PSA Office Hour

The PSA Office Hour aims to facilitate interactions between our graduate student membership and prominent philosophers of science, and in a more controlled, accessible, and carbon-conscious setting than is provided by our biennial conference. To this end, a theme will be chosen for each month during the Fall and Spring semesters and two philosophers of science will be made available, either individually or together, to graduate students via Zoom through online sign-up sheet posted at the bottom of this page. The students will select from the following categories that which best describes what they seek out of the opportunity:

• Input on dissertation topic choice
• Guidance on a problem occurring in own research
• Clarification on an issue within professor’s research
• Other (please describe)

and be invited to write a short paragraph in which they describe in more detail what they would like to discuss with the professor. Students from any institution, region, or at any stage of their graduate studies are welcome to attend. Where sessions receive more than 6 requests for participation a selection will be made to maximize thematic cohesion and promote resource redistribution.

Office hours will last up to 90 minutes and participants must be current members of the PSA. This opportunity is primarily for graduate students, but postdocs are free to apply as well. There are links to join future sessions, as well as to request / volunteer as a professor at the bottom of this page.

Please note: in the month of October we will be running a ‘careers spotlight’, in which philosophers of science who have gone on to have jobs outside of academic settings will be made available to discuss some alternative but rewarding potential career pathways from a philosophy of science PhD. For these sessions there is no need to provide a specific research question, but it would be helpful for the hosts if you describe what you most seek out of the session in the ‘Other’ field.
 

Upcoming Office Hours - 2024/2025

January: Engaged Philosophy of Science

Kevin Elliott (Michigan State University) & Katie Plaisance (Waterloo), Wednesday January 22nd 2025, 12pm EST
 

Kevin Elliott

Kevin Elliott’s scholarship focuses on responsibly addressing the roles that ethical and social values play in scientific research, especially in policy-relevant areas of environmental research. He has explored the influences of financial conflicts of interest in research, ethical issues that arise in science communication, and collaborative authorship practices in science teams. Trained in the history and philosophy of science, he engages actively in interdisciplinary work by collaborating with environmental scientists and working with scientific and policy organizations like the European Food Safety Authority and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Is a Little Pollution Good for You? Incorporating Societal Values in Environmental Research (2011) and A Tapestry of Values: An Introduction to Values in Science (2017). His courses tend to focus on environmental philosophy and on the many roles that ethical and social values play in scientific research.






Katie Plaisance

Kathryn (Katie) Plaisance is an Associate Professor in Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo, cross-appointed to the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology. Katie does research in Philosophy of Science, Social Epistemology, Human Behavioral Genetics, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration. She is currently holds a SSHRC Insight Grant (2020-26) to study and foster collaborations between philosophers and STEM researchers.

February: Philosophy of Psychiatry

Şerife Tekin (SUNY Upstate Medical University) and Jonathan Y. Tsou (UT Dallas): Wednesday February 12th 2025, 12pm EST

Şerife Tekin

Şerife's work is in philosophy of science/medicine/psychiatry, philosophy of mind/cognitive science, bioethics and  the epistemic and ethical issues surrounding the use of Artificial Intelligence in medicine. Currently she is working on a manuscript, Reclaiming the Self in Psychiatry: Centering Personal Narratives for a Humanist Science (under contract with Routledge), in which she makes a case for including the self as an explicit target of research in scientific psychiatry in order to develop humanistic care practices in the clinic and beyond — practices that help persons with mental disorders flourish. Research in cognitive science and first-person narratives are central to this work. 





Jonathan Y. Tsou

Jonathan is a philosopher of science with broad and interdisciplinary research interests. In addition to general philosophy of science issues (e.g., natural kinds, causation, underdetermination, values in science), he has special interests in philosophy of psychiatry (and philosophy of psychology). He also have longstanding research interests in the history of 20th century philosophy of science (especially Carnap, Kuhn, and Quine). He is the author of Philosophy of Psychiatry (Cambridge University Press, 2021), co-author (with Jennifer Radden) of the "Mental Disorder (Illness)" entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, co-editor (with Flavia Padovani and Alan Richardson) of Objectivity in Science(Springer, 2015), and co-editor (with Gregory J. Robson) of Technology Ethics (Routledge, 2023).

 

March: Epistemology of Scientific Communities / Social Epistemology
 

Cailin O'Connor - Wednesday March 5th 2025, 12pm EST

Cailin O'Connor

Cailin is a philosopher of biology and behavioral science, philosopher of science, and evolutionary game theorist. She is a Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at UC Irvine. She just finished co- administering the NSF grant “Consensus, Democracy, and the Public Understanding of Science” with philosopher of physics James Owen Weatherall (previous NSF grant Social Dynamics and Diversity in Epistemic Communities).  Our co-authored trade book The Misinformation Age was published with Yale University Press.  My monograph The Origins of Unfairness was published in July 2019 by Oxford University Press.  My books Games in the Philosophy of Biology and Modeling Scientific Communities were published in the CUP elements series.  I also write public philosophy.
 

April Panel Discussion (4/4/25 - 12p (EST))

Philosophers of Science in Industry: Biotechnology, Medical Affairs, and AI

Philosophers of science who have successfully transitioned into industry share insights and strategies for securing roles outside of academia, offering practical advice for leveraging philosophical and scientific expertise in diverse professional settings.

Join Us!

Selected previous PSA Office Hours

November 2024: Philosophy of Psychology with Carrie Figdor and Sarah Robins