In Brief: More News from the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Enrollments: 5,594 students registered for the department’s courses during the 2019/20 academic year. This is a new record. It is also 7% above 2018/19 enrollments (5,216) and 16% above 2009/10 enrollments (4,808). 101 students have declared majors in the department’s disciplines: 76 in philosophy and 25 in religious studies.
Distinguished Visiting Appointment: Levi McLaughlin (Ph.D., Princeton), associate professor of religious studies, served as Toyota Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for the 2019/20 academic year.
New Teaching Faculty: The department made three new contract appointments to its teaching faculty during 2019/20. Hunter Bandy (Ph.D., Duke) was appointed as a postdoctoral teaching scholar for the 2019/20 academic year; Hannah Bondurant, a Ph.D. candidate at Duke, was appointed as a lecturer in philosophy in Fall 2019; and Jason J. Bowers (Ph.D., UNC Chapel Hill) was appointed as a teaching assistant professor of philosophy for Spring 2020 to replace a faculty member who was on leave.
Scholarly Reassignment: Stephen Puryear (Ph.D., Pittsburgh), associate professor of philosophy, received a scholarly reassignment for Fall 2019 to work on the manuscript of a book on Leibniz’s idealism. Read more.
Faculty Promotions: William A. Bauer (Ph.D., Nebraska-Lincoln), teaching assistant professor of philosophy, has been approved for promotion to teaching associate professor; and Sanem Soyarslan (Ph.D., Duke), assistant professor of philosophy, has been approved for promotion to associate professor with tenure. These promotions take effect in Fall 2020.
Major Anniversaries: Several of the department’s faculty and staff are celebrating significant long-term service anniversaries in 2020: William Bauer (philosophy) and Eric Carter (philosophy), 10 years; Robert Mabrito (philosophy), 15 years; Jason Bivins (religious studies) and Marina Bykova (philosophy), 20 years; John Carroll (philosophy) and Michael Marnell (philosophy), 25 years; Barbara Levenbook (philosophy) and Ann Rives (business services coordinator), 40 years.
Covid-19: Because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the NC State spring break was extended by a week until March 22 and all regular faculty and staff had to work from home for the remainder of the semester and beyond. For faculty who have always taught in the classroom, this was a demanding and time-consuming challenge that had an adverse effect on their scholarly work. Nevertheless, many departmental faculty are surprised at how well they managed to get by in their courses using remote instruction.
