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Honoring Betsy Postow

September 1, 2026 by Kaitlin Coyle

Nearly two decades after the death of Professor Betsy Postow, the department honors her memory and lasting impact.

A plaque honoring Professor Betsy Postow hangs in McClung Tower.

The legacy of beloved Professor Betsy Postow, who served the Department of Philosophy from 1972 until her death in 2007, continues at UT.

Thanks to the Postow-Meagher Endowment, as well as the Betsy Postow Memorial Fund, the department is able to support numerous student scholarships every year.

Additionally, the Postow Memorial Fund for Excellence is now supporting an award for philosophy department faculty to help propel research. The first Postow Award winner is Professor David Palmer, who will use the funds to support completion of his book on freedom of the will. 

We also are rededicating the Betsy Postow Reading Room in McClung Tower with a new plaque.

Graber Remembered for Scholarship and Service

September 1, 2026 by Kaitlin Coyle

Professor Emeritus Glenn Graber was a leader in the field of medical ethics, mentored countless students, and served the wider community.

A member of the UT philosophy faculty for 45 years, Professor Emeritus Glenn Graber passed away on June 18, 2026, after a brief illness.

He was one of the founders of the graduate Medical Ethics program—one of the first in the country, and one of the very first to include a clinical component, sending students to practica at the UT School of Medicine in Memphis and the UT Health Sciences Center in Knoxville.

A beloved teacher and mentor, over the course of his career Glenn directed 29 doctoral dissertations and 18 master’s theses. 

He also contributed to the College of Arts and Sciences and the university through service roles great and small, including time as Faculty Senate president and director of university studies.

Among Glenn’s numerous awards, he was named a Lindsay Young Professor and received the London Award from the Department of Medicine at University of Tennessee Medical Center for his dedication to excellence. He also received Chancellor’s Citations for both Extraordinary Service and Extraordinary Community Service.

He contributed to the broader community by serving on ethics committees at St. Mary’s Hospital and UT Medical Center, where he was clinical associate in medical ethics and professor of medicine. 

Glenn was the author, co-author, or co-editor of six books and more than 50 articles, including some of the earliest and field-defining texts in bioethics, clinical ethics, and the ethics of euthanasia. His contributions spanned topics in ethical theory, religious ethics, medical ethics, research ethics, engineering ethics, and professional ethics.

In addition to this scholarship, he contributed to the evolution of pedagogy in applied ethics, publishing papers on innovative methods in bioethics education and engineering ethics education. 

Glenn continued contributing to the philosophy department right up to the end of his life. The Prados-Graber fund supports PhD students by buying out their summer teaching, enabling them to focus on their dissertation work. In addition to having steered this major gift to the department in the first place, Glenn continued to serve on the prize committee up until this year. 

And in his role on the Phi Beta Kappa committee, Glenn catalyzed the department’s successful request for the fall 2026 Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar, Rutgers Professor Derrick Darby, who will be at UT in September.

Living Together Justly and Thoughtfully

September 1, 2026 by Kaitlin Coyle

In two recent books and new UT courses, Professor Adam Cureton examines questions of ethics, disability, and AI usage.

In recent years, Adam Cureton has developed new courses on disability and the ethics of artificial intelligence, published two new books, and been honored as a Lindsay Young Professor in UT’s Department of Philosophy. His work has also been recognized with UT’s Chancellor’s Excellence in Research and Creative Achievement Award.

In Sovereign Reason: Autonomy and Our Interests of Reason (Oxford University Press, 2025), he examines why the capacities for reason and autonomy matter morally and how they shape the authority we have over our own lives. 

“The book is rooted in Kantian ethics, but its larger concern is quite practical,” Cureton said. “It asks what it means to treat people as capable of judgment, self-direction, and participation in a shared moral life.”

His book Respecting Disability: Attitudes, Policies, and Relationships (also published by Oxford University Press in 2025) focuses on what respect for disabled people requires in everyday relationships, institutions, medicine, education, and public policy. 

“I became interested in these questions because disability is often discussed only in terms of welfare, disadvantage, or accommodation,” he said. “Those issues matter, but they do not fully capture the moral importance of how disabled people are perceived, addressed, included, and treated as equals.”

Cureton is now extending both lines of work in new projects.

In The Constitution of Reasons: A Charter for Public Moral Deliberation, he develops an account of moral deliberation as a public practice in which people reason together as equals. And in Appreciating Disability he examines what it means not merely to respect disabled people, but also to recognize and respond well to the value of disabled people, disabled traits, and disabled forms of life. 

“The common thread across these projects is an interest in how we understand one another as persons, how our institutions embody moral attitudes, and how ethical theory can help us live together more justly and thoughtfully,” Cureton said. 

Interdisciplinary Perspectives 

His work is shaped by conversations that extend well beyond the Department of Philosophy, where he is director of undergraduate studies. Cureton also has worked with students in the Honors program, the Haslam Scholars Program, and interdisciplinary courses in disability and AI. 

“Students often bring experiences and questions that sharpen the philosophical issues considerably, especially when we discuss disability, technology, medicine, and public policy,” he said.

His disability work has included engaging with disability advocacy groups, Student Disability Services, accessibility initiatives, and the Knoxville Mayor’s Council on Disability. “I have spoken with professional and public audiences about disability and work, clinical respect, disaster, and inclusion, and these conversations have helped keep the research connected to the institutional settings where the issues often arise,” Cureton said. 

A fellowship through UT’s Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts supported his disability research, and Denbo continues to support that work by hosting an interdisciplinary Medical Humanities research seminar in which Cureton and other philosophers participate. “More recently, my work in ethics and AI has been connected with UT’s Generative AI Faculty Fellowship, where I have developed teaching and programming aimed at helping faculty think more carefully about how AI should be used in education,” he said. 

Cureton developed and teaches Philosophy 246 Ethics and Technology, a lower-division course designed for students from across the university. The course introduces students to ethical questions involving machine learning, generative AI, algorithmic bias, privacy, automation, education, work, and public trust.

“What makes the course especially interesting is that students are not only studying AI as an object of ethical analysis,” he said. “They are also learning how to evaluate AI-generated arguments, compare them with philosophical and empirical sources, and think carefully about the responsible use of these systems in their own academic work.”

The Philosophy of Disability course he developed, Philosophy 383, also draws students from many majors and connects moral and political philosophy with medicine, education, law, technology, and social policy. 

“Both courses reflect my broader interest in making rigorous philosophical thinking available to students who may never have considered taking a philosophy course,” he said.

Cureton credits the university’s intellectual environment with allowing serious philosophical work to thrive. 

“UT has given me the opportunity to build ambitious research projects while also developing new courses, mentoring students, leading curricular initiatives, and working across disciplines,” he said. “The two books published in 2025 grew out of many years of sustained research, but they were also shaped by students, colleagues, public conversations, and the institutional support that makes long-term scholarly work possible.”

Across the university, questions about autonomy, disability, AI, justice, medicine, and public deliberation are not confined to one department, he noted. “They arise wherever people must make difficult decisions together. My aim has been to show that philosophy can contribute both conceptual depth and practical guidance to those questions, while helping students become more careful, independent, and responsible thinkers.”

Nurturing Responsible Thinkers

“I was initially drawn to philosophy because it gave me a way to think carefully about questions that seemed both deeply important and unusually difficult: what we owe to one another, what it means to live well, how we should reason together when we disagree, and what it is about persons that makes them worthy of respect,” Cureton said. “I was especially attracted to moral philosophy because it combines abstract, systematic thinking with questions that arise continually in ordinary relationships, institutions, and public life.”

His interest in Kantian ethics grew from the thought that people are not simply recipients of benefits or harms but also agents with their own judgments, values, and authority over their lives. “That insight led me to questions about autonomy, dignity, respect, and moral deliberation,” he said.

Cureton’s work in the philosophy of disability developed from recognizing that familiar moral ideas have often been applied too narrowly. “Disabled people may be treated with concern or good intentions while still being patronized, excluded, underestimated, or understood principally in terms of deficit,” he said. “Disability provides an especially revealing context for examining what respect, equality, inclusion, and appreciation really require.”

Why I do what I do 

“I do this work because I think philosophy can help us notice moral problems that are otherwise difficult to identify. 

“It can clarify the ideals that should guide our relationships and institutions, challenge assumptions that have come to seem natural, and expand our understanding of the many ways a human life can be valuable. 

“Those aims connect my work in moral theory, disability, ethical reasoning, and more recently AI. In each case, I am interested in how we can understand one another more adequately and reason together more responsibly.”

Adam Cureton

Department of Philosophy

Lindsay Young Professor

Choosing a Wider Career Path

September 1, 2026 by Kaitlin Coyle

As an undergraduate, Nandi Sarah Mofya has launched a new organization for philosophy students and found encouragement to do more than she ever imagined.

Soon after Nandi Sarah Mofya began her college journey on a pre-med track, she analyzed the course she was on and found a better path for herself. A member of the Class of 2027, she is majoring in the philosophy of science and medicine, with a minor in women, gender, and sexuality.

“I started researching majors at UT that allowed me to still meet the requirements to go to medical school but would also open me up to other careers and classes,” she said. “This major allowed me to have a choice in my career path without feeling boxed into any particular field.”

She also found faculty mentors, including Assistant Professor Joe Stratmann. “He always encouraged us in class to build upon our ideas and bring something new to the table,” Mofya said. 

When she had the idea to create the Voltaire Society, a new club in the philosophy department, he immediately offered support. “He led me to people in the department who were so kind and equally generous to help make this year-and-a-half-long dream come true,” she said. 

“To this day, he always makes sure to check on me and Voltaire, and find opportunities for us to expand,” Mofya said. “He never fails to help us at every turn. He has been truly amazing, and without his help Voltaire would have never become what it is today.”

Becoming the founder and president of Voltaire is one of several ways the undergraduate has honed skills such as leadership and community development as a Volunteer.

Mofya’s also president of the university’s STAR Team (Student Trained Admissions Representatives). “Working with prospective students from all across the country has taught me so much about personability and communication skills,” she said. “We constantly talk to people from all walks of life, be it alums or first-gen students. With this, I have not only learned to manage my team, but to also be dependable and how to work efficiently and effectively.”

As a second-year student she made a film with friends through the organization Black Students for Artistic Expression (BAE), and she became a member of the Mu Beta chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, focused on women’s health and education. “As a Sigma woman, I have learned and hope to embody the poise and dedication that one person should dedicate to their community and the betterment of the future generation,” Mofya said. 

“I have had so many opportunities, such as the Rocky Top President’s Institute, VolCorps involvement, and an internship with a local attorney who introduced me to district judges and officials,” she said. “All of these have shown me that I am capable and worthy of being in these spaces and creating a positive and lasting impact on my communities.”

Volunteering and being involved with multiple organizations showed Mofya that the ability to find likeminded people at UT was easier than she expected. “Once you open your mind to these new experiences and stay true to yourself, you can transform yourself in ways you never imagined.”

She is grateful for people from the philosophy department who have inspired and supported her, including Department Head Avery Kolers; Professor Nora Berenstain, who is also chair of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality interdisciplinary program; Professor Allen Dunn; and Stratmann.

“Through these relationships, my time here at UT has become something I never would have dreamed of. It has been nothing short of amazing,” she said. 

Her journey to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, began during a childhood stop at a thrift store with her father. When she showed him a bright orange sweatshirt that said “Volunteers,” he told her about Tennessee. 

They bought the shirt, and he promised to take her to see the mountains, but he passed away while she was in high school. After UT accepted her application, Mofya toured the school with her mother and brother. “From the moment we stepped out of our car and saw the campus, my family and I knew,” she said. “It was a chilly spring day, and the wind was blowing so beautifully. It was almost like my dad was there with us. Coming to UT gave me the opportunity to honor my late father, and I made my commitment to this university that very day.”

Bodily Injuries and Moral Injuries

September 1, 2026 by Kaitlin Coyle

PhD student Kaeleigh Damico is investigating minor moral harms that can accumulate and leave a lasting impact.

As a fifth-year PhD student at UT, Kaeleigh Damico has presented her research twice at the International Society for Military Ethics (ISME). In 2026, she received a Public Service Commendation Medal from the US Department of the Army, recognizing her “groundbreaking research, delivering profound insights on the ethical challenges of irregular warfare,” as well as her contributions to conference discussions.

Damico presented her paper “Moral Papercuts and Irregular Warfare” this year. Her doctoral dissertation studies moral harm, or ways that our moral capacities can be damaged, and introduces the concept of moral papercuts: minor but frequently recurring moral stressors that can accumulate, resulting in nonstandard moral injuries. 

“Unlike the moral trauma associated with moral injury, moral papercuts emerge from ordinary experiences,” she explained. “Someone with a moral papercut may be unlikely to report any distress, nor will they have sudden, drastic changes in their moral self. Instead, moral papercuts can be thought of as momentary slipups, glitches if you will, of moral reasoning. 

“Individually, they leave little lasting mark on a person’s moral self, but their effects can accumulate, particularly when they occur alongside or in close proximity to more significant moral harms.”

Her dissertation is about how and why people get moral questions wrong. The research arises out of the concept of moral injury, which focuses on the moral damage that severe, sudden trauma can cause, originally in military contexts. “The lives of my family and friends have been impacted by moral injury, so it is a topic close to my heart,” she said. “Further, the more that I learn about moral harm, the more that I am convinced that there is still more to be explored and understood.”

“I have previously written about moral injury as injury to practical reason, arguing that moral injury impacts the ways that we think about and understand our actions in relation to others and ourselves,” Damico said. “While moral injury captures the harms associated with morally traumatic events, many of the moral difficulties that arise in contexts of moral conflict fall short of that threshold.”

“There are similarities between moral injuries and the harm produced by less significant experiences, but they are not identical phenomena,” Damico said.

A recipient of a UT Graduate Fellowship and a Teaching Fellowship, she received the philosophy department’s John Hardwig Teaching Prize in 2024 and was a runner up for the department’s Richard Aquila Essay Prize in 2025. In 2024 her paper “Beautiful Disaster? Ugly Nature and Natural Disasters” won Best Graduate Student Essay in Philosophy at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Society for Aesthetics Annual Conference.

Choosing UT for Graduate School

Damico was introduced to philosophy classes during a high school summer camp. “It was the first time where I was able to study something for its own sake, where getting the wrong answer was okay, and where I was able to really think creatively,” she said. 

When it was time to choose a graduate program, being close to her family in Western North Carolina was only one of the considerations. 

“It was important to me to be in a program that was truly egalitarian,” she said. “When I interviewed, I asked some of the female professors if they felt as respected as their colleagues. At UT, the answer was an unequivocal ‘Yes.’”

Damico also wanted a graduate philosophy program that wasn’t dogmatic. “At UT, I have been able to study what interests me, and my professors have been happy to support and challenge me, even when my research has not been the same as theirs,” she said.

Two faculty members have been particularly helpful to Damico. “First, Kristina Gehrman has been a constant source of support and feedback in my writing and work,” she said of her dissertation advisor. “Second, Clerk Shaw has been incredibly helpful in navigating academia and the writing process.”

Damico is a consultant to other students through the Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center. 

She also has served as president of the Philosophy Graduate Student Association, planning its annual conference and developing various opportunities for students. “This gave me the opportunity to collaborate with various campus entities, network with graduate students and professors from across the country, and to better understand the logistics of organizing academic events,” she said. 

Philosophy for Career Success

September 1, 2026 by Kaitlin Coyle

 A philosophy degree made Michael D. Greene (’02) stand out while working in commercial real estate, and he says this education is even more vital in the age of AI.

As an undergraduate student, Michael D. Greene (BA philosophy ’02) thought taking a few philosophy courses would be helpful in preparing for law school. Soon enough, though, he dropped the law school part and kept the philosophy. He loved the subject matter, rigor, and discussions in those courses, and so he shifted to a double major in finance and philosophy (BS finance ’01, MBA ’10). 

“For nearly 25 years, having that BA in philosophy, without question, has been the thing that stands out in every interview I have ever had,” Greene said. “It has cracked open more doors, and sparked more conversations than my MBA, to be frank, and a lot of it comes down to the rarity of it, and how few people choose to work to achieve it.”

The critical thinking and communication skills he honed also have served him well for his career in finance and real estate, and he is convinced the study of philosophy is essential in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

“Consider all possibilities, comment on them, game them out to their most likely conclusion, address pitfalls and how to avoid them … these are vital, and in a world increasingly dependent on AI to present faux intellect, this is where you can differentiate yourself and your presentation of work to be superior to others,” Greene said. 

Philosophy in the Workplace

Michael’s father, David L. Greene (MD ’64), impressed upon him at a very early age the potential for standing out by earning multiple degrees. 

“While a degree in finance provided a career path for me, a degree in philosophy would change my career trajectory and vector,” Michael Greene said. 

He applies that philosophical training in his commercial real estate career.

As a senior vice president and regional credit officer for Millennium Bank, he is responsible for credit underwriting, portfolio management, policy generation, and implementation across a territory that spans three states, from Knoxville down to Vero Beach Florida. He also serves on the bank’s Executive Loan Committee, determining credit approvals for capital deployment to new projects. 

“The communication skills (both written and verbal) that I honed in this program, combined with the focus on critical thinking, have always been absolutely invaluable to me, and have been the biggest differentiator in my decision-making and career in finance,” Greene explained. “The holistic analysis of a project and conveying that analysis to others is so vital, combined with the multi-order consideration of outcomes and how to mitigate risk at each stage is so incredibly vital in my every day. I cannot imagine being successful without the tools I was provided by philosophy.”

Not every student can spare the hours to complete the philosophy major. But even with a minor in philosophy, students gain the benefit of honing their creative thinking and decision-making skills. “Actual human thought is now so rare, the existence and application of it is a recognized differentiator,” Greene said. “Not only do the skills gained from the course load give you ammunition in that fight, the existence of that designation on your resume cracks open doors that few courses of study ever will, because if you had the focus to achieve it, you must be different.”

Faculty Mentors

UT philosophy Professor Emeritus Richard Aquila was Greene’s faculty advisor. “He is one of the most brilliant people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and one of the most helpful,” Greene said. 

Greene took a class with Aquila on Immanuel Kant, when the UT professor was one of the foremost experts on Kant in the world. “I believe I received a B+ in that class, and maybe it was a gift, but it remains an achievement I treasure,” he said. 

As a student, his focus was on the classics, with ancient Greek and medieval philosophy, so he took many classes with Professor Sheldon Cohen. “He had this extremely gruff persona, but it was all a ruse,” Greene recalled of the late faculty member. “He had an incredible sarcastic wit, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The amount of time spent before and after class talking about all things in life, in the humanities breezeway while he chain-smoked cigarettes, was a fond memory.”

Like many college students, Greene sometimes felt the effects of “imposter syndrome,” but in one of Cohen’s classes his accomplishment proved to Greene that he truly belonged at the university. 

Cohen allowed Greene to take a graduate-level class on Aristotle. “It was my proudest achievement that I received a B+ in that class, off of his two grades: a term paper in which I did nearly 30 pages on Aristotle’s Theory of Justice and his final exam which was, I kid you not, ‘Explain Aristotle.’ I hand-wrote 21 pages in the old blue books in a three-hour final. I’ll never forget that sense of accomplishment.” 

Always a Volunteer

Michael D. Greene transferred to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, from Carson-Newman College in fall 1998. He says he was always destined to be a Volunteer.

“I was actually born at UT hospital, and I grew up immersed in the pageantry and lore of UT athletics,” Greene said. 

“I met my wife, Elizabeth, here at UT. She began as a student worker at Hodges Library in the late ’90s and is now the senior associate dean for finance, administration and operations at the University Libraries. She, herself, is a two-time alum, after finishing her master’s in management in the mid-2010s. Both of our fathers are UT grads. Our daughter, Caitlin, is now a third-generation Vol, as a rising sophomore in kinesiology.”

In 2016, he created the David L. Greene, MD, Memorial MBA Fellowship Endowment in honor of his father, and the Haslam College of Business honored him as the 2017 Outstanding Young Alum. In 2025 he joined the college as an adjunct lecturer in finance. 

“I owe this university so much,” Greene said. 

“While my path in finance seems more overt, the foundation in philosophy cannot be overstated, and I look forward to continued opportunities to tell that story to help convince others to take advantage of the outstanding opportunities this program can provide,” he said.

While other schools tout their worldwide reach, Greene said nothing compares with the connection of Volunteers, who spot a Power T and yell “Go Vols!”

“This place matters to us, not just as alumni, but also as citizens of East Tennessee,” he said. “It’s a source of community pride. This university, for nearly 30 years for me, has been a constant source of help and support. This is why I was so happy to come back as an adjunct lecturer, to be able to give back and help students, just like I needed help and guidance so many years ago.”

His advice to other Vols: “Never pass up the opportunity to help give back to this special place and the people who come through it.” 

Uneasy Lies the Head

August 31, 2026 by Kaitlin Coyle

New philosophy Department Head Avery Kolers describes the vital role of UT philosophers in healthcare, housing, and other issues affecting lives every day.

Please allow me to introduce myself as the new department head in philosophy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

I arrived in January after 25 years at the University of Louisville. I loved Louisville, but I saw in UT a genuinely rare and exciting phenomenon. Everyone knows that UT is growing and is poised to go to “the next level,” to compete with the Berkeleys and Michigans for rankings and dollars and whatever else. (We already outcompete them on the athletics field, of course!) But UT is also something else. 

Ensconced in the heart of Appalachia, UT is a university of, by, and for the people of the state and the region. As the university reaches for the stars, it also has a unique opportunity to deepen its roots by serving the people of Tennessee as never before. 

I’ve been fortunate already to have been in meetings about taking cancer care to people in hard-to-reach areas, and marshaling the brain power of students and faculty to address housing supply and quality shortfalls that depress families’ savings and opportunities. Not for nothing is UT one of only a few dozen schools nationwide to have been recognized with Carnegie Classification as both a top-level (R1) research university and a highly community engaged institution.

Great, you might say, but what does that have to do with philosophy?

Let’s start with cancer care. Healthcare access only helps people if they trust you enough to use the services you offer them. Philosophy develops bioethical expertise—the foundation of trustworthiness—which is not housed in other schools or colleges. Bioethics is not just about the instantaneous clinical encounter—do no harm, informed consent, and so on. Bioethics is also about enabling everyone to have a say in where, when, and how such clinical encounters take place. Whether someone profits by denying coverage. How care teams approach difficult conversations. For example: How should a physician talk to a patient about surgery and recovery, if that patient’s son became addicted to pain meds that had been prescribed for a workplace injury? Or, what lengths should a clinic go to in arranging for an extended course of treatment for an elderly person without a car who lives three towns over, where there is no clinic? These are ethical questions at least as much as they are medical questions.

As for housing, here, too, policy questions are ultimately also ethical questions. If people are unhoused, whose responsibility is it to see that they get back on their feet? While our region is growing, should we insulate long-term residents from rent or property-tax increases, or do we let the market sort things out? Should school districting be tied to residency, and how do we ensure educational equity if neighborhoods have sharply different levels of income and wealth?

UT philosophers are engaged on these questions and others. In this newsletter you’ll read about some of the ways our faculty, students, and alumni are pushing the envelope of knowledge on questions that affect all of us in the region and beyond. Pushing that envelope is an essential part of the mission of a public land-grant university; understanding the ethical and other philosophical issues involved is the distinctive contribution of philosophers to that mission. I am proud and grateful to be a part of this effort.

“It’s an exciting time to be a Tennessee Vol, and with your support we can make this department—this university—better than it has ever been. 

On a somber note, late this spring, the great Glenn Graber—a UT philosopher who was instrumental in building and sustaining this department’s innovative and world-leading clinical bioethics program in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—passed away after a brief illness. I know that many of you knew Glenn and will remember his mentorship and his dedication to students and the university. We have a fuller appreciation in the Honoring Our Past section of the newsletter. The department’s condolences go out to Glenn’s family.

Finally, for your enjoyment, here’s a picture of a statue of the great Scottish philosopher David Hume. As many of us learned during the World Cup, the residents of Edinburgh like to crown their public statues with traffic cones. They also like to rub Hume’s big toe for good luck. Hume would have doubted its efficacy but enjoyed the ritual.

Avery Kolers

Department of Philosophy

Department Head

Professor