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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

On a U of T blue background, a black-and-white headshot of Mark Kingwell, a serious-looking white man with short hair in his late fifties.

Examining a Crisis of Trust: Mark Kingwell’s Latest Book

Published: May 28, 2025

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Mark Kingwell’s latest book, Question Authority: A Polemic about Trust in Five Meditations (Biblioasis 2025), examines what he perceives as an immense crisis of trust in institutions of democratic authority and knowledge production. Kingwell asks readers to reassess how they think for themselves, also offering suggestions for restoring a healthy … Read More

Head shot of Alex Koo, an East Asian man with short black hair, glasses, and wearing a light blue button-down, smiling into the camera

Alex Koo Wins Outstanding Teaching Award–Early Career

Published: May 24, 2025

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Alex Koo, an assistant professor in the Teaching Stream, has won the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Outstanding Teaching Award–Early Career. The award recognizes excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, with a focus on classroom instruction, course design, and curriculum development. “The quality of our undergraduate and graduate teaching is … Read More

On a U of T blue background, from left to right, headshots of: Soouyoung Moon, Joshua Brecka,Alexander Drusda and Faisal Bhabha (top row); Jules Sheldon, Yi-Chen Lin, and Zoe Leslie (bottom row), all alongside their names in light blue

2025 Graduate Student Service Awards

Published: May 7, 2025

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At the Department of Philosophy’s annual Spring Party, Faisal Bhabha, Josh Brecka, Alex Drusda, Zoe Leslie, Yi-Cheng Lin, Sooyoung Moon, and Jules Sheldon each received a Graduate Student Service Award. The annual prize celebrates initiatives undertaken by graduate students to support and improve the community. “The functioning and climate of our … Read More

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Jovy Chan Successfully Defends Dissertation

Published: May 6, 2025

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Congratulations to Jovy Chan, who recently defended her doctoral dissertation with success, making her the department’s latest PhD. Chan wrote “Managing the Human Herd in the Digital World” under the supervision of Joe Heath. She now looks forward to beginning a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford. We look forward to your … Read More

On a U of T blue background, a headshot of a smiling Alice Huang, an East Asian woman with long, black hair, in front og a bookshelf Her name is included on the background, in orange.

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

Published: March 28, 2025

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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

On a U of T blue background, head shots of Kristen Beard (l), a young person with long, strawberry blonde hair and glasses, and Brendan de Kenessey, a white man with short dark hair and beard.

Kristen Beard & Brendan de Kenessey Awarded 2025 Marc Sanders Foundation Media Fellowships

Published: March 26, 2025

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Kristen Beard, a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy, and Brendan de Kenessey, an assistant professor, have been awarded 2025 Marc Sanders Foundation Media Fellowships. The Foundation’s Philosophy in Media Initiative aims to increase the presence of philosophy in print, audio, and video media by training philosophers to write … Read More

On a U of T blue background, three circles with head shots of Alexandra Gustafson (l), a white woman with long blonde hair, Samuella Ojo (r), a black woman with braids, and the pale pink and burgundy logo of the podcast called The Agora (c).

New Philosophy Podcast at UTSC

Published: March 3, 2025

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On Valentine’s Day, the Association of Philosophy Students (APS) at UTSC launched the first episode of their new philosophy podcast, The Agora. The podcast is one of several initiatives APS executives undertook to revitalize undergraduate philosophy at UTSC. Hosted by Samuella Ojo, a second-year student, their debut episode delves deep into … Read More

Banner of Alexandra Gustafson, Bowen Chan, Andrew Lavigne, and Matthew Delhey. Their names appear in alternating blue squares

Recent PhDs

Published: February 24, 2025

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The Philosophy Department is proud to add four new PhDs to its roster:  Alexandra Gustafson defended “Arrested Attention: Essays on the Phenomenology of Love,” supervised by Andrew Franklin-Hall, in October 2024. Bowen Chan defended “The Spectrum of Virtue: From the Decent to the Excellent,” supervised by Tom Hurka, in November … Read More

On a U of T blue grid, headshots of, from left to right, Joshua Brecka, Schuyler Pringle, Julia Minarik, and Bowen Chan, alongside their names in light blue.

Four Students Win CPA Congress Graduate Merit Awards

Published: January 24, 2025

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For their essays, four graduate students from the department received Congress Graduate Merit Award (CGMA) Prizes at the 2024 Canadian Philosophical Association Conference: Joshua Brecka for “Social Knowledge and Rational Group Action”; Bowen Chan for “Tough Love, White Lies, Hard Truths, and Mixed Motives”; Julia Minarik for “The Imaginative Character of Text-to-Image … Read More