Alumni Profiles: Brenden Goetz

Philosophy majors pursue a wide variety of career paths after graduation, including but not limited to law, business, and higher education. Every few weeks, we will be featuring one of our department’s alumni, highlighting how their studies in philosophy have helped them in their post-graduate careers.

Brenden Goetz graduated in 2007 with a degree in Philosophy. He now works as a Data Manager for the University of Colorado at Denver IT Department. When asked how studying philosophy has helped him in his career, he said:

“Studying philosophy was definitely a fantastic decision! Learning to dissect arguments and lines of reasoning, ask meaningful questions, and communicate clearly are skills I developed in school and use all the time. And a general curiosity for getting to the root of problems has served me well, too.”

Rutgers Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy

The American Philosophical Association, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, offers several undergraduate diversity institutes in philosophy. The goal of these institutes is to encourage and support undergraduates from underrepresented groups in philosophy.

19th Annual Rutgers Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy

Rutgers University will sponsor the 2017 Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy. This seven-day program is designed to introduce undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds to the various areas of specialization within the discipline of philosophy, give students a better idea of what graduate studies in philosophy is about, and explore various views about what it means to be a professional philosopher. Up to fifteen students will be given the opportunity to interact in formal and informal settings with a group of talented graduate students and distinguished faculty members from a number of universities.

Eligible students must demonstrate how their experiences and background foster greater diversity in the discipline of philosophy and be full-time students in a college or university in the United States (preference will be given to sophomores and juniors, though others are eligible). Interested students must be in good academic standing and be interested in philosophy as a career. The Institute will provide travel, room and board, and a $250 stipend. This year’s program will be held at the Continuing Studies & Conference Center in New Brunswick, NJ. Applications must be completed and submitted to the 2017 Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy and postmarked no later than May 8, 2017.

For more information, visit their website.

Call for Papers: Puget Sound Philosophy Day

The Puget Sound Department of Philosophy is now accepting papers for Philosophy Day. Philosophy Day will be on Friday, February 17, 2017.  Submission deadline is January 13, 2017. 

Papers selected for presentation will be allotted 20 minute presentation times, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. Submitted papers should have been written for a Philosophy class at the University of Puget Sound (including classes not numbered in PHIL but taught by a professor in the Philosophy Department).

Send submissions (prepared for anonymous review, in Microsoft Word, .rtf, or .txt format) as an email attached to pugetsoundphilosophy@gmail.com no later than January 13, 2017. In the body of the email include the author’s name, contact information, and the title of the paper. Include no identifying information in the file with the paper. Papers will be selected by a panel of alumni.

Email pugetsoundphilosophy@gmail.com with any questions.

Professor Tiehen Publishes on Ad Populum

Professor Justin Tiehen recently published a blog post on Ad Populum about how statistics of tweets about anti-Semitism may be misleading. You can read the post here.

“More realistically, a scenario in which lots and lots of people are writing occasional anti-Semitic tweets while a few people are writing tons of them (70% worth) doesn’t seem like much of an improvement on a scenario with the same overall number of people writing anti-Semitic tweets but with a more equal distribution. If this is right, the 70%-1,600 figure seems like the wrong way to try to get a handle on the extent of the problem.”