305 Carlisle Hall
Box 19527
Arlington, TX 76019
News & Events
Events
Philosophy Club Pizza Party
Join us for UTA Philosophy Club's Pizza Extravaganza on January 29 from 12 - 1 PM in 305 Carlisle Hall.
Department News
Eli Shupe Interview
Dr. Shupe was interviewed by NBC News about her research on the use of unclaimed bodies in Texas.
Medical Humanities Service Learning Project
Medical Humanities has teamed up with the American Red Cross! Students now have an opportunity to participate in Service Learning with the Red Cross through my SCIE 4303 and SCIE 4304 classes. In addition, students who have completed the requirements for the Minor in Medical Humanities and Bioethics may have the opportunity to participate in an Internship with the Red Cross.
New Stimulus Volume Available
Stimulus: A Medical Humanities Journal Volume 4 is now available.
MMHSC Volunteering Activities
The Mavericks for Medical Humanities Student Club has been volunteering at the Brookdale Dementia Unit - this is a great opportunity to learn about Alzheimer's Disease and dementia.
Experiential Immersion Experience Workshop
An Experiential Immersion Experience Workshop in the UTA Simulation Lab was held in May 2024. Inexperienced pre-med students were introduced to clinical medicine. Planning is now underway to continue this opportunity for Simulation Lab learning.
Faculty News
Dr. Jeremy Bryd's Recent Activities
Dr. Jeremy Byrd’s article titled I have an article coming out soon in, called “Planning for the Impossible” will be coming out soon in the American Philosophical Quarterly. Dr. Byrd argues that we can rationally plan how we would respond to what we take to be impossible conditions, even if it is always irrational to intend to do something we think is impossible. In addition, Dr. Byrd received a grant this summer from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop materials to accompany an OER textbook for Introduction to Philosophy. These will be made available to faculty throughout the state through the state’s OER repository. Also, Dr. Byrd serves as the Coordinator for the Engaged Learning Institute at TCC. ELI offers faculty-developed training, focusing on student engagement strategies and improving course design.
Dr. Shaun House’s Latest Memoir
Dr. Shaun House’s memoir, I Found My Way: Training in Paradise with Mike Stone, was recently released. This summer Dr. House visited Nosara, Costa Rica to continue his studies comparing and understanding traditional approaches to moral decision-making via Eastern Religious Zen Buddhism. A June trip focused on yoga, martial arts, meditation, and mindfulness training, and an August trip will be dedicated to indigenous ceremonial approaches and traditions of Mesoamerican Mayan culture.
Training completion offers more opportunities for students
This summer Dr. Gellman taught a new clinical skills course initially offered as SCIE 4392 during the 2-week Maymester 25 term. Students in this intensive 2-week experience learned rudimentary clinical skills such as vital signs, suturing, EKG interpretation, and most importantly communication skills with mannequins and live simulated patients. Students also shared the experience of delivering a baby mannequin. In the fall, he will be teaching another new class, Spirituality in Medicine (initially offered as HUMA 3340, our Medical Humanities special topics course). Dr. Gellman has recently been promoted to Professor of Practice.
Dr. Luke Roelofs' New Publications
Dr. Roelofs has two papers on weird sorts of consciousness coming out in anthologies. One, “Consciousness is Everywhere”, is an introduction to the theory known as “panpsychism”, written for the book Too Weird to Believe, Too Plausible to Deny Mind-Blowing Philosophical Ideas, edited by Clifford Sosis. It lays out why some philosophers think that every single bit of the world must have some form of consciousness associated with it.The other, "What is it like to be an ant colony?”, is in Are the ant colonies conscious?: Collective minds and philosophical implications, edited by Anderson Fonseca and Luiz Paulo Da Cas Cichoski. It explores what sort of stream of consciousness might belong to a collective of closely-interacting creatures, like ants, bees, or termites, and how it might compare to the sort of consciousness that individual people and animals have.
Dr. Roelofs also appeared on the local podcast “Veridical”, hosted by Jack Sezer, to talk about the ethics of abortion and their connection with questions about consciousness, politics, and personal identity.
Dr. Eli Shupe's Recent Activities
Dr. Eli Shupe’s most recent publications include two journal articles and one public philosophy op ed: Value in a Limitless World. Synthese. 2005, Grave Injustice: The Continuing Use of Unclaimed Bodies in American Medicine. Journal of Medical Ethics, 2025, and How human bodies end up on dissection tables without consent. The Washington Post. In addition, Dr. Shupe did fieldwork in the spring. In February, she visited a number of academic Willed Body Programs in Southern California, viewing facilities, observing and interviewing anatomy professionals, and she presented at the West Coast Consortium of Academic Donation Programs (“Third-Party Permission for Body Donation: Ethical Questions”) at UC Irvine. In March, she spent some time as a visiting researcher at UMiami’s Miller School of Medicine and presented for their Dialogues in Research Ethics Lecture Series (Without Their Consent: The Continuing Use of Unclaimed Bodies at American Medical Schools). Finally, Make Philosophy continues to be active and will be releasing a new activity set. Dr. Shupe, Morgan Chivers, and Violet Hernandez presented on their work for that project this July for the Makerspaces for Innovation and Research in Academics Conference (online).
Upcoming article
Very soon a fully revised edition of The Imagination | Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Kenneth Williford and David Rudrauf, will be come out very soon in the Routledge Classics Editions. This edition will include an updated intro and a new forward.
