PSA Office Hour

The PSA Office Hour aims to facilitate interactions between our graduate student membership and prominent philosophers of science, and in a more controlled, accessible, and carbon-conscious setting than is provided by our biennial conference. In each Office Hour graduate students will be given the opportunity to connect via Zoom to professors working in related areas to troubleshoot problems occurring in their own research or get clearer on that of the professor.  The students will select from the following categories that which best describes what they seek from the opportunity:

• Input on dissertation topic choice
• Guidance on a problem occurring in own research
• Clarification on an issue within professor’s research
• Other (please describe)

and be invited to write a short paragraph in which they describe in more detail what they would like to discuss with the professor. Students from any institution, region, or at any stage of their graduate studies are welcome to attend. Where sessions receive more than 6 requests for participation a selection will be made to maximize thematic cohesion and promote resource redistribution.

Office hours will last up to 90 minutes and participants must be current members of the PSA. This opportunity is primarily for graduate students, but postdocs are free to apply as well. There are links to join future sessions, as well as to request / volunteer as a professor at the bottom of this page.

Upcoming Office Hours - 2026

All times Eastern Standard Time (EST)

October: Philosophy of Physics

James Read, University of Oxford - Tuesday, October 20th 2026, 12pm EST

James Read

James Read is Professor of the Philosophy Physics at the University of Oxford. His research research is in the philosophy of physics, especially the philosophy of spacetime theories.









 

November: Philosophy of Biology

Elliott Sober, University of Wisconsin (Madison) - Wednesday, November 4th 2026, 12pm EST

Elliott Sober

Elliott Sober is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). His research in general philosophy of science concerns probabilistic reasoning, explanation, reductionism, causality, and parsimony. His research in philosophy of evolutionary biology concerns central concepts like common ancestry, random mutations, drift, gradualism, and units of selection.





 

December: Philosophy of Geosciences

Alisa N. Bokulich, Boston University - Wednesday, December 9th 2026, 1pm EST

Alisa Bokulich

Alisa Bokulich is a Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. Her research is primarily focused on scientific modeling, data, and explanation in the physical sciences, especially (more recently) the Earth sciences (geosciences). She has published on a wide range of topics, including history of physics (e.g., Bohr’s correspondence principle, Dirac, Maxwell), intertheory relations (especially quantum-classical relation), thought experiments, supertasks, fictions in science, metaphysical indeterminacy, non-causal explanations, data models, and modeling in the geosciences.

Join Us!

Selected previous PSA Office Hours

November 2024: Philosophy of Psychology with Carrie Figdor and Sarah Robins
January 2025: Engaged Philosophy of Science with Kevin Elliott and Katie Plaisance 
February 2025: Philosophy of Psychiatry with Serife Tekin and Jonathan Tsou
March 2025: Epistemology of Scientific Communities/Social Epistemology with Cailin O'Connor
April 2025: Philosophers of Sciece in Industry: Biotechnology, Medical Affairs, and AI with Mikio Akagi, Suzanne Kawamleh, Nick Zatura, Michael Thornton, Cheryl Lancaster, Grace Field, and Mahi Haradalupus