News

The Emotion and Society Lab, based at the University of California-Riverside, is a network of scholars at various universities who engage in collaborative learning, research, and public engagement regarding emotions and society. Fellows attend an in-person workshop and participate in monthly virtual sessions on works in progress. Renee joins the 2025-26 cohort of Fellows in the program.

A recent peer-reviewed article reports results indicating that philosophy majors outperform other majors on various measures of reasoning and intellectual virtues, even adjusting for differences prior to college studies.

Large Language Models, widely used by AI-powered chatbots, tend to overuse certain words, such as ‘delve’, ‘intricate’, and ‘realm’. A recent opinion piece in the Washington Post discusses the work of Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zina Ward, in collaboration with Tom Juzek, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, explaining the overuse.

Link to publication inside.

Dylan Masterson successfully defended his Master's thesis, "The Mythical Aspect of Ideology: Understanding Gender Myths," on March 24th. Dylan's committee was chaired by Andrea Westlund.

Matthew will be a Fellow in the Philosophy in Media Workshop on Podcasting and Production this summer. He is host of the podcast, “Mortality Matters: Meaning and Death.” Matthew is writing a dissertation entitled, “Why We Should Fear Death.”

Paul Martin successfully defended his dissertation, "Interpersonal Manipulation and Razian Autonomy," on March 21st. Paul's committee was chaired by Simon May.

Professor Ward, together with Assistant Professor Tom Juzek (Linguistics), will be featured in an episode of NPR’s “Science Friday” to be aired Friday, March 21st. They will discuss their work investigating why large language models like ChatGPT overuse words like 'delve' and 'intricate'. Tune in on WFSU or listen to the live stream at https://wfsu.org/listen/.

Qiaohua Liu successfully defended her dissertation, “Historical Compatibilism: Essays in Defense of a Novel Positive Historical Approach to Moral Responsibility Regarding Little Agents,” on March 7. Qiaohua's committee was chaired by Alfred Mele.

Zachary Smith successfully defended his dissertation, "Freedom and Control: Essays on the Metaphysics of Free Will," on February 28th. Zach's committee was chaired by Alfred Mele.