Students in philosophy have the opportunity to conduct research by applying for funded research opportunities each summer (Beckman Scholars, SURP) or completing an optional senior thesis. Below is a list of recent research conducted by philosophy students.
Independent Summer Projects
Moral guilt and the Penal System: a Look at Free Will in the Face of Determinism.
Thanasis Gkoutzinis ’26; Advisor: Professor Andrew Law
Funding provided by Richter Memorial Funds
Can You Be Friends with Bad People?
Sophie Fullerton '26; Advisor: Professor Julie Tannenbaum
Funding provided by The Clarence ’62 P’91, Carolyn P’91 and Peter ’91 Sasaki Fund, 2020
Lost in the Feed: Meaning, Passion, and the Search for Fulfillment in the Digital Age
Tyler Simms ’26; Advisor: Professor Michael Green
Funding provided by The Class of 1971 Summer Undergraduate Research Fund
Can Forgiveness Be Required?
Polly Liu '27; Advisor: Professor Julie Tannenbaum
Funding provided by Pomona College President's Fund
From Innocence to Obligation
Anh Ton ’28; Advisor: Professor Laura Perini
Funding provided by The Wire Fund for Experiential Learning
Can Morality be Saved from Luck?
Claire Zhang ’27; Advisor: Professor Julie Tannenbaum
Funding provided by The Clarence ’62 P’91, Carolyn P’91 and Peter ’91 Sasaki Fund, 2020
What Is A Woman? No, Really: Philosophizing Gender
Ash Ahrenhoerster ‘25; Advisor: Professor Denise Machin
Funding provided by The Clarence ’62 P’91, Carolyn P’91 and Peter ’91 Sasaki Fund, 2020
On the Commensurability of Dialectical Materialism and Afro-Pessimism
Drey Diggs '24; Advisor: Professor Peter Thielke
Funding provided by the Paul and Evalyn Richter Award
Personal Identity and the External World
Lavi Echeverria ‘24; Advisor: Professor Masahiro Yamada
Funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant
Existentialism and Counter-Hegemony
Drey Diggs '24; Advisor: Professor Ellie Anderson
Funding provided by The Clarence ’62 P’91, Carolyn P’91 and Peter ’91 Sasaki Fund, 2020
The Ephemeral, the Erotic, and the Violent: Georges Bataille in the Work of Yukio Mishima
Sam Hernandez '24; Advisor: Professor Ellie Anderson
Funding provided by the Paul and Evalyn Richter Award
Taking Philosophy to The Public: An Invitation to Explore The Grounds of Moral Status
Kevin Hua '23; Advisor: Professor Julie Tannenbaum
Funding provided by Pomona College RAISE, 2020
Is it Morally Permissible to Engage with Art by Immoral Artists?
Soo Bin Cho '23; Advisor: Professor Julie Tannenbaum
Funding provided by the Paul and Evalyn Richter Award
Justifications for, and Requirements of, Informed Consent: A Critical Review of the Literature
Chloe Sun '23; Advisor: Professor Julie Tannenbaum
Funding provided by the Paul and Evalyn Richter Award
On Fetal Rights: Killing vs. Letting Die in Abortion Ethics
Jenna Lange '23; Advisor: Professor Julie Tannenbaum
Funding provided by The Clarence ’62 P’91, Carolyn P’91 and Peter ’91 Sasaki Fund, 2020
Rights of Prisoners
Andy Han '23; Advisor: Professor Julie Tannenbaum
Funding provided by The Clarence ’62 P’91, Carolyn P’91 and Peter ’91 Sasaki Fund, 2020
Summer Research Assistance
The following students have assisted Professor Ellie Anderson with her podcast Overthink, which is also available on YouTube.
Kristen Taylor ’26; funding provided by H. Clinton Smith and Louise Phelps Smith memorial Fund
Emilio Esquivel Marquez ’25; funding provided by Aubrey H. & Eileen J. Seed Fund
Aaron Morgan ’25; funding provided by Richter Memorial Fund
Sunny Jeong-Eimer ’25; funding provided by Richter Memorial Fund
Senior Theses
Trans Tell: Theoretical Dimensions of Clocking
Ezra Adasiak '25; Mentor: Professor Ellie Anderson
A Consequentialist Account of Consuming Discriminatory Artwork
Jesse McIlhenny '25; Mentor: Professor Laura Perini
The Chthulucene Is Colonial Ecology: Ontology and Ethics in Anti-Colonial Environmental Theory
Aaron Morgan '25; Mentor: Professor Jordan Daniels
Unity, Variety, and Expression in Spinoza's Metaphysics of Attributes
Emilio Esquivel Marquez '25; Mentor: Professor James Kreines
'They're Mutilating Little Girls': How Narratives of Transphobia Rely on Ableist Conceptions and the Possibilities of Trans Disabled Solidarity
Audrey Strevey '25; Mentor: Professor Paul Hurley
Kantian Ethics and the Morality of Lying
Isabella Phillips '23; Mentor: Professor Peter Thielke
Analyticity and the Epistemic Ambit of Logic
Derek Li '23; Mentor: Professor Masahiro Yamada
The Evaluative Function of Truth: An Account of the Role of Truth in Understanding Language
Paskalina Bourbon '19; Mentors: Professors Masahiro Yamada and Peter Thielke
A New Account of Indoctrination
James McIntyre '19; Mentors: Professors Peter Thielke and Brian Keeley