Sergio Sismondo is an advisor on a podcast series for Cited Podcast, which generally covers issues about science in the public interest, and is focusing on stories relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journal Citation Reports ranked the journal Social Studies of Science, edited by Sergio Sismondo, first in its category, History and Philosophy of Science. The journal's 'impact factor', a measure of how often its articles are cited, jumped this year to 4.038, considerably higher than the next-ranked journal in the category. 

Congratulations to all of this year's Philosophy graduates! We're really sorry that we couldn't all see each other at a face-to-face convocation, but hats off to:

Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Arnone, Andrew Jacob, Major in Philosophy

Bell, Victoria Elizabeth, Major in Philosophy, Arts Minor in English Language and Literature

Borsellino, Victoria Rose, Major in Philosophy

Brennen, Roslyn Stephanie, Major in Philosophy

Conroy, Grace Kathleen, Major in Philosophy, Arts Minor in Sociology

Christine Sypnowich has been appointed to a second term as Head of the Philosophy Department, beginning 1 July 2020.  Christine was due to have a brief hiatus from the job of Head, taking up a Visiting Fellowship at All Souls College in Oxford for a few weeks this spring, but found herself instead remaining in Kingston, caught up in departmental administration in the midst of a pandemic!

In the current issue of Philosopher's Imprint, Elliot Paul tackles one of Descartes's most central concepts: clarity. Elliot gives an admirably straightforward, though controversial, reading of the concept. Here is the abstract for Elliot's "Cartesian Clarity":

Dr. Dolleen Manning will be joining the Department of Philosophy and the Cultural Studies Program at Queen’s on September 1st.

Paul Fairfield, professor of philosophy at Queen's will be publishing his latest book, Philosophical Reflections on Antiquity: Historical Change with Rowman & Littlefield this October.

Udo Schüklenk has, with co-author Ruth Chadwick, published a new overview of bioethics: This is Bioethics: An Introduction. The book tackles a broad range of standard issues: Should editing the human genome be allowed? What are the ethical implications of social restrictions during a pandemic? Is it ethical to use animals in clinical research? Is prioritizing COVID-19 treatment increasing deaths from other causes?

On September 8, The Guardian published an opinion piece that had been written by a robot -- a computer running a deep learning program, or an AI. Queen's philosopher Catherine Stinson was interviewed on CBC Radio's Ontario Morning (the story starts at 35:35) to talk about the piece.