Research in Philosophy & Religion

Dr. Neil A. Manson, Professor of Philosophy, researches the philosophical implications of cosmic fine-tuning for life–the fact that the laws and constants of physics need to be precisely what they are for life to be possible anywhere in the universe. Some think fine-tuning points to a Designer, others to a multiverse sufficiently large to make the existence of a life-permitting universe probable. Manson received a John Templeton Foundation grant to develop a comprehensive guide for researchers. Published widely on the topic, he has has been interviewed on numerous podcasts about it.

Dr. Donovan Wishon, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Affiliated Faculty in Neuroscience, researches philosophy of mind and the history of analytic philosophy. Focused on the eminent 20th century philosopher, logician, and social activist Bertrand Russell's changing views about the relation between mind and matter, Wishon is recognized as a leading expert on Russell’s later writings on “neutral monism." He organized two conferences on Russell, won the Bertrand Russell Society Book Award, and was a Bertrand Russell Archives & Research Centre Research Fellow.

"My research lies at the intersection of ethics and epistemology, particularly virtue and social epistemology. I am exploring autonomy as an intellectual virtue: its nature, value, and role in epistemic inquiry within an intellectual community. I adopt a responsibilist virtue-theoretic framework to develop an account of autonomy that avoids significant puzzles about extant accounts of intellectual autonomy." Paisley Agyare Boaitey, MA student (left)

Dr. Deborah S. Mower, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Practical Ethics, researches methods and practices to develop ethical reasoning and leadership skills. Her work in moral education intersects with psychology, education, and leadership studies to highlight the specific virtues and dispositional traits needed for complex ethical reasoning and action. The head of a multi-year educational research project funded by a Wake Forest University's Program for Leadership and Character grant, she also has a Department of Justice/Bureau of Justice Assistance grant to develop ethics education programs for K-12 in Mississippi as part of violence prevention measures. Mower champions ethics education nationally through her publications. 

Dr. Aaron Graham, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, takes the nature of law as his primary object of theoretical inquiry. Specifically, he investigates in what sense - if any - law has a necessary relationship to morality. The answer to that question bears directly on other, related questions, such as whether judges are making or finding law in hard cases, and whether we have a moral obligation to obey the law. His Jurisprudence course is open both to Philosophy M.A. and School of Law students. A former practicing attorney, he is academic advisor to pre-law philosophy majors and is the faculty advisor for the Pre-Law Club.

Amy Cain (B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science '20) was the recipient of the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Study of Politics and the James and Cecilia Lawhead Award in Philosophy. She completed her honors thesis by combining her interests from both majors. She examined two sources of conflict within the literature on education in liberal political theories: the proper justifications for a state-mandated education and the necessary standard for education in a liberal state.  

Dr. James M. Bos, Associate Professor of Religion, specializes in the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. His first book on the prophet Hosea analyzed how this book, attributed to Hosea in the 8th century BCE, developed in later centuries as Judahite writers grappled with their overwhelming defeat to the Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. He is currently working on a book examining the characterization of the main participants in the prophetic books (both divine and human characters) from a narratological perspective.

Dr. Fei Lan, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and  an affiliated faculty member of the interdisciplinary minor in East Asian Studies, specializes in Chinese philosophy and religions. Her publications focus on Confucian thought and religious ethics. She is currently working on a book examining the ethical thought of Dai Zhen, a leading Confucian thinker of the late imperial China. Other topics of her teaching and research interest include nature and the environment, healing and health in Asian religions.

Josh Law (B.A. Religious Studies '17) was awarded a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to attend the University of Cambridge to pursue a master's degree in health, medicine, and society. 

"Health is such an interdisciplinary experience. There is so much impacting an individual person and what it means for them to be healthy. Looking at that through as many academic lenses as possible through history and philosophy, but also through the social sciences, is going to provide the best opportunity for me to have a well-rounded view of health in the 21st century."