Reimagining the PhD Cohort

Reimagining the PhD Big Image

In July 2015, the Simpson Center launched Reimagining the Humanities PhD and Reaching New Publics with the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The conviction animating this initiative was that doctoral education, especially at a public university, must be guided by a capacious vision of its fundamental purpose: to contribute to the public good. From 2015-2021, the program prepared UW doctoral students in the humanities for this task by meaningfully connecting them to the diverse, access-oriented institutions of higher education in the Seattle District community colleges, and by supporting the development of both doctoral students’ public projects and publicly engaged graduate seminars taught by UW faculty in the humanities. Find out more about our programming below.

2021 - 2022 Scholars

A black and white close up portrait of Paul Tubig wearing glasses.
Assistant Professor
Philosophy, Georgia Southern University
Anna Bates stands in front of plants and wears a white shirt.
Doctoral Student
Department of Philosophy
Photo of Alec Fisher in front of a palm tree.
Doctoral Candidate
Close-up portrait of a white woman with pink and brown hair and blue eyes wearing a blue shirt
Doctoral Candidate
English
A portrait of Anna Nguyen wearing glasses.
Doctoral Candidate
History
Profile of Madison Heslop standing in front of a dark background and wearing a dotted shirt.
Doctoral Candidate
Department of History
Portrait of Anis Bawarshi sitting in front of a white brick wall.
Professor, Chair
Portrait of Charles LaPorte wearing glasses and standing in front of a tree.
Professor
Portrait of Linda Nash sitting in front of a bookcase.
Professor
Department of History
Portrait of Lynn Thomas wearing glasses and yellow dangle earrings.
Professor
History
Sara Goering professional photo smiling at the camera, blurred trees in the background, wearing a blue blazer, necklace, and hair pulled back
Professor
Philosophy
Portrait of Michael Blake wearing a suit and sitting outside.
Professor
Department of Philosophy

2021 - 2022 Reimagining the Humanities PhD Scholar

Anna Bates stands in front of plants and wears a white shirt.

Anna Bates (she/her/hers)

Doctoral Student

2021 Mellon Collaborative Summer Fellowship for Public Projects in the Humanities

Fostering Respect across Publics: A Documentary on the Community of Philosophical Inquiry at the Washington Correctional Center for Women

Anna Bates and Paul Tubig’s project seeks to explore the question: what is the meaning of respect in a diverse community of philosophical inquiry and how can it be fostered across publics? This exploration will build on previous work of creating open, critical spaces for philosophical engagement between incarcerated students and non-incarcerated students.

The project aims to produce three artifacts: (1) a documentary of incarcerated students’ experiences in the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl as well as a mixed enrollment summer seminar course; (2) a workshop on the meaning and practice of respect in a mixed community of critical inquiry; and (3) a multimedia report on student perspectives.

 

2020 Mellon Community College Collaborative Fellowship for Reaching New Publics

Collaborative project with Erika Versalovic.

AdvisorJean Roberts (Philosophy)
MentorsAnthony Ferrucci (Philosophy, South Seattle College) and Larry Cushnie (Political Science, South Seattle College)

 

2020 Mellon Collaborative Summer Fellowship for Public Projects in the Humanities

Philosophy Behind/Beyond Bars: Exploring the Intersection between Philosophy and Prisons

Paul Tubig and Anna Bates’s project seeks to engage the relationship between philosophy and prisons. Prisons have a significant role in the history of philosophy—both as a context from which philosophers, as incarcerated subjects, have critically examined important philosophical questions, and as an object of philosophical inquiry. This project aims to design and facilitate a collaborative seminar series and culminating symposium that critically engages with philosophical work related to carceral systems and incarcerated persons. The participants will include both students at Washington Correctional Center for Women and students at the University of Washington. The project aims to trouble the traditional understanding of a humanities classroom, while destigmatizing incarcerated persons by recognizing them as equal contributors to philosophical discourse. It also aims to expand the study of philosophy to marginalized communities who are uniquely positioned to contribute to philosophical discourse.