Alumni Letter

Dear Alumni and Friends of WVU Philosophy :

I am Sharon Ryan, the new chairperson of the WVU Philosophy Department. In case I don't already know you, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I'd also like to let you know what we are up to, and tell you something about our upcoming Philosophy Reunion Conference.

I came to WVU in 1991, immediately after receiving my Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. My research and teaching interests are in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of religion. Since I think the world would be a better place if everyone had the opportunity to think about philosophy, I spend some of my free time leading philosophical discussions in schools in Morgantown. I spent two days this summer at South Middle School, in Morgantown, discussing Aristotle's, Plato's, and the students' own views on friendship.

Let me tell you about our department. We have seven full time, tenure track professors, several part-time instructors, and approximately sixty majors. Many of our majors will attend law school, medical school, and other graduate programs. We offer courses in logic, critical reasoning, ethics, medical ethics, business ethics, philosophy of law, history of philosophy, continental philosophy, existentialism, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, social and political philosophy, and epistemology. We now have a capstone seminar for junior and senior philosophy majors. Recent topics include free will and responsibility, philosophy of physics, time, mysteries of the mind, ethics and the elderly, and naturalism.

I am very excited about chairing the WVU Philosophy Department. I have several ambitious, yet realistic, goals for the department. My main goals are to make the WVU Philosophy Department one of the best undergraduate philosophy departments in the country and to build a stronger community.

The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences has already provided generous support for some of these goals. Together, the Eberly College and the Philosophy Department created a pre-doctoral fellowship in Philosophy for each of the next three years. The recipient of the fellowship will be a graduate student who is writing a doctoral dissertation. The pre-doctoral fellow will teach two new and exciting courses for our majors and give research presentations to faculty and students. This is a wonderful opportunity for our department. This year, we welcome Matt Lopresti, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who will teach Asian Philosophy.

In addition, the Eberly College has provided funding for the department to host an annual Philosophy Reunion Conference for the next three years. This year's conference, on Democracy, Justice, and Foreign Intervention, will be held in the afternoon, on Friday, November 5th. This coincides with WVU's Homecoming Weekend. Our main speaker will be David J. Luban, Frederick J. Haas Professor of Law and Philosophy at Georgetown University. We sincerely hope that you will join us. It will be fun to think hard and share stories. We will use this conference as a way of connecting with our alumni and friends, colleagues, and our current students. Please see the enclosed flyer for more details.

We are certainly off to a great start, but I would like to do more. I would like to be able to offer more courses to our majors. For example, it would be wonderful to be able to offer courses on environmental ethics, philosophy of religion, terrorism and anti-terrorist policies, eastern philosophy, aesthetics, and advanced logic. In the fall, we will develop an alumni news and information section on our website in order to provide a network for our alumni and our current majors. I hope to raise enough money to extend the pre-doctoral fellowship and the reunion conference beyond the next three years.

Thanks to your loyal support, we are able to have an annual conference for philosophy students, an annual picnic for majors, scholarships for three outstanding philosophy majors per year, awards for student essay contest winners, awards for outstanding seniors, and a career night featuring alumni. Your support has come in many ways. Some of you have come to the department to discuss your careers. Others have come to give presentations on your research. Several of the lawyers in town have spent time chatting with our pre-law students, mentoring and helping them prepare for law school. Some of you have provided financial support. All of these contributions have made a very important impact on our department and we are very grateful for all of your generous support over the years.

I want to continue this tradition and make it even better. If you can devote time, please let me know and we can set up meetings with our students. Our students really enjoy, and benefit from, your visits. I would really appreciate a story or letter from you for our website or newsletter. Or, if you can provide a financial contribution, let me assure you that we would appreciate it and we would put it to good use. If you choose to make a financial contribution, checks should be made out to the WVU Foundation with “Philosophy 2v336” on the memo line. The envelope I have provided will go directly to the WVU Foundation for processing.

Please stay in touch and send us an update for the Philosophy Department's newsletter and website. I appreciate your support and look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at the reunion conference on November 5th.

Sincerely,
Sharon Ryan
sharon.ryan@mail.wvu.edu
Associate Professor and Chairperson