Departmental honors

The Hollins philosophy program offers students the opportunity to graduate with departmental honors in philosophy. In order to do this, students must:

• write an honors thesis under the direction of one of the department's full-time faculty members
• present some portion of that thesis to her peers during the Senior Seminar, and
• defend the thesis before a committee composed of her director and at least one other faculty member.

Recent theses include: "Thoughts to Words and Back Again," "The Right to Life and Death," "Social Contracts," "A Pound of Flesh: Developing a Feminist Theory of Prostitution," and "The Ethics and Consistency of the Incest Prohibition."

Phi Sigma Tau

Phi Sigma Tau, the International Honor Society in Philosophy, has over 150 member chapters. It was founded to promote ties among philosophy departments in accredited institutions. The Society serves as a means of awarding distinction to students having high scholarship and interest in philosophy. Students have the opportunity to publish in the Society's journal, Dialogue. Hollins University is the Virginia Theta Chapter of the Society. It was founded in 1996. Our chapter's activities include sponsoring philosophy speakers, conducting informal meetings with philosophy students from other area colleges and universities, breakfast table discussions of favorite philosophy topics, and a festive yearly induction ceremony.

Among those who have delivered lectures in the past have been:

• Rosemarie Tong, "Feminine and Feminist Ethics" (Davidson College)
• Kit Wellman, "The Right of Secession" (Guilford College)
• Cora Diamond, "Truth: Debunkers, Defenders, and Despisers" (U. Virginia)
• Tom Regan, "Animal Rights and Wrongs" (North Carolina State)
• Val Plumwood, "Feminism and Environmental Ethics" (U. North Carolina)
• Richard Fleming, "Words Not My Own" (Bucknell University)
• Gregory Velazco y Trianosky, "Genocide and the Spanish Conquest" (U. Michigan)
• Richard Rorty, "Pragmatism and Romance" (U. Virginia)
• Alvin Plantinga, "Naturalism Defeated" (Notre Dame University)
• Tom Regan, "But For the Sake of a Mouthful of Flesh" (North Carolina State)

Ethics Bowl

Hollins is a member of the Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges, which sponsors an annual Ethics Bowl among 15 member schools. Each year Hollins students participate in a debate-style competition held at a Virginia university in which each team considers a number of case studies in applied ethics and answers questions posed by a panel of judges. The case studies have recently focused on questions of Ethics and Technology and Business Ethics, and each year a new theme is chosen. The philosophy department sponsors the team and the coaches are philosophy professors.

The Hollins Ethics Bowl team competed in the VFIC statewide Ethics Bowl competition February 10-11, 2013 at Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA. This year's theme was "Ethics & Social Media," and the team consisted of Carrie Boswell '14, Megan Grosholz '14, Safiya Kelly '14, Amanda Stowell (Horizon), and Naomi Ruth Thompson '14. Teams from the 15 VFIC member colleges presented their analysis, positions and recommendations to panels of judges comprised of business, professional, and educational leaders drawn from throughout Virginia. The Hollins team delivered a strong showing during competition, defeating Roanoke College and enjoying very close matches with the other participating colleges and universities. The team drew a great deal of praise from both the judges and the campus coordinators from other colleges, representing Hollins well in the competition.

Photo: Hollins' 2013 Ethics Bowl Team
Left to right: Amanda Stowell, Naomi Ruth Thompson, Carrie Boswell, Safiya Kelly, and Megan Grosholz with team coordinator, Associate Professor of Philosophy James Downey