News and Events

Department News

• Remembering Steven Burns The Philosophy Department has collected some reminiscences of and tributes to our late friend and colleague, Dr Steven Burns. You can read them here.
• Steven A. M. Burns (1941-2024) With sadness, the Philosophy Department acknowledges the passing on September 19, at home in the company of his family, of Dr. Steven A. M. Burns, a much-loved colleague who taught at Dalhousie and King’s for many years. Steven joined the Dalhousie Philosophy Department in 1969, not long before defending his D. Phil. dissertation entitled “Self-Deception” under the supervision of Peter Winch at Birkbeck College, University of London. He was one of a wave of new hires who shaped the Department for over three decades. He later liked to joke that he offered classes on people whose names began with ‘W’—Wagner, Weil, Winch, Wittgenstein—but he also taught, among other topics, Ancient Philosophy, Marxist Theory, and—one of his most popular classes—Philosophy of Art. He played a key role in developing the Department’s highly successful PhD program, and he supervised thirty-four graduate students, including two PhDs. He served as the Department’s Graduate Program Coordinator for thirteen years and also as Chair of the Department from 1988 to 1992. In 2006 he was given the Dalhousie Faculty of Graduate Studies Distinguished Service Award. During the 1990s he was instrumental in establishing the Contemporary Studies Program at the University of King’s College, serving as the program’s Director from 2001 to 2003. After his retirement from Dalhousie in 2006, he continued to teach in CSP until 2013. His publications range over a wide field of topics, from translations of Winch and Weininger and essays on Wittgenstein, Hume and Plato, to papers on environmental ethics, the history of Canadian philosophy, Canadian literature (Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen, Robertson Davies), aesthetics, philosophy and film, and understanding jokes. (Wittgenstein reportedly remarked that “a serious and good philosophical work could be written that would consist entirely of jokes.” Steven proved this by writing one). He was the founder of the Atlantic Canada Wittgenstein Reading Group and a champion of Canadian bilingualism and of Canadian philosophy, both in his writing and in his long-time involvement with the Canadian Philosophical Association/ Association canadienne de philosophie (as Associate Secretary, Secretary and program Chair), and the Atlantic Region Philosophers’ Association (ARPA), at whose 2022 meetings he was celebrated in two special sessions devoted to his work and interests. Some of the essays from those sessions will soon appear in a special issue of Dialogue, together with Steven’s responses. Steven was loved by everyone who knew him, and his colleagues, students and friends in the Department and beyond will miss him greatly. We extend our sympathies to his family, his partner Janet Ross, their children, Emma, Maggie and Ross, and their partners and children. A memorial concert, featuring some of Steven’s favourite music, performed by the Blue Engine String Quartet, will be held at St. George’s Round Church in Halifax on October 20 at 4:00pm. Donations in Steven’s memory can be made to the Steven Burns Undergraduate Essay Prize in the History of Philosophy, care of the Philosophy Department. Steven compiled a large library, and the Philosophy Department will be stocking shelves in the Office/Lounge area with some of them. If you knew Steven and would like a memento, please drop by the Department (McCain 1142) and select a book or two from Steven’s collection.
• Letitia Meynell and Clarisse Paron’s open educational resource, the Applied Ethics Primer, is now available in hard copy through Broadview Press.
• Congratulations to Richmond Campbell (Professor Emeritus) and Victor Kumar (BA Hons, Dalhousie; Assistant Professor, Boston University) whose book, A Better Ape (2022), was the topic of a symposium session at the annual meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association.
• Congratulations to Callahan Laing, who is the 2023 recipient of the F. Hilton Page Memorial Prize, awarded to a graduating student whose thesis is judged to be outstanding. Callahan’s thesis, supervised by Dr. Stephanie Kapusta, is entitled “Gender Under Construction: Building a Better Framework.” 
• Congratulations to Alexis Amero, who is the 2023 recipient of the Roland Puccetti Memorial Award for the best essay submitted by a student in a 3000- or 4000-level class. Alexis’s essay is entitled “On Monogamy and Adaptive Preference Formation: An Argument for Classifying Mononormality as an Autonomy Impairment.” 
• Congratulations to Ford Doolittle, emeritus professor in the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry and cross-appointed in Philosophy, who has just been elected to the Royal Society.
• Congratulations to Stephanie Kapusta, who has been awarded tenure and promotion to associate professor, effective July 1. 2023!
• Congratulations to Francoise Baylis and Andrew Fenton for co-authoring an article/commentary in 'The Conversation'
• The department notes with sadness the passing of Terrance Tomkow. Terry was a professor in the department from the mid-70s to the early 90’s. He was a forceful influence on many of the professors and students in the department in that period, as well as in Canadian philosophy generally. He helped shape the minds of students who later became professors in various positions across the country. A brief obituary is available here: https://mises.org/power-market/terry-tomkow-rip Some of his work, published and in manuscript form, much of it co-authored with his partner, Kadri Vihvelin, who also held a position in our department, and the bulk of whose career has been in the philosophy department at the University of Southern California, can be read here: https://philpeople.org/profiles/terrance-a-tomkow
• Andrew Fenton was recently interviewed for an animal studies podcast - Buddhist animal research ethics, on the subject, 'Re-Seeing Animal Research Ethics in Light of COVID-19'
• Congratulations to Kate Sutherland Hartling, who has been selected as this year’s winner of the KimRilda LeBlanc Memorial Award, which recognizes outstanding interdisciplinary initiatives between the arts and the health sciences, in honour of the memory of this former graduate student in English. Kate, who received her MA in October 2022, was nominated for her MA thesis entitled “Condoms and Conditions on Consent: Upholding Intentions, Understanding, and Agency for Consensual Sex.”
• Duncan MacInosh was recently interviewed for the CRAM Podcast—Extraordinary Ideas Unleashed, on the subject, Are You a Rational Person? 
• Duncan MacIntosh recently delivered a guest lecture to the Naval Warfare Officer Symposium, Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Fleet, Atlantic, on philosophical theories of the self as applied to emotional intelligence, self-awareness and leadership.
• Congratulations to Dr. Francoise Baylis, recipient of the 2022 Killam Prize.
• Congratulations our PhD Student Lara Millman is one of the Open Thinkers 2022. More information can be found via the Open Thinkers Blog.
• Clarisse Paron (PhD); and Tejas Pandya (MA) participated in the TEDxDalhousieU 2022 event.
  Watch Tejas' video HERE
  Watch Clarisse's video