We are delighted to announce the appointment, from 1 September 2020, of Dr Adina Covaci as a Teaching Fellow, specialising in moral and political Philosophy. Adina, who studied for her PhD at the University of Leeds, has previously taught at the University of Bristol. Adina will develop her research interests during her Fellowship, which include moral deference and topics in applied ethics, and will undertake teaching in both moral and political philosophy.

 Dr Thomas Crowther is a Commendee in this year’s WATE Awards, which recognises his outstanding contribution to the teaching of Philosophy during the course of this academic year. Tom says:

I am very happy to have been recognised through WATE. I am very proud to be a teacher, and particularly proud to be a teacher at the University of Warwick. I care very much about the work I do in teaching and supporting my students, whether it is inside or outside the classroom. Being recognized by WATE is evidence that I am doing at least something right! This will invigorate me to develop further as a teacher; particularly in negotiating the challenges of moving to blended learning.

Irene Dal Poz and Lorenzo Serini have also won awards in the WATE PGR category. This award acknowledges respectively both Irene and Lorenzo’s gifts of communication and their imaginative flair for engaging students through their teaching. 

Three members of the Philosophy Department have been nominated in this year’s WATE and WATE PGR Awards for their outstanding contribution to Teaching Excellence.

Dr Thomas Crowther has been shortlisted for this year’s WATE Awards in recognition of his inspirational teaching – as well as his dedication to outreach and well-being support for philosophy students. Irene Dal Poz and Lorenzo Serini, both studying for PhDs in Philosophy, have been shortlisted for the WATE PGR Awards. This nomination recognises Irene’s and Lorenzo’s natural flair for teaching in the classroom, as well as their ability to engage and motivate students. Congratulations to all three shortlisted candidates on their nominations. Winners of both categories will be announced in the summer.

Dr Patrick Tomlin has been awarded a year-long Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust, to run throughout 2021. The Fellowship will fund Patrick’s continuing research into the concept of proportionate harm or violence. There is widespread agreement between philosophers working on the ethics of war, self-defence, punishment and many other areas that, if harm or violence is to be justified, it must be proportionate. Patrick will use his Fellowship to develop the argument that this apparent consensus conceals a wide range of knotty philosophical puzzles about proportionality, including how to make proportionality calculations under uncertainty; what the relationship is between the proportionality of courses of action and individual acts; and how we should aggregate small harms or goods in thinking about proportionality. Patrick will publish his research on proportionality in a book which will be published by Oxford University Press.

We are delighted to announce that Dr Massimiliano Lacertosa has joined the Philosophy Department as a Teaching Fellow. Massimiliano (Max) joins the Department from SOAS, University of London, and specialises in Chinese philosophy. He also has wide interests that span ethics, continental philosophy, art, history, archaeology, photography, aesthetics and visual design. Max will be teaching modules in Chinese and comparative philosophy, and will develop our teaching programme in these areas.

We are delighted to announce that Dr Lucy Campbell has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in Philosophy. Lucy will take up her new role from 1 September 2019. Lucy is currently already with the Philosophy Department, on a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, which she will retain.

Lucy completed her PhD at Cambridge University in 2015, and has previously held teaching positions at Oxford (2017-18) and in Edinburgh (2015-16). She also completed an Analysis Studentship, also based in Oxford (2016-17).

Lucy's research interests are in philosophy of mind and action, in epistemology and - especially - in the intersection of these areas. She is currently developing her research on action-theory, particularly in relation to Elizabeth Anscombe.

Patrick Tomlin has joined the Department as Reader in Philosophy and Director of the BA in Politics, Philosophy and Law (PPL). Patrick comes from The University of Reading, where he taught for six years as a Lecturer and then Associate Professor in Political Theory. Prior to that, he was an AHRC-funded postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Law at Oxford, having also completed his DPhil in Political Theory there. Having spent his academic life between Politics, Law and Philosophy Departments, Patrick is especially excited to have been asked to lead Warwick's new PPL Degree.

The Department has introduced a new Personal Development Form to support Personal Tutor meetings. Personal Tutors should encourage these forms to be completed by their students in advance of their meetings to help them reflect on progress, development and to help identify areas where support is needed.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/undergraduate/student_support/personal-tutor/personaldevelopmentforms

A Special Philosophy Department Colloquium will take place on Wednesday 2 May 2018 on the Philosophy of Stupidity. The title of the event is 'Let's Not Be Stupid' and will take place in L5, Science Concourse, at 4.30pm. The Speakers will be Professor Quassim Cassam, Professor Miguel de Beistegui and Professor Diarmuid Costello. The Colloquium will be followed by Dinner; please contact Professor Cassam as soon as possible if you would like to attend the Dinner.

The aim of the Research Development Fund (RDF) is to increase the University's capacity and capability to undertake world-class, innovative and exciting research by providing pump-priming funds. The deadline for submitting applications for the 2018/19 Strategic Awards is Thursday 7 June 2018 at 4pm.