Points of Pride at the ISU Department of Philosophy

The first chairperson of the Department, Dr. Kenneth Kennard, and his wife Marilyn, established the Kenneth and Marilyn Kennard Fund in 1998. This fund has supported student activities, such as travel to undergraduate conferences, the Outstanding Senior Award, and the McLean County High School Essay Contest. A scholarship to a promising Philosophy major has been established with funding from the Kennard Philosophy Fund.

 

David Anderson is director of The Mind Project. This project is an undergraduate-oriented endeavor to create an artificially intelligent robot and a virtual person .David Anderson was awarded a $500,000 NEH grant in 2002 to support The Mind Project and cognitive science curriculum. This includes collaboration among several ISU departments and several colleges nationwide.

 

 

 

Thomas Simon has served as an invited scholar for the United Nations Working Group on the Protection of Minorities since May 1999. He was a winner of a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Ljubljana, Law Faculty, Slovenia in Spring 1999. In addition, Simon has served as invited scholar for the United Nations Working Group on the Protection of Minorities since May 1998. Thomas Simon participated in an NEH Summer Seminar on Diversity & Debates in Contemporary Islam at Colorado College in 2004.Thomas Simon completed a year-long appointment as Schultze Distinguished Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Northern Colorado in Fall 2002 and Spring 2003.

 

 

 

Kenton Machina was appointed as the University's first endowed chair in 2001. He began a three-year appointment in 2002 as the Tom and Janet Andes Endowed Chair in General Education. Kent Machina was awarded an NSF grant a three year $284,000 NFS grant in 2002 aimed at changing attitudes of college freshmen toward female participation in science, math, engineering, and technology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alison Bailey was chosen as Director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Siderits began a two-year leave by serving in the Fall 2003 and in Spring 2005 as Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool, and in Spring 2004 lecturing on Indian Philosophy at King's College London.

 

 

 

 

 

Chris Horvath was recognized for his many years of outstanding leadership and service both to the University and to the wider profession by being awarded the Strand Diversity Achievement Award. This is the highest service award the University can bestow on a member of the faculty.

This site won First Place in the 2002 Arts Technology Student Annual for Web Design.