Upcoming Offerings
FALL 2026
Sexual Violence on Films
PHIL 5050 | Dr. Kent Brintnall | Mondays 5:30 – 8:15 pm
In order to respond effectively and meaningfully to sexual violence, we must critically examine our assumptions about, perspectives on, and understandings of sexual violence. And, even more importantly, what has shaped them. Mainstream media has had a profound effect on how we think about the nature, experience, motivations, and aftermath of sexual violence as well as its relation to race, gender, class, sexual identity, trauma, and social organization generally. In this course, we will engage a number of films that place representations of sexual violence at their narrative heart to think carefully about how we think about sexual violence. Films to be viewed and discussed may include Birth of a Nation, Last Year at Marienbad, Act of Vengeance, The Accused, I Spit on Your Grave, Descent, Deliverance, Straw Dogs, Irreversible, Hard Candy, Teeth and Promising Young Woman.
Necropolitics and Gender
PHIL 6050 | Dr. Paula Landerreche Cardillo | Tuesday 5:30–8:15pm
In this course, we will explore the relationship between necropolitics and gender. Achille Mbembe coined the term “necropolitics” in an attempt to think the political situation that postcolonial regimes face nowadays as a result of racialized regimes. In this class, we will examine the ways gender also plays a role in necropolitics. We will read texts that allow us to think about the relationship between necropolitics and violence against women. We will concentrate on ways contemporary feminists have developed conceptual tools to think about violence directed against women, as well as engage with feminist forms of resistance against this violence.
Approaches to the Study of Religion
PHIL 6050 | Dr. William Sherman| Tuesday 5:30–8:15pm
This seminar will engage a number of representative, recent texts in the interdisciplinary field of religious studies to help students develop the skills of analyzing, evaluating, and crafting arguments and identifying the role of method and writing in the articulation and persuasiveness of arguments. Students will also work to develop their own research proposals in furtherance of their specific degree programs.
Philosophical Methods and Analysis
PHIL 6120 | Dr. Lisa Rasmussen | Tuesdays 1:00–3:45pm
Explores the distinctive and various methods within philosophy (logical, phenomenological, feminist, conceptual, linguistic, deconstructive, and others), their uses in particular contexts (including links to other disciplines), and how methodology shapes philosophy (including its social impact). One aim is to clarify “applied philosophy” by examining its methods. Students will analyze, evaluate, reconstruct, and originate arguments, judgments, and decisions. They will do so in connection with both texts shared among all the students in the class and the particular interests of individual students. Each student will develop a paper over the course of the semester to bring these issues together.
Ethics of Public Policy
PHIL 6250 | Dr. Gordon Hull | Wednesday 12:20 – 3:05 pm
Examines the conceptual tools available in the development of policies, regulations and guidelines that are responsive to normative standards of character and conduct. The course will include discussion of ethical and political theory, as well as its intersection with policy-making at topics such as equity, efficiency, security, and liberty. Issues may include how specific policies express moral commitments and choices, how some policies favor certain values over others, as well as on issues such as whistle-blowing, “dirty hands” (doing wrong to do right), “many hands” (hiding accountability in bureaucracy) and professional incompetence.
Independent Study
PHIL 6800 | Dr. Trevor Pearce | Wednesdays 5:3- – 8:15 pm
Directed individual study of a philosophical topic of special interest to the student.
Master’s Research Paper
PHIL 6999 | Dr. Martin Shuster | Wednesdays 5:30 – 8:15 pm
Students begin with a previously submitted course paper and spend the semester revising it. The goal is for each student to produce a polished, professional paper worthy of submission to a philosophical journal. Additional reading and research on the topic is conducted, and multiple steps of revision and presentation of work in progress to the class are included.