Hey everyone! This week has been hectic, but in a good way. There have been so many speakers and guest academics on campus– specifically in the Philosophy department– and it has been super amazing to participate in. I figure part of the opportunity that comes with Amherst is the ability to go to these events, and how insightful they might be, so I figured I’d bring them to your attention.
I can mostly speak to philosophy and math only, since those areas have been the bulk of my classes so far, but in my experience, guest speakers are on campus almost all the time. If there isn’t a guest, there’s probably some panel or lecture being given by a professor on campus. This has been great for me, and an awesome experience! Every year– at least I’m pretty sure its every year– the philosophy department hosts a speaker series on a given topic, and this year just so happens to be my biggest academic interest and one that I’m taking a class in: the Philosophy of Law. I’ll mainly be talking about that series and the other philosophy ones since those are the main ones I go to, but the other departments have their own speakers, especially math who bring in professors from other schools and such to discuss their research topics.
The philosophy of law series has three professors presenting at various points, and there was the first speaker last night. The amazing people in Amherst’s philosophy department brought in Liam Murphy, a leading legal scholar at NYU (He’s both a professor of law and philosophy, which is pretty cool) in the area of the philosophy of law. Members of my class had to attend for a grade, but I’m pretty sure most of us would have anyways, but even then it was still a moderately smaller group who attended the talk. When a high profile speaker goes to other, larger schools, my friends at those schools tell me it’s a first-come first-serve to even get into the event, let alone ask a question. With how small and focused this group was for this event though, almost all of us could have had the opportunity to ask questions afterwards if we wanted, and that gave Prof. Murphy more time to respond to each question on a deeper level. It is an amazing opportunity to be able to attend these events like this with more possibility to create a personal connection.
In fact, just Tuesday (publishing this blog on Friday, so two days before the Prof. Murphy talk) the philosophy and political science departments hosted another leading academic Prof. Robert Talisse, this time in political philosophy. He presented on his research and the subject matter of the multiple books he’s written, and overall led a fascinating presentation. That just goes to show, these kinds of talks aren’t rare.
In short, if you choose Amherst– or if you’re deciding whether it’s the right place for you– make sure to consider these amazing opportunities to meet, hear and learn from some of the smartest, most accomplished professors in whatever your field(s) of interest are. It’s worth it!
Thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out for whatever reason, my email is jdesmond28@amherst.edu