Philosophy and Religious Studies

New Spring 2017 Courses

Environmental Philosophy (Phil 290 MWF 2:30-3:20, Prof Mark Steen).  See the course description below.

Medical Ethics, section two, (Phil 385.01 MWF 9:00-9:50, Prof Mark Steen).

“Environmental Philosophy”
An introduction to philosophical ethics through an engagement with environmental issues of population growth and resource use, sustainability, non-human animal welfare, biodiversity loss, environmental justice, and global climate change. The two main goals of the course are to provide students with a more sophisticated conceptual vocabulary to make and evaluate ethical arguments across domains and to engage students’ ethical reasoning and reflection on environmental issues in particular.

Twenty-two years after the Rwandan genocide, Professor Tal Correm, assistant professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and Lydia Eckstein Jackson, assistant professor of Psychology, journeyed to the country from Jan. 29 through Feb. 7, 2016.

Correm and Jackson traveled to Rwanda through a study trip organized by Humanity in Action Denmark. The two professors received funding from the Academic Support Committee to go on this study tour.

Read more about their trip via The Campus article.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Tal Correm recently had her essay  “Ethics Beyond Struggle: Fanon, Gandhi, and Arendt on Violence, Politics, and Humanism” published.

Way to go Professor Correm!

Citation:
Correm, Tal. “Ethics Beyond Struggle: Fanon, Gandhi, and Arendt on Violence, Politics, and Humanism” in Listening: Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion, and Culture, Volume 50, no. 1, (Winter 2015) pp. 21-37.

Philosophy minor Abby Lombard has been awarded a Pennsylvania House Legislative Fellowship beginning Jan. 12, 2016.

“The highly competitive fellowship program places students in leadership offices, such as offices of committee chairmen, in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. As one of the only legislative fellows this year to be placed on two committees, Lombard will be working with the Veterans Affairs/Emergency Preparedness and the Transportation committees.”

Congratulations, Abby!

Read the full article here.

Chaplain Jane Ellen Nickell’s book We Shall Not Be Moved: Methodists Debate Race, Gender, and Homosexuality has just been published by Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Source: News Feed

Students interested specifically in the study of Judaism, may be interested in pursuing a minor in Jewish Studies.  Follow this link and speak to Professors Bernstein-Goff or Lauren French for more information. https://sites.allegheny.edu/jewishstudies/

During the annual convention of the American Academy of Religion from November 23-26 in Baltimore, Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson presented a paper titled “Violence, Power, the Demonic, and Indian Asceticism” for a panel on Religion and Violence. His essay “The Sacred Book” (pp. 19-38) was republished in “The Book: A Global History” (2013), edited by Michael Suarez, S.J., and H. R. Woudhuysen and published by Oxford University Press. This is a condensed version of a two-volume boxed set originally published in 2010.

Source: News Feed

RS 580:
The Enigma of Evil and Suffering
Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 – 12:15
Professor Eric Boynton

One of the oldest conundrums of human thought is unde malum? From where does evil come? In fact, the challenge of evil, like few other issues, defines and molds the character of human experience. What are the origins of evil—human, natural, supernatural? And what, by implication, is the character and content of evil–sin, suffering, catastrophe, death?

INTDS 190: Exploring Difference: a multidisciplinary inquiry 

Offered by: Professor Emeritus Bywater
& Associate Dean Kazi Joshua

The course will explore the question of difference from genetics to sociology, both in the natural world and the social world. We will investigate closely what is constituted in the category of “difference” and what the implications of such categorization might be. We ultimately want to explore what such understanding means for human communities. We will have over a dozen experts from the Allegheny faculty address the question form their particular disciplinary perspective through a series of guest lectures as part of the course. May count towards a philosophy major or minor: consult a philosopher for determination.

Womst 490:
Black Woman, Sport, and Home Post-Katrina
Professor Marita Gilbert
Tuesday and Thursday 3:00 – 4:15

A study of sport as a unique framework for understanding disaster recovery in post-Katrina New Orleans—and Black women’s interstitial politics of home. Theirs is the space on the periphery, the taken for granted area between the boundaries of race, gender, and belonging in the new New Orleans—at the center of visual and textual media narratives documenting the suffering of Hurricane Katrina. Yet, their testimony is largely missing from similar narratives capturing this moment of recovery. This course not only includes black women’s narratives, it centers black women’s excluded testimony to explore the meaning of the Saints to the recovery of home. May count towards a philosophy major or minor: consult a philosopher for determination.