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Congratulations to Dr. William Penn on being awarded the College of Letters and Science Course Development grant in Public Humanities. Well done!

To learn more about the research and development activities within the College of Letters and Science, visit Research – Letters & Science.

The Department would like to congratulate Moses Bidwell and Richard Sanderson on receiving the Seidler Award for 2025-2026.

Information regarding this award along with our other awards can be found at the following link:

Scholarships and Awards – Philosophy

Professor Blain Neufeld is now a co-host at “New Books in Philosophy” covering books about political and moral philosophy.

“New Books in Philosophy” is part of the New Books Network which is the largest book-focused podcast network in the world!

Below is a link to the podcast; and congratulations to Professor Neufeld for contributing to this exciting organization!

The Department would like to congratulate Professor Blain Neufeld on being awarded the C21 Faculty Fellows Award for 2026-2027.

For more information regarding the fellowship, please visit here.

The author of the best essay submitted will receive a monetary award of $2000, disbursed in fall 2026!

Eligibility:

• Enrolled 51���� student with declared Philosophy Major at time of submission.
• Continuing student (not graduating spring 2026)

How to apply:

• Submit general scholarship application on the Panther Scholarship App by deadline (2/22/26)
• Send essay (900-1500 words) in response to the prompt below as Word document by email to Professors Miren Boehm (boehmm@uwm.edu) and Matthew Knachel (knachel@uwm.edu) by deadline (Feb. 22, 2026).
• Deadline: February 22, 2026

Essay topic:

The skills one develops as a philosophy major are universally applicable. Disciplined, systematic thinking; the ability to interpret texts and assess different viewpoints; facility in critically analyzing and clearly formulating arguments—these skills are useful not only in tackling the most abstruse topics in metaphysics or epistemology, but also in confronting the sorts of everyday, contemporary issues that are important to every citizen in the modern world.

Using these skills, write a short essay (3 – 5 double-spaced pages = 900-1500 words) responding to the following prompt:

Recently, many state governments have enacted laws or promulgated policies that appear to restrict or otherwise subject to heightened scrutiny the subject-matter taught and discussed in college classrooms. Topics such as gender-identity, racism, ethnicity, and diversity in general are now subject to various forms of governmental oversight in these states. Should state governments be able to determine the content of the curriculum in their public universities in this way, or should curricular decisions be left to the faculty of those institutions? How should we balance the prerogative of government officials to oversee publicly funded institutions, on the one hand, with values like academic freedom on the other?

Submissions will be evaluated using the following four primary criteria:

1. thoroughness in articulating not only the author’s view on the issue in question, but also the most compelling version of the opposing viewpoint;
2. argumentative rigor: attention to the structure of arguments on both sides, with conclusions, premises, and the relationships among them made explicit;
3. clarity of presentation: the essay should be accessible to non-philosophers, non-academics—any curious, reasonably well-informed person
4. the quality and degree of independent, critical and creative thinking displayed in the paper.

Further instructions:

• Do not use AI in any part of the process of writing or proofing the essay.
• Because the emphasis in this competition is on philosophical argument, it is not necessary or advisable to do research for this paper. The task, rather, is to consider how one might argue on each side of the question, from first principles, as it were. Or, put another way: what counts as research for this paper is the construction, analysis and evaluation of arguments on both sides of the issue. Having done that “research”, one constructs the strongest argument one can on the topic, within the scope of a paper of this size, and one defends the argument in the face of possible counterarguments. Please direct inquiries about this essay competition to William Bristow (bristow@uwm.edu – Chair of Philosophy Department) or Ágúst Magnússon (magnusso@uwm.edu – Undergraduate Advisor for Philosophy Department).

Check out our very own about his recently published poetry book “Cemeteries and Galaxies.”

This marks Professor Koethe’s 13th published book of poetry.

Congratulations John!!!

Congratulations to 51���� philosophy major Braden Cooper, whose philosophy article has been accepted for publication in next month’s edition of Stance: An international undergraduate philosophy journal! The article is entitled: “Examining Aristotle’s Substance: Does AI Autonomy Warrant a Reinterpretation of Artifacts and Natural Substances?” Look for Braden’s article to appear next month at: