It's been brought to my attention that it's been forever and a half since I posted. Further evidence of it beeing too long between posts is that this will be the second post in a row linking to an APA meeting programme.
It's hella nifty, the conference is going to be full of people from WWU and/or Rutgers. 3 grad students who are WWU alumni will be presenting: Casey Karbowski (a first year in the Theology department at the University of Chicago), Neal Tognazzini (a third year in the Philosophy department at the University of California, Riverside) and myself. And there will be three WWU faculty there: Rob Epperson, Ned Markosian and Ryan Wasserman. As for Rutgers, there are five other students on the programme, Hilary Greaves, Christy Mag Uidhir, Jason Turner, Jonathan Weisberg and Dennis Whitcomb, as well as seven faculty members. Very, very cool.
Other stuff: Rutgers is fantastic. Something I especially appreciate: the grad students here get along really well - they hang out a lot and are very supportive of one another. And many members of the faculty are also like that - kind, helpful and willing to hang out a bunch. It's been easy to make myself feel at home here when the department is populated with people who are so welcoming. (A couple things of note that one might have worried about: the department is theist-friendly and female-friendly. We have quite a few student and faculty theists in the department, and I have yet to feel uncomfortable here due to my theistic beliefs. And the department is very conscious of gender issues, and the administration is working with the students to prevent any injustices, or even events that make women feel marginalised at all.)
Of course, I still really miss home. Luckily, I got to go visit not too long ago - in October I presented "Conditional Desires" at the Northwest Philosophy Conference, and got some very helpful feedback. Since the conference was in Seattle, I headed up to Bellingham to hang with the WWU profs and see all my favourite places again. (Like the Philosophy department and Boulevard Park. And, uh . . .) It was hard to leave at the end of the visit, and I'm planning on visiting again when I'm on the West coast for the Pacific APA.
Speaking of places, New Brunswick isn't so bad. In addition to being home to a great department, the town has some pretty bits. Like the Raritan Tow Path, which starts in New Brunswick and goes past Princeton. It's beautiful - a few weeks ago I went bike riding there, and the trees were all alight with reds, oranges and yellows. The path goes between two small rivers, so the colours of the trees were reflected in the water. Before long the sun began to set, so the sky was glowing as well and everything matched. It was lovely, and a bit of a surprise: I didn't think New Jersey could be so pretty.
Shortly after, I discovered it just depends on where you look. These two links are to pictures I took on a hike near the NJ/Pensylvania border with these three. The photos may not have the expressive power of some pictures, but I figure I'll still just let them speak for themselves.
As for Philosophy: I've been fairly busy lately with coursework and a couple extracurricular projects. I've still been working on "Conditional Desires", and am in the process of writing another paper on desires for one of my courses. (Expect a longer post on that after the New Year.) My other project this term has been fixing up a paper I'd written on Many-One Identity and the Trinity, to see if the Trinitarian can be helped by the claim that pluralities are identical to the things they compose. I argue they can't. (Expect that paper to be posted on my website some time over winter break.)
I think that's it for now, but I'll post again before too long. Happy end-of-term, everyone!
Shieva!
Nice to see an update ;) I'm glad to hear that the department at Rutgers is theist-friendly. I've realized how important that will be as I continue my education, and as I consider applying to Rutgers after I get my M.A., that information will come in handy. And I'm looking forward to reading the paper on pluralities, identity and the trinity.
Best Wishes and a Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Peter | December 08, 2005 at 01:22 PM
Hi Shieva, glad to hear you're enjoying things at Rutgers. The photos are really nice, we don't seem to get an Autumn down here. But anyways, I noticed you don't have a link for our grad conference site, so here's one:
https://webspace.utexas.edu/thp64/conf2006.htm
Take care, Aidan
Posted by: Aidan | December 11, 2005 at 10:08 PM
Hey Aidan,
I tried to go to the website you mentioned, but it says I need a password. Do you guys have a public website for the conference?
Thanks, and happy new year!
- Shieva
Posted by: Shieva | December 31, 2005 at 04:31 PM
Shieva,
Try this: https://webspace.utexas.edu/jtb538/utgradconference.htm
Good to hear you're enjoying Rutgers.
Best, John
Posted by: john | January 21, 2006 at 02:56 AM