Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse presented a paper titled “Living In Contemporarity: Towards an afro-fem ethic of sufficiency” and participated in a closed workshop on MJ Alexander’s book Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, and the Sacred  at the philoSOPHIA Conference held at Texas A&M University in College Station on April 10.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse was awarded the Kristeller-Popkin Travel Fellowship worth $4,000 from the Journal of the History of Philosophy  for a research project titled “Interrogating Apartheid’s Foundations through Alfred Hoernlé’s Philosophy.” Dr. ka’Nobuhlaluse is one of two awardees to receive the highly competitive grant.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse co-edited, along with Maha Marouan and Alicia Decker, and contributed a critical interview to the piece “In Conversation with Mamphela Ramphele on the Urgency of Storytelling for Blackwomen in South Africa,” in Writing African Feminist Subjectivities, the first-ever special issue on African feminism in the history of the journal Feminist Formations. This landmark issue, now live on Project MUSE, brings together a powerful collective of feminist scholars, activists, and artists, engaging with African feminist thought in profound and transformative ways. The Writing African Feminist Subjectivities  issue can be accessed here.

Professor of Philosophy Michael Bray discussed the crisis of democracy and populist politics as the guest for an episode of the limited podcast series Crisis Point, run by the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) at the University of Sheffield, England. The series will air in March.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse presented at the first annual conference of the League of African Women Philosophers (LAWP) held virtually on January 25–26. The title of their paper was “Reading Makhoere’s Autobiography of Prison Under Apartheid South Africa via an ‘Existential Standpoint.’” The League of African Women Philosophers is important because it represents a vital step toward addressing the historical underrepresentation of African women in philosophy and the broader intellectual discourse.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse’s book review on Simone de Beauvoir and the Colonial Experience: Freedom, Violence, and Identity by Nathalie Nya was published online under “Volume 34 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2024): Special Issue: Sites of Coercion: Plantation, Colony, Metropole,” edited by Janine Jones, in Simone de Beauvoir Studies. In the review, Dr. ka’Nobuhlaluse unpacks Nya’s compelling arguments and discusses how this book challenges us to rethink Beauvoir’s relevance in today’s global struggles for liberation and justice. The review also critiques the use of phrases such as “non-white” within European and American scholarship by drawing attention to the problematic uses as seen in Apartheid South Africa. It can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse had a piece in public philosophy, titled “A Clothing Paradox Unbuttoned: Why We Should All Be Ethical Shoppers,” published in the Blog of the APA (American Philosophical Association) on November 21. In the work, Dr. ka’Nobuhlaluse explores the intersections of philosophy, fashion, and ethics, tackling the contradictions in our clothing choices and addressing the question, how do we reconcile the desire for self-expression with the pressing need for sustainability and justice in global supply chains? This essay is part of a larger work on thinking about an eco-feminist praxis. The article can be accessed here.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse virtually presented a working draft of a book chapter titled “The Interlocking Nature of Apartheid Praxis” at a workshop on “Apartheid as Method for Worldmaking after Empire: Encountering histories, presents, and continuities of Apartheid in South Africa,” held at the University of the Witwatersrand on September 17. The workshop aims to provide authors with feedback towards an edited volume on Critical Apartheid Studies.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy Gwen Daugs presented a paper at the 2024 Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association titled “Moral Panic and Gender: Michel Foucault, Toby Beauchamp, and the Safety of Children.”

Professor of Philosophy Michael Bray published an essay, “Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s Post-Marxism Can’t Give Us a Political Strategy,” on the Jacobin website. A Spanish translation, “Laclau, Mouffe y la estrategia política,” was also published on Jacobinlat.com.

In July, Assistant Professor of Philosophy Jorge Lizarzaburu presented the paper “An Extended Evolutionary Account of Human Nature” at the International Society for the History Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology at the University of Toronto.

The following individuals were recently recognized as award recipients for the 2022-23 academic year. Teaching awards: Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Chelsea Massaro, Assistant Professor of Philosophy Jorge Lizarzaburu, and Associate Professor of French Francis Mathieu. Assistant Professor of Art Ron Geibel won the Jesse E. Purdy Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Works Award. The Advising Award went to Associate Professor of Chemistry Michael Gesinski.

Lurlyn and Durwood Fleming Professor of Philosophy Phil Hopkins has completed a second 10-month contract with the Austin Police Department (APD), this time to develop guidelines and formal procedures for selecting and reviewing video training material for the Cadet Academy that focus on recognizing and addressing the ways video material can have unintended consequences and harms and may reinforce rather than disrupt larger cultural narratives and stereotypes. Hopkins has written and submitted a final report to APD and the Austin City Council. He remains under contract for the remainder of this year on the larger curriculum review committee whose task is to review and develop improved training curricula and content across the several training regimes for APD. This work was recently featured in a 60 Minutesepisode that noted its innovative (and largely unprecedented) approach but not the many and various difficulties it faces among entrenched institutional histories and competing political agendas. 

Professor of Philosophy Phil Hopkins has completed an eight-month process as part of a community panel reviewing materials used at the Austin Police Department (APD) Training Academy. The panel was the longest-serving component of the Austin City Council’s Resolution 66 (December 2019), which initiated an investigation into bias and racism in the APD.  The final report has been presented to the community and to the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force and is being covered by a number of media sources, such as KXAN, whose coverage can be found here.

Professor of Philosophy Phil Hopkins was a panelist for “Trauma and Policing: An Abusive Relationship,” part four of the Austin Justice Coalition conversation series Imagining a World without Police,on August 5. 

Professor of Philosophy Phil Hopkins was a panelist in a two-part Zoom town hall meeting on policing and Arab, Muslim, and Middle Eastern communities. The event was hosted by Interconnecting Arabs, Muslims, and Middle Easterners (I-AMM) on July 18 and 25.  

Professor of Philosophy Phil Hopkins  is the invited guest on the podcast The Partially Examined Life  for a two-part episode (#248) on policing. He discusses Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception  and Linda Alcoff and Alia Al-Saji’s developments of his theory of perception and prescriptions for disrupting racialized perceptions to try to understand persistent police violence against people of color and in general. He will also be a panelist on July 15 during a webinar for the National Association of Social Workers on policing practices, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Professor of Philosophy Michael Bray’s article “The Virus Infects Politics: Six Theses on Social Reproduction, Biopolitical Economies, and the Legitimacy of States,” appeared online in two parts in the new journal Spectre. Read it here: Part 1, Part 2.

Professor of Philosophy Phil Hopkins was selected to serve as an outside consultant on the training audit review panel as part of the Austin Police Department (APD) evaluation mandated by recent Austin City Council Resolution 66, which set up an investigation into bias and bigotry within the APD.