The American Philosophical Association is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest:
- John Corvino, “Drawing a Line in the ‘Gay Wedding Cake’ Case,” The Stone (The New York Times)
- Erich Matthes, “Palmyra’s Ruins Can Rebuild Our Relationship with History,” Aeon Magazine
- Ian Olasov, “When Is a Lie a Lie? Trump, Journalism, and Objectivity,” Public Seminar
- Danielle Wenner and Kevin Zollman, “How to End International Tax Competition,” The New York Times
The APA committee on public philosophy sponsors this annual contest, which includes a $100 monetary award per essay, for the best opinion-editorials published by philosophers. The goal is to honor standout pieces that successfully blend philosophical argumentation with an op-ed writing style.
Corvino is dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College and professor of philosophy at Wayne State University. Corvino’s research mainly focuses on controversial “culture war” issues surrounding sexuality and marriage. He is the author or co-author of three books from Oxford University Press: Debating Same-Sex Marriage (with Maggie Gallagher), What’s Wrong with Homosexuality?, and, most recently, Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination, with Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis. His online videos have received over two million views.
Matthes is assistant professor of philosophy at Wellesley College. His primary research interests concern the ethics, politics, and aesthetics of cultural heritage, particularly with respect to art and the environment. He is especially interested in themes surrounding preservation of, access to, and control over objects, practices, and places. Matthes has published papers on topics including repatriation, historic preservation, cultural appropriation, irreplaceability, authenticity, and the value of history and heritage.
Olasov is a graduate student in philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His research interests are broad but currently center around moral theory (moral non-cognitivism, the sociolinguistics of moral discourse) and the philosophy of language (speech act theory, pragmatics). Olasov has taught at Brooklyn College, Medgar Evers College, and Kingsborough Community College.
Wenner is assistant professor of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also the associate director of CMU’s Center for Ethics & Policy and an affiliate faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Bioethics and Health Law. Wenner’s research is focused primarily on the ethics and methods of clinical research, with a special emphasis on research conducted in and on lower- and middle-income populations, as well as on the impacts of deliberative pathologies and inequalities of various sorts on the legitimate functioning of group decision-making procedures.
Zollman received his Ph.D. and M.A. in philosophy from the department of logic and philosophy of science at the University of California, Irvine. He is associate professor in the department of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, he is an associate fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, a visiting professor at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (part of Ludwig-Maximilians Universität), and an associate editor of the journal Philosophy of Science. Zollman’s research focuses on game theory, agent-based modeling, and the philosophy of science.
