Tag Archives: philosophy

Philosopher Krista Thomason Awarded National Humanities Center Fellowship

Associate Professor of Philosophy Krista Thomason was recently recognized as a leading scholar by the National Humanities Center (NHC) with a 2021 residential fellowship to continue work on her second book project, Worms in the Garden: Bad Feelings in a Good Life.

The residential fellowship will allow Thomason to spend her sabbatical year at the NHC working alongside other fellows, which Thomason describes as “every scholar’s dream.” Worms in the Garden: Bad Feelings in a Good Life contemplates how one can live a good life without having to get rid of negative emotion.

“I teach moral philosophy regularly, and in that class, we use classic works in philosophy to help us think through the moral questions that we face in our everyday lives,” Thomason says of the book. “When I was thinking about how to approach this book, it hit me that I should use the same strategy that I use in the classroom. So, I draw on work from the history of philosophy to help answer the question, how do we live well with our bad feelings?”

Thomason was selected for the 35-person cohort from more than 600 applications. “When the VP of scholarly programs called me to tell me I’d been selected, he made sure to tell me that the committee thought my project was excellent philosophical scholarship with a wide appeal,” says Thomason, “which is a huge compliment.”

Robert D. Newman, president and director of the NHC, said in a statement: “We are proud to support the work of these exceptional scholars. They were selected from an extremely competitive group of applicants, and their work covers a wide gamut of fascinating topics that promises to shape thinking in their fields for years to come. I look forward to welcoming them to the center in the fall.”

The in-residence fellowship will take Thomason off the Swarthmore campus, but she doesn’t anticipate that much change in the environment.

“Being in a liberal arts college environment means you’re able to communicate what is significant or interesting about your work to people who don’t necessarily think like you do. It also means that you know how to learn from colleagues in different fields and that you value different scholarly approaches,” she says. “I’ll be with top-notch humanities scholars from a wide range of disciplines, so it’s not that different from my normal life at Swarthmore.”

The NHC is the only independent institute dedicated exclusively to advanced study in all areas of the humanities. Through its residential fellowship program, education programs, and public engagement, the NHC promotes understanding of the humanities and advocates for their foundational role in a democratic society.

[This blog post was reposted from the Swarthmore News and Event page and was written by Nora Kelly.]

https://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/philosopher-krista-thomason-awarded-national-humanities-center-fellowship

Announcing Professor Krista Thomason as Coordinator

Prof. Krista Thomason will serve as Coordinator of the Peace and Conflict Studies program at Swarthmore College during the academic year 2019-2020.

Prof. Krista Thomason

Prof. Thomason is an accomplished Associate Professor of Philosophy, who has served diligently on the Peace and Conflict Studies Committee for many years. She is wonderfully capable, and we are all certain to benefit from her leadership.

Professor Krista Thomason is an expert in moral emotions, shame and shaming, Immanuel Kant, genocide, and child soldiers. She is the author of Naked: The Dark Side of Shame and Moral Life (Oxford University Press). Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Kantian Review, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Southern Journal of Philosophy, and Philosophical Papers. She has taught courses in the Peace and Conflict Studies Program on Human Rights and Atrocity as well as Moral Philosophy and Social and Political Philosophy.

When you see Professor Thomason on campus in the fall, welcome and congratulate her. It’s going to be a great year!

Prof. Krista Thomason: Faculty Lecture Tomorrow

Krista Thomason, Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Member, Peace and Conflict Studies Faculty Committee

Tuesday, Feb. 13th, 4:15PM

McCabe Library Atrium

Child Soldiers and Moral Responsibility

“It is common to think that child soldiers cannot be morally responsible for the violence they commit: not only are they underage, they typically are forced to join paramilitary units, they suffer psychological and physical abuse, and they participate in combat only under threat of harm or death. Yet when we examine the first-person accounts of former child soldiers, we find that they see themselves as responsible for their actions. It is tempting to think that their feelings are simply misguided or a result of their trauma. I argue instead that child soldiers, like adult ex-combat soldiers, suffer moral injury and their feelings of responsibility are part of the process of redrawing the boundaries of their moral selves.”

Jill Stauffer’s Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard

From our friends at Haverford and including our own Prof. Krista Thomason

Upcoming GPPC / Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium event:

Author Meets Critics:

Jill Stauffer’s Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard

Saturday, February 25, 2017,1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Philipps Wing, Magill Library, Haverford College

Speakers:

Macalester Bell (Bryn Mawr)
Robert Bernasconi (Penn State)
Yannik Thiem (Villanova)
Krista Thomason (Swarthmore)1:00: Welcome, cookies, coffee and tea.
1:15: Krista Thomason, Swarthmore College
1:45: Yannik Thiem, Villanova University
2:15: short break
2:30: Macalester Bell (Bryn Mawr College)
3:00: Robert Bernasconi (Penn State University)
3:30: Jill Stauffer (Haverford College)
4:00: Q&A
4:30: Wine and cheese reception
5:30: End

Event sponsored jointly by the Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium and Haverford College’s Peace, Justice and Human Rights Program.

Ethical Loneliness – New Book by Jill Stauffer

Congratulations to our colleague, Dr. Jill Stauffer, Director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at Haverford College on the publication of her new book!

Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard

Ethical loneliness is the experience of being abandoned by humanity, compounded by the cruelty of wrongs not being heard. It is the result of multiple lapses on the part of human beings and political institutions that, in failing to listen well to survivors, deny them redress by negating their testimony and thwarting their claims for justice.

Jill Stauffer examines the root causes of ethical loneliness and how those in power revise history to serve their own ends rather than the needs of the abandoned. Out of this discussion, difficult truths about the desire and potential for political forgiveness, transitional justice, and political reconciliation emerge. Moving beyond a singular focus on truth commissions and legal trials, she considers more closely what is lost in the wake of oppression and violence, how selves and worlds are built and demolished, and who is responsible for re-creating lives after they are destroyed.

Stauffer boldly argues that rebuilding worlds and just institutions after violence is a broad obligation and that those who care about justice must first confront their own assumptions about autonomy, liberty, and responsibility before an effective response to violence can take place. In building her claims, Stauffer draws on the work of Emmanuel Levinas, Jean Améry, Eve Sedgwick, and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as concrete cases of justice and injustice across the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jill Stauffer is associate professor of philosophy and director of the concentration in peace, justice, and human rights at Haverford College. She is the coeditor (with Bettina Bergo) of Nietzsche and Levinas: “After the Death of a Certain God” and has published widely on issues of responsibility within and beyond legality.

Making Moral Arguments About Divestment

Making Moral Arguments About Divestment

Hans Oberdiek, Professor Emeritus
Krista Thomason, Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy

Monday, April 6, 2015
4:30 p.m.
Science Center 199

In conversations about divestment, economic arguments often take center stage. What about the moral arguments? Is divesting the right thing to do? Could there be moral arguments against divestment? Moral philosophers have been making moral arguments since the earliest days of philosophy, so the tools and skills they use can be helpful in thinking about the moral issues surrounding divestment. Join us for a conversation about the moral arguments for and against divestment.

This event is presented by the Philosophy Department and the Peace & Conflict Studies Program

Antisemitism, the Holocaust, and why antisemitism poses a challenge for the Left

We would like to share this announcement about an upcoming event that may be of interest:

Please join us for a talk by Moishe Postone, the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of History at the University of Chicago, on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.

On the basis of a reading of Marx’s social epistemology, Dr. Postone will seek to differentiate antisemitism from other racisms in ways that both explain the ideological frame necessary for the Holocaust and indicates why anti-Semitism poses a particular challenge for the Left.

This talk should be of special interest to students of European and intellectual history; social theory; and Jewish studies.

Thursday, February 28 in the Scheuer Room.

The event will begin at 4:30 p.m. with an introduction by President Chopp.

Sponsored by the President’s Office, the Deans Office, the Cooper Fund, Forum for Free Speech, the Interfaith Center, and the Departments of Religion, History, Political Science, and Sociology & Anthropology

Prof. Krista Thomason on human rights and service learning

Prof. Krista Thomason will be giving a talk entitled “Philosophy and Human Rights: Scholarship and Activism” at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in March 2013. The talk uses PHIL 051 Human Rights and Atrocity as a model for incorporating service learning into philosophy courses. It will feature examples of some of the final projects her students designed in Spring 2012. The talk also examines the ways in which scholarship can inform activism as well as the ways in which scholarship can be a form of activism.

Islam: Reform and Revival

From our friends at Haverford: A one-day symposium on “Islam: Reform and Revival.”

This will be an opportunity to share in the reflections of four distinguished participants in current debates about the nature of Islam (sponsored by the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship and the Distinguished Visitor’s Committee). On Thursday, 8 December, in Stokes 106, Abdulkarim Soroush, MohsenKadivar, Ali Mirsepassi, and Mahoud Sadri will be on campus sharing their thoughts and inviting our reflections on contemporary reform in Islam.

Professor Soroush has been visiting with us at Haverford this semester;
Professor Kadivar is a distinguished Iranian “cleric” and philosopher, who studied with Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in Qum and received his Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy and Theology from Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran.
Ali Mirsepassi is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Sociology at NYU, and Mahoud Sadri is Professor of Sociology at Texas Woman’s University.

The symposium begins at 9:30 and ends at 4:30 with a break for lunch in the CPCG Cafe.

Download a poster here.

Contact: Prof. Mark Gould