2009 Grad Waxes Philosophical in PhD Program

The following was contributed by Josh Cruz, Class of 2009: 

I graduated from Bloom in the spring of 09 with a degree in philosophy and English liberal arts. When I started in 05, I was in English and education, and my parents were concerned about my career options when I dropped the ed portion and took up philosophy. Given my majors, I suppose I didn't leave myself much of a choice but to go off to graduate school. So I did. And while philosophy isn't generally seen as a “practical” course of study, there is no field that has been more informative and helpful for the things I've been doing in my years post-Bloomsburg. The point of this piece is to give a few specific examples of the real-world, real practical value that my philosophy degree has.

The most salient examples come from the last month of my life. At the beginning of August, I started a PhD program at Arizona State University in language, literacies, and technology (it's part of the college of education). They're “training” us to be educational theorists and researchers.

So let's look at some of the classes I'm taking: on Mondays, I have research ethics. The first assignment had us reading Mill, Kant, and Aristotle. I am one of two students in that class with a background in philosophy; guess which two students were really comfortable discussing Aristotelian ethics and started an argument about whether virtue is contingent upon social perceptions. I have another class, qualitative research methods. Currently, we are working on our epistemological identity statements, which are reflective pieces about what we think can and should be considered knowledge. Our beliefs, presumably, will inform the ways that we go about conducting research and designing studies. A quick list of words and phrases that regularly appear in this class: epistemology, phenomenology, (post)positivism, ontology, metaphysical assumptions, discourse analysis, constructivism, truth, power dynamics, lived experiences, post-modern... you get the idea.

And let's not even talk about what I'm doing with my research advisor (okay, let's talk about it a little). We're trying to 1) figure out if it's possible for schizoanalysis (of Deleuze and Guattari fame) to be a legitimate kind of research method and 2) apply a Foucauldian genealogy to capoeira, the Brazilian martial art (think Eddy Gordo from Tekken). The point here is that philosophy not only underpins these activities, but it is present—in very obvious ways—in just about everything I'm doing. I could talk about how philosophy has helped me discover myself as a person and how it helps me live more fully and all that other generic, non-tangible kind of crap, but at the end of the day, in the really-real real world, some of my classmates are already struggling with these classes because they don't have a philosophical background.

This post is getting long—I would love to talk about how Marx, Bourdieu, Horkheimer, Freire and other critical theorists are huge figures in education too, but you'll have to take my word for it. Bottom line: there are places where the philosophy degree is not only valuable but absolutely critical for success. I could never have known how practical it would be to get a BA in philosophy, but at this point, in hindsight, it is possibly the best educational choice I could have made for myself.

What We Did Over Summer "Break": Philosophy Professors Attend Conferences in Greece & Scotland

Dr. Steven Hales of the philosophy department participated in two conferences this past summer. The first was a "Workshop on Luck" at the Department of Philosophy of University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Dr. Hales delivered an invited talk entitled "Some Analyses of Luck and their Failures."

The second conference was the 23rd World Congress of Philosophy in Athens, Greece, where Dr. Hales gave three talks. His invited addresses were "Motivations for Relativism as a Solution to Disagreements" and "Synchronic and Diachronic Luck." He also contributed a paper entitled "Virtue Epistemology and the Value Problem."

"Both conferences were an outstanding opportunity to hear other researchers from around the world, as well as engage more broadly in the community of scholars," said Hales.

Dr. Lee and Dr. Hales at the remains of Poros,
courtesy of Dr. Hales

Dr. Wendy Lynne Lee, professor of philosophy, also gave a talk at the Athens conference. Together, they visited the remains of the Poros, the state prison of ancient Athens. Located in the ancient Agora, it is the likely location of the imprisonment and death of Socrates.

Summer Writers Retreat

The College of Liberal Arts' first Faculty Writers Retreat took place this past summer, running from July 22-26. Mary Katherine Duncan, Steve Hales, Jennifer Johnson, Ted Roggenbuck, Nancy Giles, Danny Robinson, Megumi Omori, Christina Francis, and Claire Lawrence participated in the retreat. The group gathered daily for the duration of the week to work on their individual writing projects and to discuss the joys and frustrations of the writing process, share their tips, and generally gain insight, motivation, and support from peers. All report that it was an extremely productive experience.

“The retreat came about when Dr. Julie Vandivere told me about a similar retreat that they were running at Bucknell University.  We began to wonder if our faculty would benefit from one,” said organizer Heather Feldhaus.

“The College of Liberal Arts agreed to fund the event so I convened a small planning group composed of myself, Dr. Ted Roggenbuck from the English Department and Dr. Lisa Stallbaumer from the Department of History and TALE Director. After much discussion, we chose some dates and opted to begin by hosting a fairly unstructured event to see what faculty prefer,” said Feldhaus.

It was a productive week. with all participants making significant progress on one or more substantial scholarly projects. Additionally, at least one idea for an interdisciplinary collaborative project was conceived. 

The College of Liberal Arts will host another retreat January 13-17.  We have also set up a BU COLA Faculty writers group on Facebook and any member of the COLA faculty can join.

"My Summer Vacation": One Professor's Work

Recently I spoke with Dr. Wendy Lynne Lee, professor of Philosophy, about the application of her academic discipline to the contemporary world. The very day she wrote the following piece, she was interviewed by Alex Chadwick of the series Burn, for National Public Radio. Lynn Johnson, photographer for National Geographic, made Dr. Lee one of the subjects of her piece documenting the women of the anti-fracking movement in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. Her work in this area has also received positive critical attention in a variety of online and print media. --JSB

Philosophy is no mere profession, but a way of life committed not only to discovering the truth but to acting on it for the sake of the public good. Such, at least, is the upshot of Karl Marx' famous remark that the point of philosophy is not merely to understand the world but to change it. I have sought for all of my now 20 years at Bloomsburg to practice that commitment--often failing, but always with renewed vigor when conditions called for it. 

No conditions have called more loudly to me to muster both my philosophical resolve and a bit of courage than my involvement over this past year with the anti-fracking movement in Pennsylvania. One of my areas is environmental philosophy; another is bioethics. But neither of these was necessary for galvanizing my resolve to become involved in the resistance to what can be clearly shown on the evidence to be a serious danger to health, environmental integrity, and community sustainability than slickwater hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. All that was required was being a moral person--and one fortunate enough to be in an economic position to DO something. My hero--like that of virtually all philosophers who endeavor to act as public intellectuals--is Socrates, who gave up comfort and ultimately life to pursue the true, the good, and the beautiful. For him, there was no artificial distinction to be drawn between his "professional" life and his life, between "theory" and "action." So too it has always been for me. Note--I am not comparing myself to this master--far from it. But I can aspire to his example, and I think that his example is precisely what a university ought to encourage in its faculty.

All the while I have been engaged in research for my new book (Lexington/Rowman and Littlefield), "The Rhetoric of the Apocalypse"--a critique of both the far Left and the far Right with respect to environmental ideology, I have also been writing a series on the processes, dangers, infrastructure, politics, corporate influences, and implications of fracking, compressor stations, water withdrawals, water impoundments, transmission lines, and export depots for a small but growing PASSHE Institution zine (Kutztown, editor Kevin Mahoney) called Raging Chicken Press. 

So, I am tempted to say something cheesy, like "This is what I did on my summer vacation." But, in fact, this is what my life both in and out of the university has always looked like. This summer, it just got more media attention. I believe that these are the sorts of things academics ought to be pursuing consistent with their disciplines. And I think that this is precisely what the university ought to encourage and support in any of us.

--Wendy Lynne Lee

Around the College

Garry L. Hagberg, James H. Ottoway Jr. Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics at Bard College, and guitarist for the Atlantic Jazz Trio, will present his talk, “Playing as One: Group Improvisation and Collective Intention” at 7:00 on Monday, April 23 in McCormick 1303. Professor Hagberg will give his talk guitar in hand, so jazz improvisation will accompany his talk…on jazz improvisation.

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Here's another convincing argument in support of liberal eduation, though billionaire businessman Reid Hoffman doesn't actually use the term. The cofounder of LinkedIn's advice on making sure college is worth your investment? ". . . you have to be serious about what it is you're doing and think about [whether] this college expense is going to be the one that is right for me."

The essential skills gained in college "include communication, reading and writing, the ability to learn quickly, critical reasoning skills and how to use new technologies." Thank you, Dr. Jing Luo, for the link.

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Last Saturday, students in Dr. Doug Karsner's US Business History class visited Bloomsburg Airport to hear local members of the business community, pilots, and others involved in general aviation present a series of talks on the importance of the Bloomsburg Airport and general aviation to the success of their enterprises. One of the course's major themes this semester is the growing impact that commercial and general aviation and airports have had on American business and the economy. The activity was designed to help students see how even small towns have been influenced and benefited from aviation/airport developments.

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Dr. Nicole Defenbaugh has received two grants with Dr. Noreen Chikotas this past year to work with the Nursing Department on Standardized Patient sessions.  She also has two articles in press:

Defenbaugh, N., & Kline, K. Gendered construction of HPV: A post-structuralist critique of Gardasil. In T. Carilli & J. Campbell (Eds.), Women and the Media: Global Perspectives.

Defenbaugh, N. Revealing & concealing ill identity: A performance narrative of chronic illness disclosure. Health Communication. (*Won the 2011 Norman K. Denzin Qualitative Research Award).

Dr. Defenbaugh continues to work with Internal Medicine at Geisinger as an actor and rater/reviewer for their Standardized Patient sessions. She will also be a guest presenter at Lehigh Valley Health Network and Einstein Healthcare Network in May.