Grad profile: A classic case of academic success

Justin Singer is likely to challenge everything you think you know about students of classics and philosophy.

Given that he specializes in ancient mathematics and astronomy, one could be forgiven for thinking Justin might spend his time alone with dusty books and manuscripts. Instead, his studies drive him to understand how mathematical laws are revealed in nature and to apply this knowledge to environmental issues like climate change.

His desire to apply classical and philosophical studies to modern problems led Justin to pursue an MA in ancient philosophy in the Classics Department. He completed what his supervisor, Eli Diamond, calls a “first-class thesis” about mathematics in ancient philosophy. “Justin is passionately interested in understanding better how mathematical laws and principles express themselves in the natural world, and what this means ethically for the way we should relate to our natural environment.”

For Justin, it’s worked this way: “Dal really got me thinking about the way I think. The way the Department of Classics teaches philosophy—it becomes something in which we actually engage. Part of that is being aware of how the political state of one’s community relates to the activity of intellectual inquiry in that community. If there’s a problem, if that inquiry is threatened, we have to act.”

To put his beliefs into action, Justin organized an on-campus rally for the national movement Stand Up for Science, which speaks out about funding cuts and limits to what scientists can say about their findings.

Addressing the crowd, he stated, "Through my academic work here, I have learned that the nearness of humans to the highest degree of excellence is measured by their mastery in the activity of reason. Scientific knowledge is essential to the survival of life on earth, for if we do not understand the system of which we are a part, we will be unable to function properly within it."

A community leader

Studying at Dalhousie immersed Justin in a community of people as passionate as he is about knowledge, scholarship and the ethical responsibilities that go with it. “I was able to engage in discourse about ancient philosophy and the classical world with other people who were dedicated to understanding those topics and interested in working as a team to answer difficult questions.”

During his studies, Justin has published academic articles, spoken at conferences and worked as a teaching assistant.

Aside from academics, Justin is also a much-loved and valued member of the Classics community at Dalhousie. As part of KYLIX, the Classics Graduate Student Society, he created and maintains “The Pun-ic Wars”, a Facebook page dedicated to wordplay and puns related to the classical world. In the Pythian Games, an annual competition held by the Classics Department, participants perform songs, short plays and poems. Justin’s contribution was an original 48-line hymn to Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom and military strategy, which he wrote and performed in Latin. In part, the poem speaks of the connection between the two aspects of Minerva’s domain based on the idea of military strategy as a pattern of mathematical order within the natural world as well as the political community.

Originally from Toronto, Justin has an undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph, where he double majored in history and classical studies. He’s now pursuing a joint undergraduate degree in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Waterloo, focused on combinatorics and optimization.

“I’ve always been interested in environmental issues,” he says, “and that’s where I see myself in the future. Where my work would come in is in mathematically examining the effects of different solutions for environmental problems, looking at current practices and technology and developing better and more efficient solutions.”

This article is part of a series on our newest graduates. These profiles are also published in the 2014 Fall Convocation Keepsake, which is distributed at Convocation ceremonies. For more on Convocation (including live webcasts), visit the Convocation website.