New Contributor: Alison K McConwell

It brings be great pleasure to introduce Alison K McConwell to our growing list of contributors here at A Philosopher’s Take. Alison is an excellent philosopher and an even better friend. Alison received her BA in 2010 at the University of Regina and her MA at Western University in 2011.  Her MA project focused on subcortical candidates for consciousness and general neuroscientific perspectives in philosophy of mind.  She started her PhD at the University of Calgary in 2012 and currently works in philosophy of biology on the problem of individuality.   There is recent debate over the nature of individuals in selection.  Philosophers usually offer a single set of criteria to determine what counts as one individual.  But her view is that if we take evolutionary contingency seriously (a la Gould), then individuality pluralism seems like a better option. She’s interested in philosophy of science and metaphysics, but also keeps an eye on issues in animal ethics generally, as well as research in support of pitbull advocacy. She also serves as President of the Philosophy Graduate Student Association at the University of Calgary. Take this time to welcome Alison. I look forward to reading what she has to say and I’m sure many of you will find her thoughts illuminating.

Welcome, Alison.