the NIU campus. The talk is free and open to the public. Free parking will be available in the NIU visitors lot...
Valia Allori
Valia Allori, a professor in the NIU Department of Philosophy, will speak at noon Wednesday, Jan. 30, in the next brown bag luncheon presented by the NIU Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. The lunch takes place in the Illinois Room of the Holmes Student Center. Bring a lunch; light snacks, such as cookies and chips,...
Jason Hanna
NIU philosophy professor Jason Hanna recently has received the Young Ethicist Prize from the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (RoME) for his essay submission titled, “Doing, Allowing and The Relevance of the Past.” Each year, RoME offers the prize to the top paper written by an non-tenured ethicist. As a winner of the award, Hanna will receive...
Issues ranging from the use of social media to sharing confidential information with friends will be in question when the NIU College of Business puts students in the hot seat during its second annual NIU Ethics Case Competition from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, April 13. Hosted by the BELIEF Initiative (Building Ethical Leaders...
Photo of a diploma and graduation cap
Over the most recent five-year period for which data are available from the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the NIU Department of Philosophy is the largest producer of M.A. degrees in philosophy among all public universities in Illinois. Moreover, the program is also the largest producer of graduate degrees in philosophy among all public universities in Illinois.