Philosophy and Religion at Northeastern University

When the students are away, the professors…….play kickball? 👟

Kudos to Profs Getty Lustila and Jacob Stump, and our administrator Claire, for repping the department at the Faculty & Staff kickball tournament yesterday!☀️

The Northeastern University College of Social Sciences and Humanities team destroyed CAMD and COS, but sadly lost to Bouvé by the day’s end. Until next year! 👟

Bringing the social and ethical responsibilities of computing to the forefront MIT Schwarzman College of Computing's inaugural Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) Symposium convened experts from multiple disciplines to explore the challenges and opportunities that arise with the broad applicability of computing in many aspects of society.

Congratulations to Jordan McMaster, another recipient of the 2023 Setta Meyer award!

Throughout her time at the Northeastern University College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Jordan has become a regular in our department, serving as coordinator for Professor Smead's Rossetti Research Group and also as a TA for Intro to Logic.

After graduation, Jordan will be working at the New York State Assembly. She eventually plans to attend graduate or law school. We're so grateful for everything she's done for our community - thank you, Jordan!

🎉Thanks to everyone who attended our Senior Lunch! We had such a blast celebrating our graduating majors and minors. 🎉

🎓Congratulations to the Class of 2023! We are so proud of everything you've accomplished.🎓

A little-known use of ? Cocktail creation! In The Atlantic, Dr. Kathleen Creel explains why ChatGPT makes for such a decent mixologist:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/04/chatgpt-generative-ai-reliability-creativity-grocery-list/673759/

You Should Ask a Chatbot to Make You a Drink AI is great at coming up with cocktail recipes, even as it fails at other tasks. Just don’t ask it to get too creative with the garnishes.

Congratulations to Ryan Ellegood, one of this year’s recipients for the Setta Meyer Award! Ryan was selected for his efforts in building out the Philosophy for Children program with Professor Yelle.

Upon graduation, Ryan hopes to continue exploring the world of education, as both a graduate student and as an educator in Brookline. Through philosophical inquiry and hands-on work in the classroom, he hopes to gain a better understanding of what education can and should look like in the 21st century.

The Setta Meyer award goes to a graduating senior who has gone above and beyond in contributing to the Department of Philosophy and Religion community. This award acknowledges that philosophy is, at its best, a collective endeavor.

🚨Apply to the Undergraduate Research Initiative. Deadline has been extended to Thursday, April 20! 🚨

Details below ⬇️ apply at the l!nk in our bio!

Eligibility: Majors and combined majors in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities are eligible. Students who receive other funding (e.g., from the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships) for the same projects are eligible for funding only for those expenses not covered by other awards. Students must note in their application if they have applied to other funding sources and notify Laura Green immediately, with a revised budget request, if they have success in securing such funding.

Details of Award:

✅Applications may be for individual or group projects. ✅All applications must identify at least one faculty mentor.
✅Amount awarded will be up to $1500 for individual projects; up to $3000 for group projects.
✅Award may aid any stage of the project.
✅Eligible requests include, but are not restricted to, stipends to support student participation, materials, and supplies, aid in data collection, or dissemination of work.
✅Recipients must submit a brief progress report to Associate Dean Laura Green ([email protected]) at the end of the eighth week of the first semester of funding and a final report at the conclusion of the student’s participation in the research project.
✅Recipients are strongly encouraged to present their work at an on-campus venue such as the Undergraduate Research Forum or RISE.

We are totally biased, but we have the best faculty. ❤️💯

This is all to say - congratulations to Professors McLeod and Lee for their teaching awards this year! We're so lucky to have y'all😊

We had a blast hearing from Dr. David Chalmers at our 19th Annual Information Ethics Roundtable this past weekend!

This year's conference focused on virtual reality, providing an opportunity for scholars to reflect on what virtual and augmented reality means for society and ourselves.

In Chalmers' 2022 book Reality+, he argues that virtual reality is genuine reality. Tackling classic philosophical questions from this angle, he unpacks the ethical dilemmas that VR brings on — like how we can lead a good life and create a just society in these new spaces.

The Information Ethics Roundtable is proudly sponsored by the Northeastern University College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Khoury College of Computer and Information Sciences, the Ethics Institute, and the Department of Philosophy and Religion.

🥪 Tomorrow is a BIG day for free food! We’ve got you covered at 12pm in Renaissance park for our next ethics institute speaker (AKA Tatte-and-a-talk), Shane Epting. 🥪

🫒Then, at 6pm in Cabral Center we’ll be welcoming author David Chalmers for the kickoff event in our Information Ethics Roundtable, featuring food from Aceituna grill.🫒

👀Hope to see you there! 👀