Department News

Message from the Chair

Welcome!

We are joined this year by an outstanding cohort of new philosophy graduate students (Elias Allen, Luna Cheng, Amanda Lopatin, Susanna McGrew, Luca Passi, Warren Thimothe), as well as new students in the Program in Logic and the Methodology of Science (Sean Cody, Yiping Miao, Yvette Ren, Harper Wells). These young scholars join us from great colleges and universities around the world; it is exciting to have them here!

I am also very happy to announce, as many of you already know, that the UC Berkeley Department of Philosophy will be benefit from the arrival of three new faculty members over the course of the next year! Ezra Rubinstein, who works in Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Physics, and Metaphysics, will come on board this January; Verónica Gómez Sánchez and Xueyin Zhang, who work in Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind, and Metaphysics, and in Formal Epistemology and Decision Theory, respectively, will join us in July 2023.

Scholars and students from around the world come to Berkeley as visitors at the invitation of our faculty and we are grateful for the energy and invention these visiting scholars bring to us. This year we are joined by the visiting student researchers Adrian Ommundsen, Adriano Mannino, and Maria Carolina Resende, as well as by the visiting scholars Beata Sirowy Estkowska, Chiara Cappelletto, Dominic Hughes, Gabriel Iason, J. Reid Miller, Pii Telakivi, Caitlin Dolan, and Adam Paris, and also others whose arrangements are still being worked out.

Even as our community welcomes new members, let us also bid adieu, and offer the warmest congratulations, to Dr Alex Kerr and Dr Dan Khokhar, who are our most recent new PhDs, as well as to the many undergraduates who have graduated this past spring with bachelors degrees in Philosophy.

One piece of special news that I am delighted to share: our beloved colleague Professor Emerita Janet Broughton was awarded the Berkeley Citation this past spring; the presentation was made by Chancellor Christ in person at a gathering in May. This is a very singular honor and one that we acknowledge with pride and admiration. In the official language: the Berkeley Citation is awarded to individuals “whose contributions to UC Berkeley go beyond the call of duty and whose achievements exceed the standards of excellence in their fields.” Congratulations Professor Broughton!

Two final remarks before I sign off.

As a department, we are only able to fulfill our mission to advance philosophy and train new generations of students thanks to the generous support of alumni, donors, and other friends. I am enormously grateful for your support and look forward to finding ways to work with you to keep philosophy strong at UC Berkeley.

A final thought: Covid has taken a brutal toll, but we are not out of the pandemic woods yet. Please keep apprised of university regulations, as they change to keep up with the evolving public health situation, and please join together, faculty and students alike, to keep each other safe.

Let the new year begin!

Alva Noë

August 21, 2022