Winter 2010 / Spring 2011

This Newsletter announces IDSVA’s historic accomplishment of gaining candidacy status for accreditation from The Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. The students of IDSVA would like to congratulate and thank EVERYONE who helped to make this feat possible, especially, George Smith, Seth Kim-Cohen, and Denise Carvalho. In particular, we would like to thank and acknowledge the work and generosity of Amy Curtis, who is not only the organizing power behind IDSVA, but also an inspiration to us all in her incredible ability to put philosophy into practice!

These past months have seen the first cohort of IDSVA pass their oral exams and embark on their dissertations. Third-year students have begun to prepare their dissertation topics at Brown, while first and second-year students have traveled to and between Italy and France, and are now about to head off to their residency in New York. This Newsletter highlights some individual voices of IDSVA students, such as Christopher Lonegan discussing his dissertation topic, Michael Smith giving us a glimpse of his experience during the oral exams, and a conversation between third-year students Greg Blair and Joni Doherty on some scholarly interests that have been relevant to them as of late. In short, we hope this Newsletter doesn’t just give an update of the goings-on at IDSVA, but also functions as a starting point and forum for future dialogue. An interview with this year’s IDSVA Prize recipient, Paul Armstrong, certainly conveys the possibility of what philosophical dialogues can lead to when set into motion.