Our Graduates Go Places

Many students who have graduated from our MA program have gone on to study in Ph.D. programs. Many have presented their research at conferences, and some are already published authors. Here are a few of our success stories. 

Sandra DeVries

Ms. DeVries [Vreugdenhil] received her BA from St. Stephen’s University in St. Stephen, NB and she begins doctoral studies at the University of Waterloo in September 2013. Sandra's SSHRC funded MA research at Windsor focuses on the connections between testimony, social epistemology and Sen’s ideas of justice in a transitional context.  Her work acts as a criticism of the traditional, institutional model of justice as exclusionary toward testimonies and considerations of situated, phenomenal experiences provoked by the implementation of certain laws. Placing an emphasis on an ideal of justice, as opposed to the emergent capabilities and experiences of laws, the institutional model effectively reduces the ability of members of the judiciary and citizens alike to recognize ways in which the same policies that they might consider just act as injustice to people who live under the same laws, but under different personal circumstances.

Sandra brings her research to examine the practices of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada, with a goal of understanding the effects of the residential schools through the stories of those who were victimized by Canadian policy. It is her hope that the development of a more robust inclusion of testimony to the accounts of the TRC which are made available to the public will result in a better understanding and the growth of new policies which will enable not only truth, but a reduction of injustice, both present and future.

Justin Morris

Mr. Morris received his B.A. (Hon.) in 2011, and is slated to complete his M.A. in Philosophy at the University of Windsor in Summer 2013. Under the supervision of Dr. Philip Rose, his major paper investigates the possibility of developing a nonanthropocentric dialogical interspecies ethic through an ecofeminist lens. As a Master’s student at Windsor, Mr. Morris’s research benefitted from the support of an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and two consecutive graduate student fellowships at CRRAR, where he most recently presented a paper entitled “A Gendered Analysis of Rhetorical Argumentation”. He will present at the upcoming tenth meeting of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA) (“Narrative, Intersectionality and Argumentative Discourse”) and has participated in a number of conferences in the past, including Concordia and McGill’s The Status of Minorities in Philosophy Graduate Conference and Workshop (“An Empathetically Engaged Approach to Argumentative Exchange”) and Waterloo’s Annual Graduate Conference in Philosophy (“Empathetic Engagement as an Epistemic Responsibility”). He will begin his PhD studies in Fall 2013 at McMaster University with the support of an OGS doctoral scholarship.   

Jamie Sewell

Ms. Sewell's current research focusses on the intersections among feminist critiques of pedagogical ideals and practices, philosophies of education, and critical thinking. Her MA thesis work is funded by SSHRC and entitled “bell hooks on Engaged Pedagogy: Critiques and Constructions of Teaching Practices concerning Critical Thinking”. She critiques ideals and practices of teaching that reinforce systems of domination and/or exclusion, while exploring hooks’ account of practices which she suggests can lead to positive social and political action.

Ms. Sewell's aim, with the completion of this project, is to point to possible avenues by which learning communities within Canada can move away from a ‘banking-system’ of education (as described by Paulo Freire), and toward a system of education that represents values of inclusion and justice; a system which concentrates on critical thinking and development from within, rather than ‘producing’ graduates by imposition from without. Her general interests are in feminist philosophy, social and political philosophy, critical theory, philosophy of education, and Eastern philosophy (especially Taoism and Zen Buddhism).

Laura Benacquista

Ms. Benacquista holds a B.A. (H) and an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Windsor, completed in 2012. She spent a semester as a student fellow of the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric (CRRAR). She also received a SSHRC Master’s Scholarship, and a SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement with which she spent a semester as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, in The Netherlands. Her paper “Moot Points, Generalities and the Rhetorical Creation of Social Knowledge” was accepted for publication in the forthcoming collection Etudes sur L’Épistémologie de la Rhétorique (2013, Nota Bene). She will present her work in argumentation studies at the tenth meeting of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA): Virtues of Argumentation, in May 2013. In Fall 2012, she began her Ph.D. in Philosophy at McMaster University where she is conducting research on Hannah Arendt’s political theory and human rights.

Dean Goorden

Mr. Goorden finished his BA at Griffith University (Australia) and BA Hons at University of Queensland (Australia).  His MA at Windsor was completed in 2010. Since then, he has worked as a Research Assistant for CRRAR and the Academic Integrity Office; he has also worked as an Instructor within the School of Computer Science.  He has presented conference papers at the Windsor's Graduate Student Philosophy Conference ("Comparative Analysis: Luce Irigaray and Shannon Sullivan") and the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation ("Conductive Arguments and 'The Inference to the Best Explanation'").  Some work Mr. Goorden did during his MA at Windsor is now being published in Ratio Juris, entitled "Dworkin and the Phenomenology of the 'Pre-legal'?".  He is now at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, doing a pre-doctoral year (MPhil) which he plans to follow with a PhD.  His PhD project is tentatively titled 'Philosophy of Technology: the Internet and the Body'.
 

 Andrew Ball

Mr. Ball completed his MA in May of 2011 after completing undergraduate studies in philosophy 'across the river' at the University of Detroit Mercy. His MA major paper was advised by Professor Guarini and is entitled: "Animal and Reflective Knowledge: Defending the Distinction in the Thought of Ernest Sosa."  While a student at Windsor, he presented papers at various conferences including Kent State University's Annual Graduate Student Philosophy Conference ("Another Perspective on Plantinga's De Jure Attitude: A Response to Ferreira"), SUNY Albany's Graduate Student Philosophy Conference on Metaphysics ("The Importance of Others for Identity: A Response to Parfit"), as well as to Windsor's Graduate Student Philosophy Conference ("Brains, Bodies, and Brandom: a Social Inquiry into Reductionism"). Mr. Ball was awarded a CRRAR student research fellowship for the Winter 2011 term and subsequently presented a paper to the fellows entitled "Are Fallacies Vices?" Upon being accepted to the Philosophy MA program at Windsor, Mr. Ball was awarded an International Graduate Student Scholarship. Currently, he is in PhD studies at the University of Alberta where he holds a four-year scholarship awarded by the university.
  

 Katharina von Radziewsky

Ms. von Radziewsky completed her Masters degree in philosophy during the academic year of 2010/2011 at the University of Windsor. Her Major Paper was advised by Dr. Tindale and titled: "Pulling Strings: How Rethoric can Deal with Subjectivity in Argumentation". While here she presented at the Graduate Student Conference in Windsor. Shortly after she returned to Germany, she presented at the Argumentation-Theory-Conference "Analyzing (real) Arguments" in Hamburg. Once Ms. von Radziewsky completes her studies in Hamburg, she is looking forward to becoming a PHD student.

  Michael Baumtrog

Mr. Baumtrog (Bommer) completed his BA (H) in Philosophy in 2008 and his MA in Philosophy in 2011, both at the University of Windsor.  He presented papers at two consecutive graduate conferences at the University of Windsor as well as the Southeast Philosophy Congress in Morrow, Georgia, USA. Bommer is currently a PhD student at the New University of Lisbon in Portugal where he is conducting research on international political argumentation.

Michael Walschots

Mr. Walschots completed his B.A. (H) at the University of Windsor in 2009, and is scheduled to complete his M.A. in Philosophy in the Fall of 2011. His M.A. thesis is advised by Dr. Deborah Cook and is entitled ‘Adorno’s ‘Addendum’ to Practical Reason’. During his M.A. degree Mr. Walschots has presented papers on various topics at the 15th Annual Graduate Legal Theory Conference at UBC in Vancouver, Canada; at the Southeast Philosophy Congress in Morrow, Georgia, USA; the University of Windsor’s Graduate Philosophy conference; the 9th meeting of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation; the 4th Critical Theory and Social Justice Conference in Rome, Italy; and the meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He received a Master’s SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship as well as SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement, with which he spent 5 months studying in Frankfurt, Germany. Mr. Walschots has also been awarded a three-year SSHRC Doctoral Canada Graduate Scholarship, which he will be using at the University of Western Ontario in order to study Kant’s legal philosophy starting in September 2011.

Khameiel Al Tamimi

Ms. Al Tamimi came into the MA program with a broad interest in Epistemology that she turned toward argumentation and feminist epistemology .  She presented "Feminist Alternatives to Traditional Argumentation" at the June 2009 conference on Argumentation Cultures and it will be published in the proceedings.  Ms. Tamimi is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy at York University.   

Lauri Daitchman

Ms. Daitchman completed her MA in Philosophy under the supervision of Dr. Cate Hundleby. Her research was presented at the Feminist Research Group Conference in 2009.  She was also the Conference Coordinator for the Canadian Society for Women in Philosophy.    Ms. Daitchman is currently pursuing her L.L.B. at the University of Windsor.   

Martin Crozier

Mr. Crozier graduated with an MA in Philosophy in 2009 complementig his MS in Biology from Wayne State University.   Martin is currently working on a Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Windsor.   

 Neil Langshaw

Mr. Langshaw completed his MA, with thesis: “Weighing the Balance: An Examination of and Possible Justification for Euthanasia”, at the University of Windsor in October 2008 under the supervision of Dr. Rose.  He is pleased to have presented at two successive ‘Essays of Significance’ graduate student conferences. Mr. Langshaw is currently in the PhD program at the University of Guelph."
 

Patrick Bondy

Mr. Bondy completed his MA studies at the University of Windsor in August 2008. He has presented research at three different venues, and one of his papers won an award.  “Track-Record Arguments and Informal Logic” was presented at the 2008 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities.  He currently has two papers forthcoming in Informal Logic.  The first is called "Argumentative Injustice" which deals with prejudicial stereotypes and rational argumentation.  The second paper is titled "Truth and Argument Evaluation" which is about the role that the concept of truth should play in a theory of argument evaluation.   This paper was a co-recipient of the 2009 AILACT paper prize.   Mr. Bondy is currently in the PhD program at McMaster University.

Jeffrey Renaud

Mr. Renaud completed his MA studies at the University of Windsor in August 2008. He was recently awarded his second OGS award.  He presented a paper entitled, "This Body, This Civilization, This Repression: Marcuse’s Sexual Theory and the Ongoing Relevance of Negative Thinking" at the Re-Thinking the Frankfurt School conference. The paper was published in Strategies of Critique (2008). Mr. Renaud is currently in the PhD program at the University of Ottawa.

Amy Butchart

Ms. Butchart completed her MA in January of 2008. She has several refereed conference presentations to her credit:  “The Social Construction of the Female Body and the Male Medical Norm” at the 2007 Atlantic Regional Philosophical Association Annual Congress held at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax NS; “Feminism and Multiculturalism: Enemies or Allies? Redefining prospects for women in terms of a politics of location” at the 2007 Feminist Research Group Conference held at the University of Windsor. “Theorizing Outside of the Matrix of Intelligibility” at the 2007 Philosophy Graduate Student Conference held at the University of Windsor. Ms. Butchart will commence doctoral studies at the University of Guelph during the autumn of 2008. Co-authored, "Resources for Research on Analogy: a Multi-disciplinary Guide." Informal Logic, 29, no. 2, pp. 84-197 with Dr. Marcello Guarini.

Andrei Moldovan

Mr. Moldovan completed his MA at Windsor in 2007. While here, he presented research at four meetings. “Meaning in Argumentation”, presented at the Tindale Graduate Workshop, part of the OSSA Conference, held at the University of Windsor.  “Chaïm Perelman on the Argument by Analogy”, presented at the annual conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric, at the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences 2007, held at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. "Broken Personal Identity: The Successive Selves” presented at the annual Graduate Conference “Strategies of Critique XXI: Broken”, organized by the Department of Social and Political Thought at York University, Toronto. “An Application of Johnson’s Concept of Manifest Rationality” presented at the annual Graduate Conference organized by the Department of Philosophy at University of Windsor.  Co-authored, "Resources for Research on Analogy: a Multi-disciplinary Guide." Informal Logic, 29, no. 2, pp. 84-197 with Dr. Marcello Guarini.

Upon being accepted to MA studies at Windsor, Mr. Moldovan was awarded an International Graduate Student Scholarship. During Winter 2007, he was awarded the John and Anne Cristescu Memorial Scholarship. Mr. Moldovan is currently in the Ph.D. program at the University of Barcelona. He holds a four year FPI (Formación de Personal Investigador) fellowship awarded by the Spanish government.

Paul Simard Smith

Mr. Simard Smith completed his MA at Windsor in 2007. He presented a paper to the Canadian Philosophy Association at the 2007 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences entitled "Distorting Commitments: A criticism of deductivism." He also presented a paper at the 2007 Conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation entitled "Varieties of Deductivism." Mr. Simard Smith is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Waterloo.  Co-authored, "Resources for Research on Analogy: a Multi-disciplinary Guide." Informal Logic, 29, no. 2, pp. 84-197 with Dr. Marcello Guarini.

Brandon Fenton

Mr. Fenton completed his MA in philosophy during the spring/summer of 2007.  A paper based on his MA thesis has been accepted and presented at three different referreed conferences, including the New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics conference in Cardiff, Wales, UK (August of 2007). His MA thesis was published as a book in 2008, Character and Concept: How Conceptual Blending Constrains Situationism. Mr. Fenton is currently a Ph.D. student at York University.

Ryan Tonkens

While an MA student at the University of Windsor, Dr. Tonkens made numerous conference presentations and published "Fodor versus Pinker: A Critical Analysis of a Debate over How the Mind Works" (based on a term paper) in De Philosophia, and "A Reply to Cholbi's Suicide Intervention and Non-Ideal Kantian Theory" (based on his MA thesis) in the Journal of Applied Philosophy.  After graduating from Windsor, he went on to complete (2012) a Ph.D. at York University.  In the process he won the International Association for Computing and Philosophy Goldberg award for graduate students and published several more papers.  Dr. Tonkens completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Novel Tech Ethics at Dalhousie University (Faculty of Medicine), and begins a 3-year faculty position at Monash University (Australia) in 2013.