Philosophy News - Alumni - Department of Philosophy

Salem Kakish: Philosophy, Purpose, and the Power of Community—A Graduand Profile

Published: June 2, 2025

Posted In: Alumni, St. George, Undergraduate, UTM, UTSC

When Salem Kakish reflects on his undergraduate journey at the University of Toronto, he doesn’t just see a degree in philosophy—he sees a transformation. A graduating fourth-year philosophy specialist and soon-to-be Oxford law student, Salem’s story is one of intellectual curiosity, resilience, and a deep commitment to community. Born in … Read More

Alice C. W. Huang Awarded John Leyerle-CIFAR Prize for Interdisciplinary Research

Published: March 28, 2025

Posted In: Alumni, Awards and Honours, Graduate, St. George

Alice Chao-Wei Huang, who earned her PhD from the department in 2024 and is now a postdoctoral fellow in Harvard’s Embedded Ethics Program, received the John Leyerle-CIFAR Prize for Interdisciplinary Research. The selection committee, composed of graduate appointed professors at the University of Toronto, awarded her the prize for her … Read More

First Novel for Alumnus Scott Alexander Howard

Published: March 22, 2024

Posted In: Alumni, Announcements, Graduate, St. George

Scott Alexander Howard, who earned his PhD in Philosophy in 2011 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, has published his much-anticipated first novel, The Other Valley (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Howard, whose academic work focused on the relationship among memory, emotion, and literature, has written a piece of speculative … Read More

In Memoriam David Gauthier (1932-2023)

Published: November 13, 2023

Posted In: Alumni, Announcements, Faculty, Graduate, St. George, UTM, UTSC

It is with great sadness that the Department of Philosophy announces that our colleague, friend, alumnus, and respected teacher David Gauthier has died. He passed away on Thursday, November 9, 2023, at the age of 91. Gauthier earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from our department in 1954, to then … Read More

Acts of Listening: The 2023 Ontario High School Ethics Bowl

Published: March 28, 2023

Posted In: Alumni, Faculty, General, Graduate, In the News, St. George, Undergraduate, UTM, UTSC

By Petra Dreiser A lone, forest-green banner fluttered in the breeze outside the University of Toronto Mississauga’s (UTM) Instructional Building on the morning of Saturday, March 4, 2023. It offered a rare flash of colour in a landscape blanketed in layers of frosty white by the season’s most intense … Read More

2022 Prize-Winning CPA Essays

Published: February 13, 2023

Posted In: Alumni, Awards and Honours, General, Graduate, St. George

We are delighted to see included in the latest issue of Dialogue (61.3), a special issue on the Prizes of the Canadian Philosophical Association, three names associated with our program. Caitlin Hamblin-Yule, one of our current PhD students, won a prestigious Congress Graduate Merit Award (CGMA) for her essay “The Gallows … Read More

Celebrating David Gauthier

Published: September 1, 2022

Posted In: Alumni, Awards and Honours, Faculty, General, St. George, UTM, UTSC

A few months ahead of his 90th birthday, in May 2022, David Gauthier, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Philosophy at U of T, published not one but two volumes of collected writings with Oxford University Press. The achievement reflects perfectly Gauthier’s eminence in philosophy and the … Read More

Alumnus Nathan Ballantyne on the Call to “Do Your Own Research”

Published: January 5, 2022

Posted In: Alumni, In the News, St. George

“Do your own research!” It’s not an unfamiliar call, especially more recently, in debates around controversial topics from vaccine effectiveness to the causes of climate change. And it sounds empowering and measured, but in an opinion piece published in the New York Times on January 3, 2022, alumnus Nathan Ballantyne … Read More

Alumnus Stephen Yablo Talks Biography and Philosophy on “What Is It Like to Be a Philosopher?”

Published: December 2, 2021

Posted In: Alumni, General, St. George

Stephen Yablo, David W. Skinner Professor of Philosophy at MIT and an alumnus of the University of Toronto (BSc Philosophy & Mathematics, 1979), is widely recognized as a leading philosopher in his fields of inquiry: metaphysics, philosophy of logic an mathematics, and the philosophy of mind and language. The author … Read More

Past Six Months in Review

Published: November 10, 2021

Posted In: Alumni, Announcements, Awards and Honours, Faculty, Graduate, In the News, St. George, Staff, UTM, UTSC

It’s hard to believe we’re already in November 2021, but it’s worth pausing for a moment to review the past six months in the Department of Philosophy: we welcomed new colleagues, celebrated many awards and promotions, and also proudly sent a few freshly minted PhDs into the world. Read issue … Read More

Catherine Rioux Wins 2020 David Savan Dissertation Prize

Published: September 27, 2021

Posted In: Alumni, Awards and Honours, General, Graduate

The Graduate Department of Philosophy is happy to announce that the 2020 David Savan Disseration Prize has been awarded to Catherine Rioux for her dissertation Rational Hope. The dissertation brings together insights from epistemology, philosophy of mind, decision theory, and normative ethics to explore the nature of hope as a doxastic … Read More

In memoriam: Charles Mills (1951-2021)

Published: September 21, 2021

Posted In: Alumni, General, Graduate, St. George

The Department of Philosophy is saddened to announce the passing of one of our most eminent alumni, Professor Charles Mills (MA 1975, PhD 1985). Professor Mills began his graduate work in philosophy at Toronto in 1973, after completing an undergraduate degree in physics at the University of the West Indies, … Read More

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