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On a U of T blue background, a head shot of a young Filipino person with short hair and glasses standing in front of a bright green background wearing a white T-shirt underneath a heather cardigan. The name "Alexander de Guzman" floats in bright green on the U of T blue surface as well.

2025 Martha Lile Love Essay Award

Published: December 15, 2025

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We are delighted to announce Alexander de Guzman as the winner of this year’s Martha Lile Love Essay Award for his paper, “Outsourced Deliberation: Attention, Advertising, and the Myth of Control.” He wrote the essay for an independent study with Sara Aronowitz. The selection committee noted about the award-winning essay, … Read More

On a U of T blue background, a head shot of an East Asian man with short black hair and glasses standing in front of a book case wearing a blush-colored button-down shirt.

Our Latest PhD

Published: December 10, 2025

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Congratulations to Liang Zhou Koh, the most recently minted PhD in the Department of Philosophy at U of T. He successfully defended his dissertation in the field of epistemology titled “Knowing Together,” written under the supervision of Jennifer Nagel. He has now taken on a postdoctoral fellowship in the Philosophy … Read More

On a U of T blue background, two photo vignettes, the one on the left showing Zifan Nameer, a young brown man with shoulder-length, wavy black hair and a beard wearing a black shirt under a black leather jacket, while the one on the right shows Matthew DeKock, a white person with straight blond hair smiling broadly into the camera and wearing glasses and a lumberjack shirt.

2025 Philosophy Undergraduate Essay Award Winners: Zifan Nameer & Matthew DeKock

Published: November 21, 2025

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Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Undergraduate Essay Awards: Zifan Nameer claimed the Hypatia Award for advanced undergraduates with his essay titled “How Is Metaphysics Metaphysically Possible?” The Spinoza Award, which recognizes excellence in undergraduate philosophy writing for early-year students, went to Matthew DeKock for his paper titled “Do … Read More

On a U of T blue background, three photo vignettes, from left to right: Yiwen Mao, an Asian person with short hair wearing an anorak; Sophie Zhang, an East Asian girl with long hair in a school uniform; and Diksha Mehta, a South East Asian young woman with long hair and glasses sitting on a bench wearing a pink blouse.

The 2025 Aristotle Contest Winners Revealed

Published: November 7, 2025

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Yiwen (Molly) Mao, Sophie Zhang, and Diksha Mehta–they emerged victorious, but “competition was exceptionally tough this year” in the 2025 Aristotle Contest edition, says Jim John, the Department of Philosophy’s high school coordinator and lead of the Aristotle Contest adjudicating committee. Rising above the crowd in a highly competitive field, … Read More

On a U of T blue background, headshots of, from left to right, John Miller, David Rattray, and Kristen Beard. Miller is a bearded Metis man standing in front of a vast shore landscape, while w=Rattray, a white man with short brown hair, sits full frame in a blue button down, and Beard sports long blonde hair, glasses, and a big smile standing in front of a primarily yellow bookcase.

Recent PhDs

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The Department of Philosophy congratulates its three most recent PhDs: In September, John R. Miller successfully defended his dissertation titled “Wahkootowin Ethics: A Métis Approach to the Ethics of Kinship,” supervised by Andrew Franklin-Hall. Miller currently holds the position of lecturer at the University of Victoria. David Rattray and Kristen Beard … Read More

On a U of T blue background, headshots of Kira Jensen (left) and Patrina van Nieuwstadt (right), both young women with long, straight hair, Kira blone and Patrina dark brown. The images are accompanied by their names in powder blue.

Petrina van Nieuwstadt & Kira Jensen Awarded JHI Undergraduate Fellowships for 2025-2026

Published: June 17, 2025

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Two Philosophy undergraduate students, Petrina von Nieuwstadt and Kira Jensen, each received a 2025-2026 Undergraduate Fellowship at the Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI), allowing them to advance work on projects under the JHI’s Dystopia & Trust theme for the coming year. The JHI offers six such fellowships per year. Petrina von … Read More

On a U of T blue background, portrait shots of (l to r) Cameron Yetman, Joshua Brecka, and Alexander Drusda. All are young white man with short hair and glasses. Brecka has a full short beard. Their names accompany the images in light blue.

2025 CPA Prize Winners: Cameron Yetman, Alexander Drusda, Joshua Brecka

Published: June 3, 2025

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At the Canadian Philosophical Association (CPA) Annual Congress on June 2, 2025, three of our graduate students—Cameron Yetman, Alex Drusda, and Josh Brecka—were formally recognized as winners of CPA 2025 academic prizes, recognizing excellence in philosophical scholarship across multiple categories. Yetman and Drusda both received a CPA Student Essay Prize, … Read More