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. To this end, a theme will be chosen for each month during the Fall and Spring semesters and two philosophers of science will be made available, either individually or together, to graduate students via Zoom through online sign-up sheet posted at the bottom of this page. The students will select from the following categories that which best describes what they seek out of 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.

Please note: in the month of October we will be running a ‘careers spotlight’, in which philosophers of science who have gone on to have jobs outside of academic settings will be made available to discuss some alternative but rewarding potential career pathways from a philosophy of science PhD. For these sessions there is no need to provide a specific research question, but it would be helpful for the hosts if you describe what you most seek out of the session in the ‘Other’ field.
 

Upcoming Office Hours - 2024/2025

September: Philosophy of Climate Science

Wendy Parker (Virginia Tech) and Greg Lusk (Durham University): Friday Sept 27th 2024, 12pm EDT

Wendy Parker

Wendy Parker's work focuses mainly on the epistemology and methodology of contemporary science. She is interested in how computer simulation models are used in scientific practice (for prediction, explanation, ...), how these models should be evaluated, and how uncertainty associated with their results should be represented and communicated. She has explored these issues both in general and in the context of climate modeling. More broadly, she is interested in how evidence for scientific claims is obtained and evaluated. Recently, she has also been thinking about how non-epistemic values play a role in the assessment of scientific research and its products.




Greg Lusk

Greg Lusk is a philosopher who studies the methodology and epistemology of socially-relevant science. Greg's projects tend to focus on the use of computer simulations, particularly within climate science. Though rooted in philosophy, Greg's work is deeply informed by scientific practice and his interdisciplinary training. His most recent project is an examination of data centrism and the use of big data in atmospheric science, and is supported by an award from the National Science Foundation. Greg received his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Toronto in 2015, after which he undertook a three-year postdoc at the University of Chicago.



 

October: Careers Spotlight 

Clinical Ethics - Friday October 11th 2024, 12pm EDT

Dr Thomas Cunningham
Bioethics Director, Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center


Many clinical ethicists have philosophy backgrounds. This conversation will discuss the
pathway from graduate school in philosophy (of biology, medicine, or general
philosophy of science) to working primarily in a hospital, medical school or health
system setting.






 

Climate Policy -  Friday October 18th 2024, 12pm EDT

Michael Weisberg
Bess W. Heyman President's Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, UPenn, and IPCC Report author / Senior UN Climate Negotiator


This conversation will focus on career paths for philosophers of science in the area of climate policy, particularly but not exclusively in the multilateral space (UN, G20, etc.).

 

November: Philosophy of Psychology

Carrie Figdor (University of Iowa) and Sarah Robins (Purdue University): Friday November 8th 2024, 12pm EST

Carrie Figdor

Dr. Figdor's primary research areas are philosophy of psychology and neuroscience, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, and metaphysics, plus neuroethics and media ethics. Her main research project is the theoretical integration of psychology with biology. Her first book, Pieces of Mind: The proper domain of psychological predicates (OUP, 2018) considered the interpretation of psychological terms used throughout biology. It won an Honorable Mention for the APA Marc Sanders Book Prize in 2019. She is currently working on her second book, tentatively titled Species-Neutral Psychology, on the individuation of cognitive capacities from the perspective of biology. Other works in progress are on the relation between psychology and moral status, and the epistemology of journalism. 



Sarah Robins

Sarah Robins’ research focuses on memory, a topic through which she explores a range of issues in philosophy of mind, psychology, and neuroscience. She is particularly interested in the concept of the memory trace, or engram, and the role it plays in both everyday and scientific thinking about remembering. Robins has published in a range of venues in philosophy and cognitive science, including Philosophical Studies, Philosophy of Science, Wires Cognitive Science, Philosophical Psychology, Synthese, Minds & Machines, and Child Development. Beyond memory, Robins has interests in mechanistic explanation, tacit knowledge, and cognitive ontology.   


 

January: Engaged Philosophy of Science

Kevin Elliott (Michigan State University) & Katie Plaisance (Waterloo), Wednesday January 22nd 2025, 12pm EST
 

Kevin Elliott

Kevin Elliott’s scholarship focuses on responsibly addressing the roles that ethical and social values play in scientific research, especially in policy-relevant areas of environmental research. He has explored the influences of financial conflicts of interest in research, ethical issues that arise in science communication, and collaborative authorship practices in science teams. Trained in the history and philosophy of science, he engages actively in interdisciplinary work by collaborating with environmental scientists and working with scientific and policy organizations like the European Food Safety Authority and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Is a Little Pollution Good for You? Incorporating Societal Values in Environmental Research (2011) and A Tapestry of Values: An Introduction to Values in Science (2017). His courses tend to focus on environmental philosophy and on the many roles that ethical and social values play in scientific research.






Katie Plaisance

Kathryn (Katie) Plaisance is an Associate Professor in Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo, cross-appointed to the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology. Katie does research in Philosophy of Science, Social Epistemology, Human Behavioral Genetics, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration. She is currently holds a SSHRC Insight Grant (2020-26) to study and foster collaborations between philosophers and STEM researchers.

Join Us!

Selected previous PSA Office Hours