The American Philosophical Association is pleased to announce that Alberto Urquidez has been awarded the 2017 Journal of Value Inquiry Prize (formerly the Rockefeller Prize) for his paper, “What Accounts of ‘Racism’ Do.”
The selection committee has also awarded honorable mention to Anthony Manela for his paper, “The Nature and Value of Imperfect Rights.”
This annual prize, which includes a $500 monetary award, recognizes the best unpublished article-length work in philosophy by a non-academically affiliated philosopher. The winner’s work may be published in the Journal of Value Inquiry by mutual agreement of the author and the editors of the journal.
Urquidez is a visiting scholar at Purdue University, where he received his Ph.D. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his M.A. from Claremont Graduate University. His areas of specialization are in social philosophy and philosophy of language. Urquidez’s research engages debates in two major issues in the philosophy of race: the nature of racism and the nature of race.
Manela is an adjunct lecturer in the department of philosophy at Georgetown University. He is also an editorial assistant for Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy. Manela received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University and his B.A. from Duke University.
The selection committee said of the winning paper, “In ‘What Accounts of “Racism” Do,’ Alberto Urquidez argues that, because accounts of racism must respond to practical concerns that prompt disputes about racism, they cannot be normatively neutral. The paper offers a careful analysis of a debate over whether overuse of the term ‘racism’ can be resolved by an account of racism that aims at capturing actual linguistic practice.”
Of the paper that received honorable mention, the selection committee said, “Some say rights are what give agents standing to demand, which functions to sustain the respect we owe each other. Then what are imperfect rights? In this ambitious and thoughtful paper, Anthony Manela sketches a theory of imperfect rights as giving agents standing to reproach. Reproach plays as important a role in nourishing important interpersonal relationships as it plays in maintaining minimal levels of respect.”
