While the institute has quieted down for the summer, our members have still been quite busy. For one Rotman member in particular, we have two very exciting announcements. Please join us in congratulating Justin Bzovy who just began a limited term appointment at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. In addition to his new position, Justin also just welcomed a brand new daughter, Vivienne Esmeralda Bzovy. All the best to Justin in his new position, and to his new family!
Please also join us in congratulating Markus Müller, who was recently honoured with an award. On July 14th, during the 13th Biennial Meeting of the International Quantum Structures Association in Leicester, United Kingdom, Dr. Müller was awarded the “Birkhoff-von Neumann Prize 2016” by the IQSA. “The Birkhoff-von Neumann Prize prize is awarded once every two years during the award ceremony held at the bi-annual conference of the International Quantum Structures Association (IQSA). The candidates for the prize are selected by the IQSA prize committee for their outstanding scientific achievements in the field of quantum structures and the impact their work has on the research in quantum logic and quantum foundations.”
Beyond these special announcements, below is a list of presentations at recent conferences, and new publications by our members.
- The Précis of Mike Anderson’s book, After Phrenology: Neural Reuse and the Interactive Brain, was recently published in Behavioural and Brain Sciences. Peer commentaries, and the author response are also available.
- Michael Cuffaro, Lucas Dunlap, and Markus Müller presented talks at the 18th UK-European Foundations of Physics Conference held on July 16-18 at the LSE in London, UK. Their talks were titled “Quantum Reflections on Computational Complexity”, “The Information-Theoretic Interpretation of Quantum Theory and Ontic Structural Realism”, and “An operational approach to spacetime symmetries: Lorentz transformations from quantum communication”, respectively.
- Lucas Dunlap gave a talked titled “Psi-Ontology and Psi-Epsitemolgy: PBR and the Status of the Wavefunction” at the 4th International Summer School in the Philosophy of Physics held July 18-23 in the Black Forest in Saig, Germany.
- Four Rotman members gave talks and participated in workshops at the American Association of Philosophy Teachers 21st Biennial International Workshop/Conference on Teaching Philosophy held on July 27–31 at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan:
Yousuf Hasan attended the AAPT Seminar on Teaching and Learning Philosophy, a seminar designed to help participants improve their skills as learning-centered teachers.
Melissa Jacquart and Alida Liberman attended the AAPT Facilitator Training Workshop, an intensive four day workshop for advanced pedagogues, preparing them to be AAPT workshop facilitators.
Jessey Wright gave a talk titled “Learning from Experience: Using Games to Build Analogical Scaffolds”
Yousuf Hasan gave a talk titled “Beyond the Office: Philosophy Peer-Review Sessions for More Inclusive and Dynamical Office Hours” (Video of this talk is available here.)
Melissa Jacquart and Jessey Wright gave a talk titled “Effectively Teaching Pedagogy to Philosophy Graduate Students”
- In August, Alida Liberman will be presenting a paper at the 9th annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress in Boulder, Colorado, called “Wrongness, Responsibility, and Conscientious Refusal in Health Care.”
- A new article by Stathis Psillos, co-authored with Stavros Ioannidis, and titled “Mechanisms, counterfactuals and laws“, was made available in preprint on PhilSci Archive.
- Anthony Skelton took part in the International Society for Utilitarian Studies summer school and conference (ISUS 2016), held at Lille Catholic University, France. He taught a graduate course on July 4th, titled ‘Sidgwick’s Ethics: Utility, Duality and (?) Futility’. On July 6th, he presented a talk at the conference titled “Temporal Neutrality, Childhood and the Value of a Life“.
Pictured above: Yousuf Hasan (front), Jessey Wright, Alida Liberman, and Melissa Jacquart (left to right) at the American Association of Philosophy Teachers 21st Biennial International Workshop/Conference on Teaching Philosophy.
