UNews - Department of Philosophy

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge to publish philosophy journal

caroline.zentner — Wed, 20 May 2026 21:59:27 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has become the new publisher of Informal Logic, one of the most reputable journals in the field of Argumentation Theory.

Dr. Katharina Stevens, a ULethbridge philosophy professor, joined the journal’s editorial team in 2018 and recently began the process of moving the journal to ULethbridge. The journal has been awarded a three-year Aid to Scholarly Journals grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The approximately $127,000 grant will help ensure a successful transition for the journal and allow ULethbridge students to be hired as interns. At ULethbridge, the journal will be associated with the Critical Thinking & Civic Engagement Lab.

From left to right are Drs. Katharina Stevens, Michael Baumtrog (Toronto Metropolitan ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ) and Christopher Tindale (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Windsor), co-editors of the journal.

“This is the field-founding journal in Informal Logic and one of Argumentation Theory’s most important journals,” says Stevens. “With this journal, a lot of attention from Informal Logic, and more generally from the Argumentation Theory and Critical Thinking communities will now be directed to Lethbridge.”

Two undergraduate students, who are now being trained, have been hired as editorial assistants. Once an article has been accepted for the journal, the students will edit the copy, communicate with authors, assemble the issue and upload it to the website.

“They will also, through their copy-editing, receive an education in cutting-edge Informal Logic, Critical Thinking and Argumentation Theory scholarship,” Stevens says.

Informal Logic is a peer-reviewed academic journal now in its 47th year of publishing, having first existed as the Informal Logic Newsletter. The journal’s first home was the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Windsor, where subscriptions and small grants from the university financed it. A series of SSHRC grants beginning in the late 1990s allowed the editors to hire student interns. In 2008, Informal Logic became an open-access online journal, a move that expanded readership. The journal has since established a strong reputation and attracts high-quality submissions and an ever-growing readership.

The journal publishes four issues a year and is the only open-access journal in Argumentation Theory. Informal Logic, which focuses on understanding reasoning in everyday conversations, is a subdiscipline of Argumentation Theory, which studies how people use reasoning, logic and dialogue to challenge claims and resolve disagreements.

Stevens expects the first Lethbridge-based edition of the journal will be published in June.

Canadian association established to examine philosophical principles of AI growth

trevor.kenney — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 18:29:43 +0000

As artificial intelligence and its influence on society continues to advance at breakneck speed, the call for regulatory action is intensifying. While the federal government continues to make headway on a Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy focused on commercialization, standards, and talent, scholars from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and Trent ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ are poised to fulfill another knowledge gap.

Dr. Nicholas Dunn is co-founder of the Canadian Association for the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence (CAPAI).

Drs. Nicholas Dunn (ULethbridge) and Martina Orlandi (Trent ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ) have launched the first and only Canadian Association for the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence (CAPAI) to address a longstanding chasm in Canada’s AI landscape: a coordinated, national forum for philosophers working on artificial intelligence.

“AI is accelerating faster than institutions and policies can keep up, and philosophers have an important role to play in helping articulate the values and principles that should guide how these technologies are designed and deployed. Without that clarity, we risk allowing innovation to outpace reflection,” says Dunn, a co-founder of CAPAI and assistant professor of philosophy at ULethbridge.

“While Canada has strong communities of researchers working on AI from technical and policy perspectives, there was no dedicated space for philosophers of AI to connect,” adds Orlandi, CAPAI co-founder and an assistant professor in the new AI degree programs at Trent ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Durham Greater Toronto Area (GTA). “Networking and collaboration that once happened in isolation can now take place in a more organized, systematic and efficient way.”

CAPAI brings together scholars and their work examining both foundational questions, such as the nature of intelligence, cognition and decision-making, and urgent ethical and social concerns, including AI’s impact on labour, health care, bias, surveillance and democracy.

While much of the interest in AI applications has been focused on efficiency and automation, both scholars emphasize that the increase in AI adoption and the ways platforms are being used are raising deeper questions about human identity and well-being. Researchers are increasingly focused more on how AI is implemented in the social sphere.

“Our jobs, our struggles, and our decision-making are deeply tied to how we understand ourselves. As AI systems begin to replace or reshape these activities, we’re forced to ask whether a life made easier by technology is necessarily a more fulfilling one,” says Orlandi. “When we see people using AI chats as therapists or entering into relationships with AI personas, what does that say about our well-being today and do we fully understand the consequences of those interactions?”

Since launching earlier this fall, CAPAI has 14 members and has introduced a national website and online speaker series, with plans for in-person meetings and public engagement. The association also aims to make Canadian research in the philosophy of AI more accessible to students, policymakers and the broader public through its website, ensuring philosophical insight becomes a foundational part of Canada’s AI conversation rather than an afterthought.

Media resources for Remembrance Day

caroline.zentner — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:39:59 +0000

Remembrance Day was created to commemorate members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty and those who continue to serve Canada in times of war and peace. The date, Nov. 11, also marks the time when fighting stopped in the First World War.

As Remembrance Day approaches, media are invited to speak with several ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professors who have studied wartime and its effects on those who fought and those who stayed at home.

Dr. Kristine Alexander, a history professor, has studied young people’s experience on the home front during the First World War. The war changed what children learned in the classroom as Departments of Education and teachers developed war-related assignments. Canadian children also played with war-related toys like board games, toy soldiers and toy guns. Alexander has also studied correspondence between soldiers and their families to understand how the war affected wives and children. She can be reached by email at kristine.alexander@uleth.ca.

Jason Breen, an instructor in the Department of Philosophy, has taught classes about the philosophy of war. This includes the morality of war, particularly how just-war theory serves as a middle ground between the Hawks, who believe that might makes right and that there are no moral restrictions on war, and the Doves, who argue that war is never morally justifiable. He can also discuss ethical considerations during the three phases of war: entering, prosecuting, and ending armed conflicts, as well as the moral responsibilities of those involved in war toward their opponents, their troops and civilians on both sides. Contact caroline.zentner@uleth.ca to arrange an interview.

Dr. Amy Shaw is a history professor who has taught about and researched Canada in wartime, especially the First and Second World Wars. Her focus is often on gender and citizenship. She has written books about conscientious objection in the First World War and about the experiences and activities of women and girls of Canada and Newfoundland during both world wars. She has also published on the War in South Africa, Canada’s first overseas military action. Shaw can be reached at amy.shaw@uleth.ca.

Philosophy professor Brown named 2020 Speaker Research Award winner

trevor.kenney — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 19:57:28 +0000

Recognized as one of the world’s most influential contributors to paraconsistent (inconsistency-tolerant) logic, Dr. Bryson Brown has been named the winner of the 2020 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Speaker Research Award.

Dr. Bryson Brown is regarded as a key contributor to an area of logic called paraconsistent logic.

Brown, professor and Chair in the Department of Philosophy, is regarded as a key contributor to an area of logic called paraconsistent logic, which allows non-trivial reasoning from inconsistent premises; he has also made influential contributions to the application of such logics in the history and philosophy of science.

His contributions to research are manyfold, displaying breadth across areas including philosophy of ecology, the theory of evolution and early (“old”) quantum theory. Brown is a co-author or co-editor of six volumes of scholarly papers and has published 53 research papers in refereed journals and scholarly anthologies — an impressive record for a humanities professor publishing in journals that accept less than 10 per cent of submissions. Brown’s research has also garnered the attention and support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as he has received five Regular Research Grants over the course of his career, an exceptional accomplishment in the humanities.

Born in Niagara Falls, Ont., Brown earned his BA in Philosophy at Trent ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ before studying at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Pittsburgh, where he earned an MA and PhD in philosophy. His first academic appointment was at Rice ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Houston, Tex., followed by two years as a research assistant and teacher at Dalhousie ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ before joining the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, in 1986. At the U of L, he has taught courses in history and philosophy of science, logic, metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of language.

Brown has a passion for philosophy of science, including the roles of science in understanding our world and as a critical tool for survival in today’s world. A teacher of his, Wilfrid Sellars, described the aim of philosophy as “to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term”; Brown hopes that his work has contributed and will continue to contribute to that project.

Understanding our world is essential to coping with critical issues today, including climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Brown’s work on paraconsistent logics has explored how logicians and scientists have coped with the inconsistencies that paradoxes and the natural world sometimes seem to impose on us, and developed new ways to carry on constructively.

Brown is being presented with the Speaker Research Award as part of this week’s 2020 Fall Convocation online celebrations.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to host round table conference on activity and sport

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:31:41 +0000

Over the past decade, scholars from across Alberta have been meeting annually at the Alberta Round Table for the Socio-Cultural Study of Physical Activity & Sport. This year, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is hosting the event for a second time, Saturday, Apr. 30, with
Dr. Brian Wilson of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia as the keynote speaker.

This one-day meeting brings together faculty, graduate and undergraduate students from institutions across Alberta (including the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, Mount Royal ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and Grant MacEwan ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ) to facilitate and foster interdisciplinary work across the socio-cultural areas (cultural studies, history, management, philosophy, and sociology) of kinesiology/physical education.

Having Wilson aboard as the keynote speaker for the conference is a coup for organizers. Considered a leading scholar in the field of sport sociology, Wilson authored, Fight, Flight or Chill: Subcultures, Youth and Rave into the Twenty-First Century, as well as numerous articles on topics related to youth culture, sport, media, social inequality, social movements and environmental issues.

In his talk, Wilson will examine the often complex and unintended results of attempts to incite positive social change in and around sport. In doing so, he reflects on recent research he has conducted on sport for youth development groups and sport-related corporate environmentalism. Wilson's research will draw interest from scholars, not only in kinesiology and sociology, but also from the Department of Philosophy and the Faculty of Management.

His address is featured in the morning, followed by a group discussion. The afternoon session then features graduate student presentations, with discussion among the presenters, the keynote speaker and other participants.

The event provides a valuable forum for intellectual discussion and it is an important opportunity for graduate students to present and receive feedback on their work in a formal setting. Alberta scholars in this broad area of research have benefited from the efforts over the past decade.

The genesis of the meeting actually came about here at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge with Dr. Doug Brown.

Organizers of the event include Drs. Michelle Helstein, Carly Adams, Robert Kossuth and Sean Brayton from the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education and Dr. Jason Laurendeau from sociology.

Registration is free and everyone is welcome to attend. For more information and to RSVP your attendance, contact Carly Adams via email: carly.adams@uleth.ca.

For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - Department of Philosophy

��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge to publish philosophy journal

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