Philosophy

The Department of Philosophy includes BA programs in philosophy, humanities and cultural studies, and religion and cultural studies, as well as minors in these areas. We also house an undergraduate minor in cognitive sciences, an undergraduate certificate in interfaith dialogue, and two graduate certificate programs in theoretical and applied ethics and cognitive sciences. In addition, we contribute to a new interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate program, developed in collaboration with the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, focusing on artificial intelligence, big data, and human impacts.

With these interrelated programs, the Department of Philosophy t serves both our own majors and minors, as well as students across the university who are interested in exploring the big questions that our humanities disciplines pose and seek to address. Whether students are looking to try to find the answers to questions about moral responsibility, the nature of reality, the search for a good life, the meaning of spirituality, the relationship between mind and body, the relationship between humans and God or gods, or the development and richness of human cultures, they have come to the right place in our department. We teach the methods through which people may investigate, theorize, write about, and act on concepts, theories, principles, issues, and actions that have been of interest to humanity throughout history. We use well-established and emerging methodologies and technologies to educate  and conduct research in the disciplines. They are important questions involving what we know and how we know it, what we believe and why that matters, what we value and what the meaning of “value” is, and to delve deeply and meaningfully into questions of the good life, of the nature of social and political existence and power, and our relationship to other animals and the natural environment – and so much more.

This year, a new course in AI and big data ethics was added to our curriculum in support of the newly established “Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Human Impacts” undergraduate certificate. This interdisciplinary program’s content was developed by Jonathan Beever (Philosophy) and Laurie Pinkert (Writing and Rhetoric). The Department of Philosophy is delighted to collaborate with the Department of Writing and Rhetoric to provide the foundational content for this important and timely connection to emerging technologies such as AI and its impacts on humans, societies and our natural and social world.

The Religion and Cultural Studies B.A. was revised for this year to give majors more flexibility when completing the requirements for the program. In addition to the existing courses in the catalogue, the Philosophy B.A. now includes four REL classes for credit towards restricted electives (“Religion and Applied Ethics,” “Religion and Psychoanalysis,” “Sex and the Sacred” and “Interfaith Dialogue”).

We also have two internship programs in development that will provide our students with opportunities in experiential learning and gaining workplace experience that can be helpful for life after graduation. We look forward to sharing more details about these programs very soon!

This year, Michael Strawser, who was chair of the Department of Philosophy for ten years, chose to transition back to the faculty. Thank you, Dr. Strawser, for a decade of dedicated service to our department. Nancy Stanlick, a long-time faculty member in the department and former associate dean in the College of Arts and Humanities, accepted the position as chair of the department as of August of 2023. Christy Flanagan-Feddon has been appointed assistant chair, providing valuable service to our department and programs in being primarily responsible for coordinating and initiating program developments and oversight, managing recruitment efforts and working to build high impact, experiential learning opportunities for students in the department. Flanagan-Feddon also co-manages several essential department functions.

The faculty in the Department of Philosophy have been very productive this year. Luis (Louie) Favela (philosophy) published a new book in cognitive sciences with Routledge, and Ann Gleig (religion and cultural studies) published a new book on Buddhism with Oxford University Press. Stanlick’s Routledge book on American philosophy was translated to Japanese. Our faculty publish and present their research in various venues on an equally large variety of topics, from food studies to metaphysics and from Islam to Latin American cultural studies and African philosophy. Our faculty published numerous articles in peer-reviewed venues and presented their work at over 40 conferences.

This year, philosophy faculty  won Teaching Incentive Program Awards and Research Incentive Program Awards, and three were granted sabbaticals to concentrate on their research in the 2024-25 academic year. Our faculty (including Beever, Lanlan Kuang, and Stephen Fiore) received grant funding totaling over $4 million.

The department welcomes two new faculty members, Emily (Em) Walsh and Brooke Rudow. Walsh joins the Department of Philosophy and the College of Medicine’s Medical Education Department as assistant professor of medical ethics on August 8 after completing a post-doctoral position at Johns Hopkins University. She will teach medical ethics and honors ethics in biological science in the fall term and ethical theory in the spring, in addition to her work with medical students at the UCF College of Medicine. Brooke Rudow joins our department as assistant professor of philosophy, also on August 8, coming to UCF from Georgia College and State University. Rudow teaches philosophy and humanities, and in the fall term, she will teach two courses in philosophy and one in humanities, the latter being “Key Figures in Humanities and Cultural Studies.” Rudow is working on the theme of African American humanities in the Orlando/Central Florida region for this course.

Students may be interested in participating in our UCF Ethics Bowl team. Our team won the Southeast Regional Ethics Bowl in 2022, our second championship in three years. Since 2004, we have participated in all regional and in many national ethics bowl competitions (and won several of them).

Our department and the Al-Ghazali Islamic Studies program hosted “Evolutions of the Self in Islamic Thought.” The Interfaith Dialogue program co-sponsored four webinar events ( “Healing Within: The Curative Potential of Philosophy,” “How Going Camping Can Help Save Democracy: an Existentialism Invitation,” and “Responding to the Planet’s Survival: an Interfaith Panel on Religion and Ecology.” Interfaith Dialogue hosted a “Lunch and Learn” event featuring interfaith leaders representing Christianity and secular humanism.

If you ever wondered what you might do with a degree in our disciplines in the Department of Philosophy, you might be pleasantly and profitably surprised to find that graduates in these disciplines often go on to graduate work in education and academia, law, clergy, hospital ethics consulting,  medicine, philanthropy, non-profit work, lobbying, entrepreneurial business ventures, museum directorship, humanities-related business and management (e.g., music, film, fine and performing arts management and practice), publishing and performance, among many others. Our humanities disciplines apply to many areas of interest and inquiry, and perhaps most of all, the humanities disciplines in our department contribute meaningfully to investigations into – and understanding of – reality, knowledge and the good life.