Golden Snowball

 looks like we're going to lose this year

here's a test that sucks

 in honor of finals week, I suppose

https://www.idrlabs.com/philosopher-personality/test.php

probably doesn't affect us much

unless there's high-stakes testing in our future

https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/12-22/12-5-22/chancellor-king.html

NEWS: Today, the SUNY Board of Trustees appointed John B. King, Jr., lifelong educator and former U.S. Secretary of Education, as the System's 15th Chancellor. Learn more about our new Chancellor 👇👇👇

— SUNY - The State University of New York (@SUNY) December 5, 2022

Coleen at IASH

 IASH Fellows Coleen Watson, philosophy, and Liyang Dong, English, will speak beginning at noon Wednesday, Nov. 30, in the IASH Conference Room, LN-1106.

Watson will speak on "The Wisdom of the People Public Humanities Project"
My project is a podcast series that will explore specific issues in political philosophy, with special emphasis on democratic theory. Mainstream political rhetoric rarely considers questions about what democratic freedom and equality are and why democratic institutions and processes are valuable, despite so much lip service paid to the social goods of democracies. This project hopes to fill this gap in public conversation by creating a podcast aimed at engaging general audiences with the philosophical concepts behind democratic governance. In addition, the podcast will explore how political philosophy’s ideas impact listeners’ everyday lives in hopes of promoting more rigorous civic discourse about normative issues in democratic life while demonstrating shared conceptual common ground many citizens haven’t recognized.

Among the questions explored in that topic is whether democracy is valuable merely instrumentally because it is good at satisfying individual preferences, or because democracy also has intrinsic value in that they are better than all other forms of government at promoting freedom and equality among citizens. Other topics to explore will include appropriate remedies to social and structural injustices, political knowledge and disinformation, and the limits of free speech.

FTX and effective altruism

 

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23462333/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-cryptocurrency-effective-altruism-crypto-bahamas-philanthropy

SPEL Colloquium on November 10th

Allen Speight

Professor of Philosophy

Boston University

"Transparency and Enigma: On the Perceptual and the Conceptual in Art"

Thu 10 Nov

3:00-5:00p

UUW 324

6th Annual Graduate Philosophy Conference

 register here:

https://spelgraduateconference.wordpress.com/

Creighton Club, featuring Spencer Beaudette

 https://creightonclub.blogspot.com/2022/10/2022-conference-program.html

The Creighton Club

New York State Philosophical Association

167^th Conference Program

Saturday October 22^nd, 2022

500 Hall of Languages

Syracuse University

Schedule of Events

8:30am            Coffee and snacks

9:00am            Alexander Kocurek (Cornell University), Zeynep Soysal (University of Rochester), and Jens Kipper (University of Rochester), "Idle Questions"

§  Comments by Martín Abreu Zavaleta (Syracuse University)

10:15am          Coffee break

10:30am           Christopher Bousquet (Syracuse University), "What's Missing in Interest-Based Theories of Rights" (co-winner of the Graduate Student Presentation Award)

§  Comments by Scott Gordon (Binghamton University)

11:45am          Lunch break

1:30pm            Spencer Beaudette (Binghamton University), "Meaningful Materialism through Expressive Consumption" (co-winner of the Graduate Student Presentation Award)

§  Comments by Bobbi Cohn (Cornell University)

2:45pm            Coffee break

3:00pm            John Monteleone (Le Moyne College), "Integrity in Conflict"

§  Comments by Hille Paakkunainen (Syracuse University)

4:15pm            Business meeting

Keynote Address

Social Truth: What Is It, and What Do We Want It To Be?

Douglas Edwards (Utica University)

4:30pm

MEETING DETAILS: the 2022 meeting will be on the campus of Syracuse University, in 500 Hall of Languages (on the fifth floor, where the philosophy department is located). 

Campus parking is open to guests on weekends.  The most conveniently located lots are the Lyman Hinds Lot and the Quad Lot.  See the North Campus parking map here:

http://parking.syr.edu/visitors-to-campus/campus-maps/

Participants can purchase lunch at the Marshall Square Mall, which is a five minute walk from the conference.  For those interested in venturing further afield, there are also many restaurants in downtown Syracuse and the nearby Westcott neighborhood.

RSVP: there will be an informal dinner held after the conference at the expense of attendees (location TBD).  Please email us at thecreightonclub@gmail.com if you plan to attend so that we can make a more accurate reservation.

SPEL Colloquium!

 Daniel Viehoff

Assistant Professor

New York University

"Legitimacy and Independence"

Thursday, October 6th

3:00p-5:00p

UUW 324

Not an exaggeration

I saw this and I didn't believe it: 

The syllabus template that Stanford’s teaching folks offer for instructors is 26 pages.

— Jeremy Freese (@jeremyfreese) September 27, 2022

But here it is (33 pp. if you count "additional resources")

link

 

Excellence awards and travel grants

2022-2023 Graduate Student Excellence Awards - Call for Nominations

The Graduate School is seeking nominations for the 2022-2023 Graduate Student Excellence Awards. The submission deadline for nomination packets is Friday, November 4th at 5:00 p.m. 

Nomination packets must be submitted electronically by the student’s Graduate Director - and in PDF format only - to Nicole Smith (smithn@binghamton.edu). Hard copies and submissions that exceed one PDF file will not be accepted.

Each graduate program may nominate only two graduate students per category, per year.  A student may be nominated for more than one category, but may receive only one award.

There are three award categories: Research, Teaching, and Service & Outreach. In an effort to simplify and process nomination packets more efficiently, please organize your packet in the same order as shown on the appropriate checklist (please see attached). Please be sure to include the appropriate checklist as the first item in your nomination packet.

Graduate School Travel Grants

The Graduate School would like to remind graduate programs of the potential assistance available for graduate students. Graduate School Travel Grants can be used for attendance at virtual conferences. There are several funding sources available by application on our website on the Research and Travel Funding page. The next Graduate School Travel Grant deadline is Friday, November 4th at 5:00 p.m.  

Applications should be submitted electronically as a single PDF file to Nicole Smith (smithn@binghamton.edu). 

news from the Grad School

 GRD 699: DISSERTATION 

The Graduate School is offering GRD 699 (Dissertation) once again for Fall 2022 and the first class will be held on Friday, September 9th.  This course is available to all ABD doctoral students (in place of their departmental 699). Students should discuss their interest in GRD 699 with their faculty adviser and if approved, work with their department staff to be enrolled. 

This one-credit independent study course, taught by Robert Danberg of the Writing Initiative, is designed to assist graduate students in two ways: identify a project goal for the course period and become familiar with writing strategies and habits that have helped academic writers.  The principles explored adapt across disciplines and the course has been taken successfully by writers in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Students who take the course are often at different stages -- proposal, prospectus, research, data analysis, drafting chapters, revising chapters, etc.

Graduate School Academic Consultants

The Graduate Academic Writing Consultants are here to help any Binghamton graduate student with writing a paper, a conference presentation, a thesis, a dissertation chapter, or any academic writing task. They can help with developing ideas, organizing paragraphs or sections and developing transitions between them, structuring an argument, learning documentation standards, proper citation, proof-reading and copy edits, and grammar. (The consultants will not write content.)

For more information or to schedule a meeting: https://www.binghamton.edu/grad-school/resources/writing-help.html

everything about this is completely wrong

 

Garden State Parkway rest stops now have this quote that Socrates, Plato and Aristotle said in unison in 2500 BC pic.twitter.com/0N1eWv34fu

— Dan McQuade (@dhm) September 6, 2022

bivalent vax

 Boosted!

first colloquium of the academic year (next week)!

Sally Haslanger

Ford Professor of Philosophy

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Situated Knowledge and Situated Values"

Thu 15 Sept

3:00p-5:00p

UUW 324

philosophy and other majors

 

redolent of the Trolley Problem

 welcome back to classes, everyone

book reviewing

 https://twitter.com/CharacterGap/status/1536432185602883588?s=20&t=c2IFu_XiLhuDldTCoyVeBQ

Philosophers: I'm the book review editor at the Journal of Moral Philosophy @BrillPublishing. We have a pile of books looking for reviewers. If interested in reviewing a book in ethics that came out in 2019, 2020, 2021, or 2022, please see below. Please share this too! (1/5)

— Christian Miller (@CharacterGap) June 13, 2022

Must have a Ph.D. in philosophy or be enrolled in a philosophy graduate program. Please email me millerc@wfu.edu, attach your CV, and indicate the specific topic or area of philosophy in which you would like to review a book (or a specific book title). (3/5)

— Christian Miller (@CharacterGap) June 13, 2022

university websites

 https://xkcd.com/773/

SUNY pronoun policy

https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/6-22/6-8-22/chosen-name.html 

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the State University of New York Board of Trustees directed all 64 SUNY campuses to update their policies regarding the use of a chosen name and pronouns to ensure that transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary students' identities are fully reflected and represented in campus systems. This historic change is the next step taken in SUNY's mission to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for students within the LGBTQIA+ community.

Summer posting

A robin hatchling fell to the ground and I tried to give him a dried mealworm and put him back in a tree but he clearly thinks I'm the dumbest idiot to have ever fucking existed.

Bus to NYC

 Does anyone have any views on the relative merits of the various bus services to NYC?

Next Dem. House leader

This isn't philosophy news, but here's a poll of congressional staffers that says that Hakeem Jeffries (Binghamton '92) will be the next Democrat House leader after Pelosi

 https://punchbowl.news/archive/5-30-22-punchbowl-news-am/

Closer to home, Binghamton Philosophy alumna Donna Lupardo is running for re-election in the NYS Assembly.

My mother-in-law

 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/health/kristine-gebbie-dead.html

update: this one is better

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/05/25/aids-czar-kristine-gebbie-dies/

The article about Jessica

link reposted here:

https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/3592/commencement-2022-profile-jessica-vargas-gonzalez

Dissertation defense next month

 Henock Tessema

"Against a Right to National Self-Determination and Secession: Toward a Moralized Modus Vivendi"

Tuesday, June 7

10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Zoom Link: https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/99568781026

***

And let us not forget the past weeks' successful defenses:

Seulki Kim, "Nietzsche on Reason"

Kefu Zhu, "A Kant-inspired Theory of Creativity"

Alexis Newman (M.A.), "The Normative Problem of Differential Punishment"

Lunar eclipse

 

I might have forgot to post info on a few defenses last week, but here is the lunar eclipse.

Details on New Ten-Factor Authentication Processes

link here:

 https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-new-ten-factor-authentication-processes-for-university-faculty

Feminist Politics for Today

 Feminist Politics for Today:

Honoring the Work of Bat-Ami Bar On

An interdisciplinary conference, May 6-7, 2022 at Binghamton University, Downtown Center, DC 220 (A/B), 2nd Floor.

The department of philosophy and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at Binghamton University are excited to invite you to an upcoming conference “Feminist Politics for Today. Honoring the Work of Bat-Ami Bar On,” May 6-7, 2022 at Binghamton University. 

This conference honors the work of our former colleague and eminent feminist political philosopher Bat-Ami Bar On, who died prematurely on November 16, 2020. Ami’s work is widely influential and covers the foundations as well as the consequences of feminist political philosophy. It highlights the limits traditional philosophy faces in confronting the reality of our patriarchal social order and provides a unique perspective on the topics of (state) violence, the dire situation of refugees in a world shaped by nationalism as well as on the new dangers of political fascism. 

Ami’s work is characterized by a realist perspective that pays attention to the empirical nuances of our current political challenges, always eager to engage with other disciplines. This specific methodological approach as well as the broad scope of her work will be honored at the conference, organized with a focus on interdisciplinary dialogue. 

• Please register for this event with Joy Tassey, jtassey@binghamton.edu. 
• Masks will be required at all times in the conference rooom

Conference Program

Continental breakfast will be served on both days 
(May 6 & 7, from 8:30 – 9:00 am) in the Atrium 

Friday, May 6 

• 9:00 - 9:10 am: Introduction & Greeting by Donald G. Nieman, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost 
• 9:10 - 9:30 am: A Life Cut Short – Readings from Ami’s Unfinished Work (Lisa Tessman, Binghamton University) 
• 9:30 - 11:15 am: PANEL 1 – The Role of the Humanities (Chair: Max Pensky) 
  • Owen C. Pell (Auschwitz Institute, New York): “Fiercely Passionate Questioning: Ami Bar On’s Search for a Critique of Violence”.
  • Wendy L. Wall (Binghamton University): “The Humanities and Their Publics”.
• 11:15 am - 11:30 am     Coffee Break (Atrium)
• 11:30 am - 1:15 pm: PANEL 2 – (State) Violence & Terrorism (Chair: Courtney M. Miller) 
  • Ann Ferguson (UMass, Amherst): “The State, Gender Violence and Political Morality: Abortion Rights and Reproductive Justice Politics”. 
  • Alice MacLachlan (York University, Toronto): “Accountability and Repair”. 
• 1:15 - 2:45 pm      Lunch (Atrium) 
• 2:45 - 4:30 pm: PANEL 3 – Refugees & Citizenship (Chair: Adam W. Renner) 
  • Serena Parekh (Northwestern University): “Bar-On on the Global Refugee Crisis”. 
  • John Cheng (Binghamton University): “Immigrants, Refugees, and the Racial Precarity of Rights”.

Saturday, May 7 

• 9:00 am - 10:45 am: PANEL 4 – Feminist Politics & Fascism (Chair: Eric Janec) 
  • Carol C. Gould (Hunter College/CUNY): “From Fraternity to Feminist Activist Solidarities: Confronting Structural Injustice and Gendered Authoritarianism”. 
  • Douglas R. Holmes (Binghamton University): “Fascism at Eye-Level: Conversations with Ami”. 
• 11:00 am - 12:45 pm: PANEL 5 – Roundtable: Philosophy Commitment and Mentoring (Chair: Robert E. Guay) 
  • Fuat Gürsözlü (Loyola University Maryland). 
  • Jessica L. Kyle (Beveridge & Diamond PC). 
  • Dianna Taylor (John Carroll University). 
  • Shay Welch (Spelman College). 
• 12:45 pm - 2:15 pm     Lunch (Atrium) 

                                                      End of conference

SOOT surveys

https://www.binghamton.edu/academics/provost/assessment-and-analytics/soot-forms.html

The SOOT survey period actually started last week, I think, so if you're doing that then you should do that.

Colloquium this THU -- Shelly Kagan

 

Shelly Kagan

Clark Professor of Philosophy, Yale University

"Death, Deprivation, and Rational Regret"

Thu 28 April

3p-5p

UUW 324

Three Minute Thesis Competition on Wed.

 remember to show up and vote for Coleen

The Graduate School will host its 3rd annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition as part of Research Days on Wednesday, April 27th from 12:00 - 1:00pm in the Mandela Room.  The 3MT Competition celebrates the exciting research being performed by graduate students across disciplines and challenges them to present their research to a non-specialist audience in 3 minutes or less(!) using only one PowerPoint slide. 

Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 presenters, as well as a People's Choice recipient to be selected by the audience.  All are welcome to attend! 

Here are this year's finalists: 

• Erin Alexander: Clinical Psychology, PhD (Adviser: Matthew Johnson)
• Omar Asif: Electrical & Computer Engineering, PhD (Adviser: Alok Rastogi)
• Xilin Zhang: Systems Science, PhD (Adviser: Zeynep Ertem)
• Victoria Oladosu: Biological Sciences, PhD (Adviser: Karin Sauer)
• Rubayat Jesmin: Community Research & Action, PhD (Adviser: Leo Wilton)
• Coleen Watson: Philosophy, PhD (Adviser: Anthony Reeves)
• Vanessa Mai: Chemistry, MS (Adviser: Huiyuan Guo)
• Mert Can Bayar: Political Science, PhD (Adviser: Ekrem Karakoc) 

More Two-Factor Authentication

• Google Account 2-Step Verification required by May 24

  To improve the security of your own and the University’s information, we strongly encourage every Binghamton University Google Workspace (BMail, Drive, etc.) account holder to enroll in Google 2-Step Verification. This enrollment remains voluntary until Tuesday, May 24, 2022. After that date, anyone who has not yet enrolled will be locked out of their account.
  
  Beginning Tuesday, April 19, Google 2-step enforcement will be enabled. If you are already enrolled in Google 2-step, you will see no change, but if you are not yet enrolled, you will see a pop-up at Google login, with a date of May 24.
  
  Once you sign-up for 2-Step Verification, when you are asked to re-authenticate you will need to enter your password and your 2-Step token.
  
  This is separate from the central authentication service (CAS) two-factor authentication (2FA) system that is already in use for logging in to other Binghamton University websites (such as my.binghamton.edu, BU BRAIN, etc.).
  
  You will only use Google 2-Step Verification when logging in to your Bmail and other Google Workspace services, e.g., Drive, Calendar, Sites, etc.
  
  Instructions on how to enroll are available at the link below.

  More Info

  Contact Help Desk at 607-777-6420 or visit https://binghamton.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0010755

oh

I read a bunch of articles about assessment and feedback in higher education last semester. One thing I learned is that your students probably aren’t reading your feedback. What can you do about it? (1/10)

— Katie Fitzpatrick (@katiefitzpat) April 12, 2022

(the rest of the thread is helpful)

 

all for me

 this is all going to SPEL:

$400M more for SUNY/CUNY in final budget, Hochul says

— Zach Williams (@ZachReports) April 7, 2022

This explains so much

 

Public funding

$1.4 billion is enough to pay for Harpur college forever.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/nyregion/buffalo-bills-stadium-deal.html

Mask mandate lifted

 

meanwhile at Cornell:

news from the Graduate School

 REMINDER: Graduate School Travel Grant

The Graduate School would like to remind graduate programs of the potential assistance available for graduate students. There are several funding sources available by application on our  Research and Travel Funding webpage. Note that Graduate School Travel Grants can be used for attendance at virtual conferences. The next Graduate School Travel Grant deadline is Friday, April 1st. Applications should be submitted electronically as a single PDF file to graduate@binghamton.edu. 

REMINDER: Clark Fellowship Travel and Research Grant

The Clark Fellowship Travel and Research Grant has been revised to now cover travel to conferences, travel for research, and the cost of materials and/or supplies that contribute to the completion of the student's degree. Please find the revised description of the award online here. Spring applications are due by Friday, April 1st (for travel between February 1st - July 31st) and should be submitted electronically as a single PDF file to  graduate@binghamton.edu.   

Spring 2022: Degree Completion Deadlines

The Spring 2022 degree completion deadlines can be found on the Student Records webpage located here.

• Most important to note is that while students can submit the GAFD (Graduate Application for Degree) up through the last day of Spring classes, the deadline to submit the GAFD and be listed in the Commencement program is Wednesday, March 23rd. Please remind your graduate students of this important deadline. 

Critical Thinking Lab

 I just noticed that the university website places the CTL in the same classification as other university labs:

https://www.binghamton.edu/labs/

I think that means there should be IRB review for human subjects research for each appointment.

What's your epistemology quiz

https://www.qzzr.com/c/quiz/49304/17d1b70c-c863-4d2c-a5ed-4968c92773cf

News from the Graduate School

 REMINDER: Distinguished Dissertation Awards

The deadline for distinguished dissertation nominations is Friday, March 4th. The Distinguished Dissertation Award is for PhD and EdD dissertations defended and submitted to the Graduate School in each calendar year (e.g., 2021). The selection process will occur in the following spring semester (e.g., spring 2022). 

The Distinguished Dissertation Award recognizes original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline. Both methodological and substantive quality are judged. Awards are given each year in 4 broad disciplinary areas: mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering; social sciences; humanities and fine arts; and biological and life sciences. More details can be found here.

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition

The Graduate School is excited to host Binghamton University's 3rd annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition on Wednesday, April 27th, 2022 during Research Days. 

The 3MT is a research-communication competition that was developed by the University of Queensland in 2008 and is currently hosted by more than 900 colleges and universities across 85 countries worldwide. The competition is open to course-complete (CC) master's and ABD doctoral students from all disciplines and the goal is to present their research to a non-specialist audience in 3 minutes or less (180 seconds!) using only one PowerPoint slide. Monetary prizes will be awarded to the top 3 finalists and a People's Choice winner who will be selected in real-time by the audience.

Please encourage eligible students who are conducting exciting research and interested in participating in this year's 3MT Competition to first obtain their faculty adviser's support and then submit the Competition Registration Form by the Friday, March 4th deadline.  Please forward all questions to Ellen Tilden (etilden@binghamton.edu).

Happy Twosday

 Tuesday, 2-22-22

Grad Application for Degree

 Spring 2022: Degree Completion Deadlines

The Spring 2022 degree completion deadlines can be found on the Student Records webpage located here.

• Most important to note is that while students can submit the GAFD (Graduate Application for Degree) up through the last day of Spring classes, the deadline to submit the GAFD and be listed in the Commencement program is March 23rd. Please remind your graduate students of this important deadline. 

Procrastination update

Letterle

https://edjefferson.com/letterle/

Wordle

https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html

Wordle Archive (and 6-letter Wordle)

https://metzger.media/games/wordle-archive/

Dordle

https://zaratustra.itch.io/dordle

Quordle

https://www.quordle.com/

Nerdle

https://nerdlegame.com/

update:

Semantle (just don't play this)

https://semantle.novalis.org/

Worldle:

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/

Globle:

https://globle-game.com/

Absurdle:

https://qntm.org/files/absurdle/absurdle.html

News from the Graduate School

 Application for Add-On Certificate - Reminder

The Office of Graduate Recruitment and Admissions would like to send a friendly reminder about how matriculated students add a program certificate to their record. Students who are currently enrolled in a degree program should complete the Add-On Certificate Application Form and submit it via their my.binghamton.edu portal by the add/drop deadline of the semester in which they plan to graduate.

**Please note, matriculated graduate students should not use our normal online application to apply for an add-on certificate. This action will result in the removal of a student from their degree program. Students should only use our normal online application to apply for a stand alone certificate if they wish to enroll solely in the certificate program, and not earn a graduate degree.

Additional information and certificate policies are available in the Graduate School Manual. Questions about applying to a certificate program should be directed to the Office of Graduate Recruitment and Admissions via gradadmission@binghamton or 607-777-2151.  

Graduate Academic Writing Consultants

The Graduate Academic Writing Consultants are here to help any Binghamton graduate student with writing a paper, conference presentation, thesis, dissertation chapter, or any academic writing task.  They can help with: developing ideas, organizing paragraphs or sections, structuring an argument, proper citation, proof-reading and copy editing, and grammar. For more information and to sign up for a time, students should visit: https://www.binghamton.edu/grad-school/resources/writing-help.html.

Colloquium THURSDAY

Ariel Zylberman

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

University at Albany

"Rights, the Good, and Constitutivism"

Thu. 10 Feb

3:30p - 5:30p

UUW 324

dammit

 

Kant x Wild Cherry

 sound on

operating expenses of public universities?

 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/nyregion/new-york-budget-hochul.html

might work for philosophy abstracts, too

 https://www.tldrpapers.com/

mask efficacy chart

 

(from the WSJ)

winter journal controversies

for those keeping score:

in Philosophy:

https://dailynous.com/2022/01/03/philosophy-journal-hosts-debate-on-jewish-influence/

in Political Science: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/01/05/anatomy-political-theory-controversy/

in Law:

https://reason.com/2022/01/05/emory-law-journal-lawrence-alexander-michael-perry-festschrift/