The 2017 Matariki Research Ethics Conference, jointly hosted by Queen's University and the journal Bioethics, is currently running at the Bader International Study Centre. It explores the recent revisions made to two influential international research ethics guidance documents, the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki and the Council for International Organisations of Medical Sciences International Ethical Guidelines for Health-related Research Involving Humans.

Lisa Guenther has, with Abigail Levin, an op-ed in The New York Times on white nationalism in the US, 'White Power and the Fear of Replacement'. Levin and Guenther argue:

With the new Blade Runner movie, there is fresh popular interest in defining and identify boundaries between humans and non-humans. The Smithsonian magazine interviewed Deborah Knight on the question of whether emotions provide dividing lines.

The Philosophy Department had a special visitor this week when 92-year-old former instructor (Charles) Douglas Jay, came with his granddaughter, Victoria Jay (a second-year Concurrent Education student at Queen’s), and son, Garth Jay, to see the campus.

On November 22, TD Bank recognized Professor Emeritus Carlos Prado as one of today's ten most influential Hispanic Canadians. Among other things, the commendation noted:

Recent PhD student Kyle Johannsen has just published a revised version of his dissertation as a book, A Conceptual Investigation of Justice.

Under the title "An opportunity to build bridges, strengthen ties", Professor Lisa Guenther and her work are featured in the Queen's Gazette. Guenther has just arrived as the Queen’s National Scholar in Political Philosophy and Critical Prison Studies, jointly appointed to Philosophy and Cultural Studies.

Daryn Lehoux was the subject of a show on National Public Radio, talking about the history of the idea of spontaneous generation and his book Creatures Born of Mud and Slime. We accept that, at some point in the history of our universe, living creatures emerged from nonliving matter. Yet from the time of Aristotle until the late nineteenth century, many people believed in spontaneous generation, that living creatures sprang into existence from rotting material.

The Philosophical Gourmet has placed Queen's political philosophy programs in the top 10 in the English-speaking world. Besides Queen's, the top ten programs in political philosophy include ones at Princeton, Oxford and New York Universities. Queen's also places highly in the Report's ranking of programs in normative ethics and applied ethics.

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Elliot Paul will be joining the Department of Philosophy at Queen's. Dr. Paul is coming to us from Barnard/Columbia and specializes in early modern philosophy, particularly Descartes, and the philosophy of creativity. He will be bringing to us his tremendous qualities as an accomplished scholar, a superb teacher, and a wonderful colleague.  Dr. Paul will certainly be a splendid addition to our philosophical community!