With great pleasure we announce that Alice Chao-Wei Huang has been selected as the winner of the 2024 David Savan Dissertation Prize for her dissertation “Diversity in the Time of Data,” supervised by Jonathan Weisberg.
An honorable mention goes to Henry Krahn for his dissertation “Protest as Holding Others Accountable,” supervised by Sophia Moreau.
The prize is awarded in recognition of “the excellence of a doctoral thesis in philosophy submitted and successfully defended by a student in the Graduate Department.” The prize citation mentions “originality, rigour, and good writing” as the relevant criteria for the award.
Here is how the selection committee described Alice’s dissertation: “Alice Chao-Wei Huang’s masterful ‘Diversity in the Time of Data’ employs computational methods to extract philosophical insight on questions of diversity, expertise, and fairness, showing us not only how experts’ track records are only dubious guides to future success but also how deeply judgments of fairness depend on background information. The first chapter appears in Philosophy of Science, while the second appears in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, the two premier specialist journals in the area.”
Henry’s dissertation earned the following words: “Henry Krahn’s ‘Protest as Holding Others Accountable’ is a groundbreaking analysis of the moral and political importance of protest movements and of protest itself. The dissertation is distinguished for its novelty and insight, applying the insights about personal responsibility and interpersonal accountability to understand social movements, notably Black Lives Matter. A major contribution of the dissertation is to develop the notion of reproof, a response to wrongdoing that contrasts with persuasion and sanction, using it to illuminate the normative dimensions of protest.”
Once again, we had an extremely strong field of nominees this year, making Alice’s and Henry’s achievements all the more significant. As a department, we take great pride in our graduate students’ excellence.
Congratulations to Alice and Henry for their formidable work! Both of them are currently postdoctoral fellows, Alice at Harvard and Henry at NYU (as a Global Hauser Scholar). In the fall of 2025, Alice will begin a tenure-track position at the University of Western Ontario.
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