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PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION NEWS
From the Department Head’s Desk
So, what can I do with a degree in . . .
Over the years, I have talked with
hundreds of students and their
parents
about
majoring
in
Religious Studies, Philosophy, or
Asian Religions and Cultures
(ARC). These conversations have
been in my office, in the hallway,
or at any number of recruitment
events. During these conversations, one very standard question tends to
arise: What am I going to do with a degree in Religious Studies? Or
Philosophy? Or ARC? It is a very reasonable question.
For years I have talked about how a major in our department helps
students develop analytical tools for reading texts and solving
problems, writing and speaking skills to communicate effectively, and a
broader horizon within which to live and thrive. I note that these are
important skills, tools, and capacities that can help them be successful in
whatever career they pursue. Indeed, employers in annual surveys
confirm what I tell students.
Recently, we requested a list of professions from the Alumni Office—
professions in which our graduates currently are engaged. It is an
amazing list: reporter, pharmacist, songwriter, accountant, radiologist,
law clerk, college professor, attorney, chef, physician, realtor, artist, and
so much more. In short, we learned exactly what we had been telling
students and parents for years—our students are intellectually curious,
smart, and amazing people. They are prepared to go off to further
training (if necessary) and myriad careers. We are delighted to play a
part in their preparation for all those challenges and opportunities.
Volume 8, Issue no. 2
JAN/FEB 2015
In this issue . . .
Dr. Alan Anderson was elected to the
Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
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Faculty (such as Dr.
Grace Hunt, pictured
here) and students in
philosophy are doing
some amazing things in
sharing the discipline in
local and correctional
facilities. Read about
their work!
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Eric Bain-Selbo, Department Head
Congratulations to Our December 2014 Graduates
The joy of the holiday season is heightened by the
graduation of many of our philosophy and religious
studies students. Of course, that joy is tempered by
the thought that they also will no longer be in our
classrooms and visiting our offices (but they always
can come visit!). Congratulations to all of the
following students.
Asian Religions and Cultures major: Thomas
Adams and Dillon Rogers.
Philosophy major: Amber Phillips.
MA in Religious Studies: Daniel Shouse and
Jonathan Spence.
Religious Studies major: Timothy Bishop, Jacob
Booher, Mason Bramer, Jonathon Bruner, Maura
Carson, Joel Extine, Jennifer Hail, Matthew
Musselwhite, Dillon Rogers, and Cody Sneed.
Philosophy minor: James Townsend and Avery
Wilder.
Religious Studies minor: MacKenzie Nation.
P
hi
R
d
L
Professor Alan Anderson
Honored for Civil Rights Work
On October 16, 2014, Dr. Alan Anderson,
former Department Head of Philosophy and
Religion and now professor emeritus, was
inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall
of Fame.
Dr. Anderson has a long history of work in
the civil rights movement, including working
directly with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In
his academic career, much of his teaching,
research, and writing was focused on issues
of racial justice. He co-authored the book
Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promise
of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago—a
book that was nominated for the 1988 Pulitzer
Prize in history.
From all his admiring colleagues and
students, we offer our hearty congratulations.
Dr. Alan Anderson (seated) and friends celebrate his
induction into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of
Fame.
Dr. James Barker to
Join Faculty in Fall
The Department of Philosophy and Religion is
pleased to announce that Dr. James Barker will be
joining the faculty in Fall 2015. Dr. Barker earned
his doctorate at Vanderbilt University in New
Testament and Early Christianity. His dissertation
was entitled John’s Use of Matthew. He joins the
faculty with several years of teaching experience,
including Luther College (Iowa) and Rhodes
College (Tennessee).
Dr. Barker will be teaching New Testament and
other Biblical Studies courses at both the
undergraduate and graduate levels. This coming
fall he will teach RELS 100 (New Testament) and
RELS 154 (Introductory Biblical Greek), which he
also will continue into spring semester.
Join us for this great event
later in the month. For more
information, contact Dr.
Bella
Mukonyora
at
bella.mukonyora@wku.edu.
Philosophy and Prison
Faculty and Students Moving Beyond the Classroom
The power of philosophy can go far beyond the walls of classrooms in
Cherry Hall. The Philosophy program, in fact, has a number of
initiatives in local and regional correctional facilities. Here is a brief
description of these innovative efforts:
This semester Dr. Anton is teaching PHIL 211: Why Are Bad People
Bad? inside the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility, a men's
maximum security prison in Nashville. The class is comprised of both
students from WKU and incarcerated men. The class focuses on issues
concerning moral motivation, reasons for action, theories of human
nature, the effects of external social pressures, habit, free will, deadly
sins, prejudice, and hate with the other half of the class.
Dr. Grace Hunt is teaching at a separate Nashville facility as part of a
Tennessee Higher Education Initiative—allowing incarcerated
students to earn credits towards a college degree from the Nashville
State Community College. Dr. Hunt teaches the course “Philosophy
and Public Space,” a version of which she has taught before in New
York State prisons and at the New School for Social Research in New
York City, and which she is currently teaching at WKU. The course
examines the relationship between structures and personhood, and
asks whether philosophy would be possible without the “being
together of strangers” that city life provides.
Finally, a group of philosophy students in the fall went in pairs to
teach at the Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center. They
worked with detainees on a number of areas of philosophy, including
Ancient Greek philosophy, epistemology and philosophy of science.
Many of the kids expressed interest and said that they had often
asked themselves these sorts of questions, but didn't know there
existed a field dedicated to considering them in a rigorous fashion. It
was incredibly successful and the students will be continuing the
initiative in the spring.
Student & Alumni
News
Matthew
Sheffield, MA
student in Religious Studies,
presented his paper “Familiar
Experiences: College Basketball
and Religion” at the Dr.
Gregory P. Domin Graduate
Research
Conference.
The
conference
was
held
at
Columbus State University
(Georgia) in October.
Matthew Musselwhite, 2014
graduate in Religious Studies,
was admitted to the WKU MA
program in Religious Studies.
Dillon Rogers, 2014 graduate
in
Asian
Religions
and
Cultures, was admitted to the
WKU
MA
program
in
Religious Studies.
Terry
Shoemaker,
2013
graduate of the MA program in
Religious Studies, published
“The Mason Jar Mentality:
Conservative Protestantism &
Interfaith Cooperation in the
American
South.”
Terry
received assistance from three
undergraduate
research
assistants, one of whom was
Emily Potter who currently is
in the JUMP program in
Religious Studies.
Please send any student or
alumni news to eric.bainselbo@wku.edu.
JUMP Program Off to Impressive Start
Last year the Religious Studies program launched a new initiative—the Joint UndergraduateMasters Program in Religious Studies. The program allows undergraduate students to begin
taking graduate level courses during their last year as an undergraduate. By “double counting” the
graduate courses for both undergraduate and graduate credit, students then can move into the MA
program in Religious Studies and complete it in just one additional year.
Five students participated in JUMP this year, and two already have received their Bachelors
degrees and entered the MA program. If you are interested in JUMP, please contact Dr. Eric BainSelbo at eric.bain-selbo@wku.edu. In addition, information and applications can be picked up in
Cherry Hall, Room 300.
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Other Faculty News
Dr. Audrey Anton, assistant professor of philosophy, presented
“Aristotle’s Theory of Moral Motivation in Nicomachean Ethics X,
or Why the Carrot Still Needs the Stick for Backup” at the Society
for Ancient Greek Philosophy Annual Meeting at Fordham
University, October 24-26, 2014. In January, Dr. Anton completed
the International Training for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange
Initiative through Temple University.
Dr. Eric Bain-Selbo, professor of philosophy and religion, co-lead
a seminar session at the Annual Meeting of the Association of
American Colleges & Universities. The meeting was held in
Washington, D.C., January 21-24. The seminar was entitled “Values
Education in a Global Context—‘Wicked Problems’ and 21st
Century Colleges and Universities.” Dr. Bain-Selbo led the seminar
with Dr. Elizabeth Gish (WKU, Honors College) and Dr. Gregory
Sapp (Stetson University). Dr. Bain-Selbo also published “Deep in
Debt: A Review of David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years” in
Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal (Vol. 97, no. 4).
Dr. Grace Hunt, assistant professor of philosophy, published her
essay “Reconcilable Resentments? Jean Améry's Critique of
Forgiveness in the Aftermath of Atrocity” was published in the
edited volume, Theorizing Transitional Justice. Eds. Claudio
Corradetti, Nir Eisikovits and Jack Rotondi. Burlington: Ashgate
Publishing Company, 2015.
Christianity, each of which are entries on the Early Christianity
timeline at www.ancientthought.com.
Dr. Michael Reno, visiting assistant professor of philosophy,
published "Adorno, Experience, and the Possibility of Practical
Reason" in Idealistic Studies, v. 44:1. The essay is available at http://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp
=idstudies&id=idstudies_2015_0999_1_14_16.
Dr. Nahed Artoul Zehr, assistant professor of religious studies,
organized a conference entitled ‘A Symposium on Peace, Islam,
and Counter-narratives’ at WKU, which brought together an
interdisciplinary community of experts from two academic
institutions outside of FSU, as well as a number of leading figures
in the foreign policy community. She also gave an invited paper
at a workshop on method in comparative religious ethics at the
Florida State University, presented a paper (by proxy) at the
national American Academy of Religion meeting on the current
state of research regarding the moral constraints of war in Islam,
and attended the national meeting of the Society for the Study of
Muslim Ethics (she serves on the board of directors as the
secretary/treasurer).
Ryan Korstange, instructor of religious studies, published both an
Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and an Introduction to Jewish
As you consider your contribution to the New Century of Spirit campaign for Western Kentucky
University, please remember that you can designate your gift to the Philosophy and Religion Department.
Your contributions are critical to the life of the department and its students.
Philosophy and Religion News
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd.
Bowling Green, KY 42101