Department of Philosophy
Question everything.
Departmental News
- Faculty Awarded APA, ISOS Grants
Lauren Lyons, Caro Flores, and Nico Orlandi have won a $20,000 grant from the American Philosophical Association to continue the highly successful Queer Analytic Philosophy Conference. Together with colleagues around the country, they will aim to turn the conference into an annual, rotating event. Here is the announcement. Additionally, Sara Bernstein and Nico Orlandi have won… Read more: Faculty Awarded APA, ISOS Grants - UCSC Ethics Bowl Team Wins Invitation to Nationals
UCSC Ethics Bowl Team 1, coached by UCSC philosophy continuing lecturer Kyle Robertson, has won in invitation to the 2026 Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championships. Congratulations to Kyle and the team! - Nico Orlandi awarded DAAD international guest professorship
Nico Orlandi has been awarded a DAAD international guest professorship at Ruhr University Bochum. Professor Orlandi will teach courses and collaborate on research with Professor Tobias Schlicht in Spring quarter 2026. Congratulations, Nico! - E. Hande Tuna Named Quinn Fellow at NHC
We are delighted to announce that Emine Hande Tuna has been awarded a prestigious fellowship at the National Humanities Center for the 2025–26 academic year. Selected from a highly competitive pool of 588 applicants, she will join a cohort of 32 distinguished scholars as part of the Center’s forty-eighth class of resident fellows. Professor Tuna has been… Read more: E. Hande Tuna Named Quinn Fellow at NHC - Welcome to Sara Bernstein, new faculty member and new Philosophy Chair
Sara Bernstein joined the faculty of the Philosophy Department as our new chair on July 1, 2025. Sara specializes in metaphysics, especially the metaphysics of causation, and in related topics in ethics and the law. Sara has additional interests in the metaphysics of time and time travel, and in the metaphysics of feminist theory. - Welcome to Daniel Nolan, new faculty member
Daniel Nolan joined the faculty in July 2025. Daniel specializes in metaphysics, especially hyperintensionality and the use of impossible worlds to resolve metaphysical problems. Daniel has additional interests in possible worlds, dispositions, states of affairs, universals and particulars, parts and wholes, time and space, the metaphysics of vagueness, and methodology in metaphysics.
Calendar
Events
- Philosophy Colloquium: Rima BasuThursday, April 23rd, 2026, 3:15 – Speaker Rima Basu will give a talk followed by a Q&A
- Philosophy Colloquium: Daniela DoverThursday, April 2nd, 2026, 3:15 – Speaker Daniela Dover will give a talk followed by a Q&A
- Philosophy Colloquium: Amelia WirtsThursday, March 12th, 2026, 3:15 – Speaker Amelia Wirts will give a talk followed by a Q&A
- Philosophy Colloquium: Zoe DraysonThursday, February 19th, 2026, 3:15 – Speaker Zoe Drayson will give a talk followed by a Q&A
Humanities Division Philosophy News
UC Santa Cruz Ethics Bowl team qualifies for national championships
A hard-working group of UC Santa Cruz undergraduate Ethics Bowl competitors is heading for the 2026 Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championships in St. Louis, MIssouri, in March.
Life Beyond the Redwoods: Smeet Mehta at 100x.VC Mumbai
One year after graduating from UC Santa Cruz, Smeet Mehta (Crown ’24, philosophy) works as an analyst at 100x.VC—an early-stage venture capital firm based in Mumbai—to help startups get the funding they need to start their journeys.
Making metaphysics matter: Two new UC Santa Cruz Philosophy professors bring big questions down to Earth
Metaphysics has never had a “fun” reputation. Many people—if they’ve even heard of the M-word— tend to associate it with woozy, abstract lectures about time and space. But with the arrival of Philosophy Professor and new Department Chair Sara Bernstein and Philosophy Professor Daniel Nolan, two internationally respected experts in metaphysics, the UC Santa Cruz Philosophy Department is bolstering its strengths in this realm and setting out to change perceptions.