Department News

The University at Buffalo Department of Philosophy congratulates our alumnus, Jonathan J. Sanford, PhD (Buffalo), on being named by the University of Dallas Board of Trustees as the insitution's 10th president. Sanford's areas of expertise include Ethics, Higher Education, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Metaphysics, Virtue Theory, Social and Political Philosophy, and Early Phenomenology. Learn more.

The University at Buffalo Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce that UB sophomore Laura Rivera Salgado (Psychology) is the winner of the $5,000. tuition waiver in our 2021 poster design contest. Philosophy Department Chair Neil Williams notified Salgado that her poster won the grand prize.

About the book: Fleeing Cuba in 1961, Jorge J. E. Gracia arrived in the USA at the age of nineteen without family and unable to speak English. Ten years later he was assistant professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Over the next 50 years Gracia published dozens of books and hundreds of articles, making major contributions to numerous areas of philosophy: Latin American philosophy, race and ethnicity, Medieval philosophy, philosophical historiography, metaphysics and ontology, and theory of interpretation. This book is a critical response to Gracia’s work and a tribute to his legacy. It includes a comprehensive bibliography of Gracia’s philosophical works. Learn more.

The University at Buffalo Department of Philosophy congratulates our alumnus, William Duncan, PhD, on being named by the University of Florida, College of Dentistry as the college’s first artificial intelligence-focused hire. “I am thrilled to have Dr. Duncan on board to help guide and support UFCD in the development of our vision for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-related research initiatives and goals,” said Dean A. Isabel Garcia. 

“I was delighted hearing the news about my book being chosen,” says Ryan Muldoon, an expert in social and political philosophy. “It’s an exciting opportunity to explore the topics presented in the book and to receive feedback from other scholars that could direct my next steps in this line of research.” Muldoon’s book is a work of political philosophy that offers an interesting departure from conventional thinking about social contracts, theories that center concepts of morality and justice in ways that are generally agreed upon by members of a society. Read the news article by Bert Gambini.