Victoria Min-Yi Wang has just completed her MA in philosophy (of science) with a specialization in bioethics at the University of Toronto. Originally, she trained as a cancer scientist working in a number of labs in the UK, has tested her hand as an editor at a scientific journal, and then only slowly found her love for serious (academic?) philosophy. Now, Victoria’s interests lie at the interface of epistemology and ethics, and she is especially attracted to questions or problems that can be tackled with resources from feminist philosophy.
What excites you about philosophy?
Almost everything. The fact that you can philosophize about basically anything (although that doesn’t mean you should); the exciting mix between doing abstract thinking and theorizing while trying to stay grounded in empirical realities; being able to read widely and all of it being potentially relevant to a philosophical project; the practice of writing as a way of clarifying your thoughts and editing that work so that thoughts and ideas can be communicated; the ways in which philosophical analyses can extend their tendrils into any other discipline to illuminate and/or disrupt those disciplines and the concomitant effects that those other disciplines can have on the practice of philosophy; the potential of philosophy to affect—and in the best cases, change for the better—the daily lives of those who come into contact with it.
What are you working on right now?
This is an easy question. I’m working on two types of things at the moment. First, I’m trying to expand on and improve a couple of the essays I wrote as part of the graduate courses I took at the University of Toronto, in the hope that they might be publishable in the not-too-distant future. One of them is about care ethics and evidence-based nursing. Here, I’m trying to argue that resources from feminist care ethics can help fill in some of the gaps left by the very process-based approach of evidence-based nursing. And in a different essay, I discuss one of the main approaches to science communication—the deficit model—using resources from the doctor and sociologist Ludwik Fleck who was writing in the first half of the twentieth century. The main thing I’m trying to achieve in this essay is to problematize the strict dichotomy between “experts” and “laypeople” that academics often presuppose when writing about and doing science communication.
Second, I’m preparing a spreadsheet with information on various philosophy Ph.D. programs to apply to, with application and funding deadlines, and professors I’m interested in working with. Along with this, I’m also working on my writing sample, which, to make matters more difficult for myself, is based on neither of the two essays mentioned above. Instead, I’ll be building on a paper in which I explore what it means to have excessive self-trust and how this can be detrimental to patient-physician relationships.
What three things are on your bucket list that you’ve not yet accomplished?
- Getting a permanent job at a university.
- Writing (and publishing) a book.
- Maintaining caring and loving relationships until the end of my life.
What do you like to do outside work?
Perhaps unsurprisingly and unoriginally, I love reading fiction. This is for a number of reasons, including the beauty of language, the opportunity to travel to other times and places and into other people’s inner lives, as an escape from my life. One of the greatest joys is this little book club I’m part of where we’ve set ourselves the task of reading one book from every country in the world; we’ve managed about forty so far.
When I don’t have my head buried in a book and am not staring at a screen I enjoy running and hiking; I was born in Austria, so it’s almost obligatory to love mountains (and classical music).
Finally, I’m less solitary than these answers make me sound: in between reading and running I love spending time with my partner, family, and friends (in-person or on the phone, this is what moving around a lot leads to). We talk about everything, from philosophy to science to the latest relationship gossip.
What is your favorite book of all time? (Or top 3). Why? To whom would you recommend them?
Impossible question. These are provisional answers, in no particular order, liable to change over time.
Orlando (1928) by Virginia Woolf: I don’t think I’ve ever read a sentence of hers that I disliked and very many that I’ve loved. This novel in particular, with its fantastical time-and-gender-bending elements, is both humorous and deadly serious, a combination I hugely admire, both in fiction and life. I’d recommend this to anyone who isn’t yet convinced that modernism is one of the best literary periods (at least for English language fiction).
Malina (1971) by Ingeborg Bachmann: This was the Austrian book we read on our world book club tour earlier this year. As part of the book club, we rate books from 1 to 5 (though the criteria for these ratings are contested and highly idiosyncratic). This book earned at least two 5s (including one from me), one 1, and one “1 or 5.” Make of that what you will, but it certainly generated a good discussion. It’s a novel written in the first-person from the perspective of a successful female Austrian writer (perhaps an alter ego of Bachmann herself) and how she is trapped in a patriarchal world, marred by the recent past of fascism. Although overall more serious than Orlando, it somehow also manages to combine passages that made me laugh out loud with others that made me cry. I’d recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about post-war Austria and get a glimpse into (white) female consciousness.
The Living Mountain (1977) by Nan Shepherd: This is a short work of non-fiction that is otherwise hard to classify. In one sense it’s clearly about the Cairngorm Mountains, a mountain range in the Scottish Highlands, its flora, fauna, weather, and climate. But other than that, it’s a meditation on walking and hiking, for decades, in one relatively small area of the world, and what it’s like “to be with the mountain as one visits a friend with no intention but to be with him.” I’d recommend this to anyone who loves walking and the outdoors, mixed with some philosophical reflection.
What would you like your last meal to be?
The answer to this question will probably change in the future. But one of the most delicious and comforting things I ate recently is momos—steamed dumplings from Tibet and the Himalayas; in Toronto, the Parkdale neighborhood has several great Tibetan restaurants. The ones I had were filled with pork and drowned in a chili sauce. Pretty heavenly and would happily have those just before I die.
This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. We’d love for you to be a part of it, so please contact us via the interview nomination form here to nominate yourself or a friend.
Alexis LaBar has a Master’s degree in Philosophy from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Before attending West Chester, she graduated from Moravian University with a Bachelor’s in Philosophy, a minor in Global Religions, and an Ethics certificate. She is the recipient of the 2022 Claghorn Award in Philosophy, awarded by West Chester University, and the 2021 Douglas Anderson Prize in Philosophy, awarded by Moravian University. She is the Editor of the Teaching Beat and Work/Life Balance Beat.
