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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.
Theses written have included "The Right to Privacy," "The Philosophical Idea of the Child," "The Concept of Cause in Spinoza," "Genealogy and De-Mythifying the Feminine," and "Family Values: Philosophical and Historical Analysis of the Primary Political Symbol."
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.
Ann Fitzgerald-Pittman '08, Rachel McCarthy James '08, and Holt Saulsgiver '10 represented Hollins at the ninth annual Wachovia Ethics Bowl Competition, held February 10 and 11, 2008 at Marymount University in Arlington. Students from all 15 members of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges took part in the event, whose theme was "Ethics and the Environment." The team from Hollins won three of the four cases it debated on environmental ethical dilemmas. Nearly 50 business and community leaders from across Virginia critiqued team arguments.
PHOTO: Hollins' 2008 VFIC Ethics Bowl Team
Left to right: Anne Fitzgerald-Pittman, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Rachel McCarthy James (not pictured: Holt Saulsgiver).
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