Steiner Hall
Picture Courtesy of The Office of Communication and Events

This year finds me once again chairing the department, and in my fifth year as Director of the Grinnell College Center for the Humanities. The past year has been a very productive one for me, as several projects I’ve been working on for the past few years have finally appeared in print. The most important, and the one on which I’ve worked the longest, is my new book Twentieth Century French Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2006), which offers what I think is, in many ways, a unique perspective on the recent history of philosophy in France.

I’ve also recently published Modernity and the Problem of Evil (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), an interdisciplinary collection of new essays on the topic by scholars of philosophy, religious studies and political theorists. This collection grew out of the first symposium hosted by the Center for the Humanities, and three of the twelve essays were first presented at Grinnell in Spring 2002.

My former students might be interested in knowing that some of the ideas they’ve heard me discuss in class can now be found in the Second Edition of Macmillan’s The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2006). I was commissioned to write the articles on “Friedrich Nietzsche,” “Structuralism and Poststructuralism,” and “Deconstruction,” and in completing these essays, I drew extensively from my lecture notes for my classes in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy.

In addition to my teaching and writing, I’m enjoying seeing my former students at philosophy conferences, and hearing from colleagues how much they enjoy working with our alumni majors in graduate school. And of course Jill and I enjoy spending as much time as we can in our apartment in Paris.

This year is my first at Grinnell and I am enjoying it thoroughly. I am impressed with student commitment to understanding, the intellectual engagement of colleagues and the warm and friendly environment here at Grinnell. I feel very fortunate indeed to find myself in this wonderful community.

This fall I taught Contemporary Ethical Issues and Philosophy of Science. In connection with my interests in the history and philosophy of science, I will be participating in a workshop at Notre Dame that focuses on early modern approaches to atomism. I am also working on my book, Spinoza’s Radical Cartesian Mind, which argues that developments in Spinoza’s philosophy of mind can be understood as part of his attempt to systematize ideas from a seventeenth-century Dutch political movement. I am currently working on materials collected last summer during a research trip to Holland thanks to the Kristeller-Popkin Travel Award. Some of this work will be published in the form of an article (“Radical Cartesian Politics: van Velthuysen, De la Court, and Spinoza”) in the next Studia Spinoziana. I also presented a related paper, “Parallelism à la Mode” to the North American Spinoza Society this December.

I look forward to teaching Early Modern Philosophy and Introduction to Philosophy as well as to having survived my first Midwestern winter in over sixteen years. While the temperatures sound daunting, I must admit that I am looking forward to playing in the snow with our sons Cole (3) and Jonah (22 months).

I am nearing completion of my book manuscript, The Child of Discourse and shocked to discover that my oldest child will finish high school this year and my youngest is already in fourth grade.

Chris Moseng (`04) I've begun my 1L year at University of Iowa College of Law, and recently got engaged at the top of a waterfall in Juneau, Alaska (on dry land, not in a barrel). The education provided by the philosophy department, particularly my many classes with Prof. Fennell, helped me earn a full-tuition merit scholarship from Iowa.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David Allen Dollar Chenault (`03) Dear Grinnell,  Since graduating I've gotten married (to 2005 alum Meredith Dollar), accumulated two years experience working with at-risk adolescents, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.  I've been able to discover how continental philosophy can elucidate the canyoneering experience, while doing some guiding in Utah and writing for a couple of outdoor publications.  Right now (lucky 13th of September) we're selling a car and getting ready to move into our truck for an undetermined period of travel in the west, and then abroad.  Eventually, I may go to grad school in social work.   Cheers!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David White (`85) After Grinnell ('85), I studied philosophy at Johns Hopkins for 3 years and then went to law school.  I've been a lawyer since 1993, practicing in Washington DC, Denver, and now in Portland Oregon for the last 5 years.  Although I don't keep up with current philosophy scholarship, I have always felt lucky to be a philosophy major.  On top of being intrinsically interesting, it was excellent training for being a lawyer and I expect many other professions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gregg Whitworth (`00) After graduating in 2000, I moved to San Francisco to start graduate school in a molecular biology program and have been trying to think very philosophically about messenger pre-mRNA splicing since!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paton Lewis, (`88)  Studying philosophy at Grinnell helped me develop some of the mental skills that software developers require. After working at several software startups, and getting a graduate degree in Computer Science from Brown University, I am currently a Senior Computer Scientist at Adobe Systems. I recently finished reading Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechanics by Henry P. Stapp, which I strongly recommend to anyone who is interested in studying the nature of consciousness. I would love to hear critiques of this book from any career philosophers out there!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sara Eilert (`04) Oxford, OH I am currently finishing my MA in philosophy at Miami University of Ohio and preparing to apply to PhD programs for fall '06. I spent the first part of this summer in Berlin studying German Romanticism/Idealism and visiting such tourist hotspots as Goethe's Haus, Romantisches Haus, Schiller's Haus and the Nietzsche Archiv. Unfortunately I have no forthcoming articles or books, but I did throw an 80s themed party for my graduate peers and professors that was a real hit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ruth Young (`88) I am living the Grinnell philosophy way. I am teaching English to children from other countries in a very rural area that is a great deal like Grinnell was when I attended. Each day, I strive to change the attitudes of the locals who feel the need to marginalize people of color and impoverishment while helping these newcomers see themselves as powerful learners. I tend to be Socratic in my methods with those who are not so open-minded although sometimes the existentialist in me takes over!

Personally, I live in a house in the woods with two joyful dogs and a wonderful husband. We read and hike lots when we are not helping try to change the political climate around here and/or getting people to value our environment enough to save it. We are frequently in DC when we need a city fix too. Between Grinnell and now I've gotten two masters degrees: one in Inner City Studies Education and the other in English as a New Language Education. I've taught in inner city Chicago, San Antonio, North Carolina and here in Maryland. During summers I've traveled to Costa Rica, Mexico, and Spain to improve my Spanish for six week stints.

Additionally, I also teach English to adults from other countries and Spanish to local folks around here. I also give workshops and in-services to the International Reading Association, Salisbury University students, principals, and teachers in my own school system on ways to effectively include English Language Learners into the school community both educationally and socially.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Simon (`90) Since graduating in 1990, I've been working for W. W. Norton & Company, a New York-based publisher of trade books and college textbooks.  I'm now an editor in the college department at Norton, working mostly on titles in literature (books such as The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction or The Norton Anthology of World Literature, for example), theatre-studies, and film.  In late 2001, we published The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, the first book that I signed up as an editor, and a book that owes a certain debt, I think, to my study of philosophy at Grinnell (although it is intended for English and comparative literature majors, it includes figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault, and Derrida, as well as scores of more strictly "literary" theorists).

I'm also in the process of developing a list in philosophy and religion. We'll start with two major anthology projects:  The Norton Anthology of Western Philosophy: After Kant (co-edited by Richard Schacht and James Conant) and The Norton Anthology of Religious Texts (edited by Jack Miles--the author of God: A Biography--and a team of five other scholars yet to be named). More books will follow, most of them the sorts of 'textbooks' that Grinnell faculty tend to avoid.  For an editor, believe it or not, such books are a challenge and a pleasure to edit.

I'm fortunate in my job, and even more fortunate in the education I received at Grinnell.  The courses I took in philosophy from John Worley, Joseph Cummins and Alan Schrift were among the most rigorous and interesting of my college career.  I'd like to single out Alan Schrift, in particular, for having made a decision that was, I'm sure, fairly insignificant to him but very important to me.  In the summer of 1990, seeing that I had no immediate post-graduation prospects, he asked me to proofread his book, Nietzsche and the Question of Interpretation.  This led to an informational interview with his editor in New York, and through her, to other people in publishing.  Soon enough (or, rather, after a few months of pounding the pavement and making cold calls), I landed at Norton. Who says philosophy doesn't prepare you for the "real world" (whatever that is)?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paul C. Marker, Ph.D. (`91) Assistant Professor Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development Associate Director, Mouse Genetics Laboratory University of Minnesota, Cancer Center MMC 806, 420 Delaware St. SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612)-625-4191 office, (612)-625-4192 lab, (612)-626-4915 FAX marke032@umn.edu

Education B.A. 1991 Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa (majors in Biology and Philosophy) Ph.D. 1998 Stanford University School of Medicine, Graduate Program in Developmental Biology

Current Research Projects Grant 1 R21 DK069662-01, NIH Title: Identification of prostate-specific regulatory elements Principal Investigator: Paul C Marker Total direct costs: $200,000 09/29/2004-09/28/2006

The major goal of this project is to identify new prostate-specific regulatory elements with new expression domains including epithelial region-specific promoters and stromal-specific promoters.

Brainstorm Award, University of Minnesota Comprehensive Cancer Center Title: Fgfr2 alternative splicing in prostate cancer progression Principal Investigators: Paul C Marker and Kenneth Koenemann Total direct costs: $50,000 06/01/2005-05/31/2006

The major goals of this project are to investigate human prostate cancers for changes in alternative splicing of the Fgfr2 transcript, and to functionally test the altenative transcript isoforms for activity in prostatic cells.

Isaac Wohl (`01) My brief history: when I left Grinnell, I worked as a carpenter and painter for a general contractor in Richmond, VA for a year. After that I traveled around for a bit working odd jobs. Then I went to Uganda with the Peace Corps. My primary project was training elementary school teachers (giving workshops on HIV/AIDS education and mathematics), and my secondary project was coordinating community development (building schools with grant money). From Uganda I applied to and was accepted at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. I've just started their master's in public policy program, and am thinking about specializing in international security. I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing now, and though I haven't studied philosophy in a formal academic setting since Grinnell, I feel that along the way I've constantly drawn upon the critical skills it gave me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt Haber (`95) I graduated from Grinnell in 1995 with a double major in Biology and Philosophy.  I completed a MSc in History & Philosophy of Science at the London School of Economics in 1999, and entered a Ph.D. program in Philosophy at UC Davis in the fall of 2000.  June 2005 was a big month for me.  I successfully defended my dissertation on June 1st (title: "The Centrality of Phylogenetic Thinking"), graduated from Davis on June 16th, and got married on June 19th!

I was awarded a Faculty Fellows position at UC Davis for the academic year 2005-2006.
(For more information, click on the following url: http://www.ls.ucdavis.edu/Academic/SS/FacultyFellows.asp) 

As a Faculty Fellow I teach a light load of courses and also have time to continue work on my research.  My area of specialization is philosophy of biology, though I also do work in general philosophy of science, biomedical, environmental and research ethics, probability theory, metaphysics and epistemology.  I have a few publications pending, including articles in the journals Philosophy of Science and Systematic Biology.  The Faculty Fellow position is a one-year position, and I am currently on the job market.  Hopefully in about six months time I'll have more good news to report!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

back to top

Ololade Olakanmi (`06) - In philosophy, when it came to grades, I never excelled. Although, this was in part due to the fact that grades did not concern me, it was primarily because forging my own intellectual path became my only academic imperative. It was my drive to follow this path that led me to combine my passion for biology and philosophy into the study of bioethics. And it was this passion that motivated me to produce the best philosophy that I possibly could, even if doing so came at the expense of grades.

My first foray into bioethics came after my first semester at Grinnell. I was very much eager to apply the knowledge I had gained in the previous few months to practical social problems and to significantly contribute to the field of bioethics. So with the zeal and vigor that only a freshman could muster, I dedicated my winter break to researching an 11-page essay on the ethics of xenotransplantation. Xenotransplantation is a cutting-edge medical technique that involves the transplantation of biological material from animals to humans.

At the time I wrote it, I had no idea that my little 11-page essay would be so well-received by the bioethics community and I certainly did not foresee that it would one day blossom into the 200pp thesis that it is today. Although, much of the philosophy that I write is independent; in retrospect, I feel that my philosophical growth over the last few years has been due primarily to critical thinking skills imbued within me by Grinnell’s dedicated and knowledgeable professors.

Anna McNulty (`06) - After spending four years of her life by and large devoted to the Philosophy department at Grinnell, Anna's head is about to explode.  During this time, Anna has learned that we can never be sure if the words we're saying mean what we want them to mean when they're heard by those around us, self/other relations are kind of impossible, the ascetic priest is the puppet of the ruling class, and that Habermas uses a banana phone to communicate with God. 
Maybe she'll go to grad school next year?  Who knows!?!

Kendra Banchy (`06) - Studying abroad at the Institute of Philosophy in Leuven, Belgium during the Spring of 2005, Kendra realized that philosophy, beer and chocolate (but not all three at the same time) are pretty awesome.  

Currently she hopes to pursue a "career" in social justice work after graduation, as she has learned from Donald Davidson that intention (and intentionality) and action might not be quite the same. She may return back to Philosophy with a focus on Gender Studies at a later date, or she may pursue her current dream of becoming an Iditarod Sled Dog Musher.

David Gleicher (`06). I'm a senior philosophy major from Rockford, Illinois. My philosophical interests include Nietzsche, naturalism, analysis of the effects of new technology and of discoveries about human animals, and lies. My nonphilosophical interests include wasting opportunities and basketball (playing and watching). I currently have no solid plans for the distant or immediate future.

back to top