Fall 2023: A message from Department Chair, Professor Josh Wilburn
Dear alumni and friends of Wayne State's Department of Philosophy,
I'm happy to be bringing back our alumni newsletter. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a philosopher with research interests in ancient Greek philosophy, as well as in the history and philosophy of race. I arrived at Wayne State in 2013 and took over as department chair a year ago.
We've had several changes in the department over the last few years. Our beloved colleague Larry Lombard retired this year after 54 years at Wayne State. We learned a lot about his life and career in an interview filled with several of his famous stories that I conducted with him for our students and faculty last fall.
John Corvino moved to his new role as dean of the Honors College at Wayne in 2018, although he is still very involved in our department.
We've also had two new colleagues join us recently. Jada Strabbing, one of the nation's leading scholars in ethics, especially issues related to blame and forgiveness, joined the department in 2019 as an associate professor. Mark Satta, a prolific young scholar who publishes in law, epistemology and philosophy of language, as well as in many public-facing venues, joined in 2020 as an assistant professor.
In other great news, Professor Emeritus Robert Yanal generously established a new endowment this year, the Robert J. Yanal Legacy Fund, which will provide scholarships and other educational resources for students. We've been working to find new ways to support and celebrate our students and this is a huge step in that direction.
One reason I'm especially excited about reviving the newsletter is that, for me personally, and for my many of colleagues as well, students are by far my favorite part of this job. We love teaching and talking with students and we would like to have more ways to stay in touch with you after you graduate. We'd also love to find more opportunities for you to connect with and support our current students.
To that end, I'd like to highlight a few ways you can connect with us:
- Please take a moment to make an alumni update, which will help us by providing some information about you, and which offers some additional ways of getting involved.
- If you're interested in contributing to the new Legacy Fund for students, visit giving.wayne.edu.
- You're all invited to attend our upcoming 25th Seymour Riklin Memorial Lecture featuring Professor George Yancy of Emory University on Oct. 5, which will be the kickoff event for a special conference in African American Philosophy that we'll be hosting, which will also feature a keynote address by Professor Kristie Dotson.
We hope you have all been doing well, and we look forward to staying in touch with you more in the coming years!
Sincerely,
Josh Wilburn
Chair and Professor