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Featured Students:
February 2008

Chad Van Schoelandt and Adam Marushak

This month we feature two philosophy graduate students and friends who each have Graduate School Fellowships for the current academic year.

Chad Van Schoelandt (pictured left) came to UWM after a 2006 bachelor's degree from the University of California—Davis. He is a 2008 Routledge Publishing Intern assisting Professor William Wainwritght and a tutor for introductory philosophy students. Chad was also a teaching assistant at UWM last academic year and recipient of a UWM Chancellor's Graduate Student Award.

Adam Marushak plans to complete his master's program this year after after graduating cum laude with a bachelor's from Boston University in 2005. A research assistant as an undergraduate, Adam was a teaching assistant at UWM last academic year and a 2006 recipient of a UWM Chancellor's Graduate Student Award. When not studying philosophy, Adam enjoys playing guitar, in a genre he describes as "psych/prog/noise."

1) How would you describe your field of study/research to a friend who is not in your graduate program?

Chad: Philosophy is that discipline which attempts to formulate, understand and answer through the use of reason fundamental questions which are not sufficiently addressed through science or religion. These questions may include questions about science and religion without themselves being scientific or religious questions. Some investigations include rational defenses and criticisms of religious belief (rather than reliance on faith or the authority of revelation); what may best describe and classify the methods of science and what sorts of claims are justified by these methods; what is it for a word to have a meaning and what is it to be rational. My particular interests are in ethics and political philosophy, which focuses on questions about how we ought to live (separate from psychological/sociological questions about how we happen to live) and how we ought to structure our society (which are questions separate from political science which discusses and models how political institutions actually function).

Adam: It's difficult to describe philosophy. Philosophy is generally characterized by the questions it pursues—e.g. How should we live? What can we know? What is the nature of the real? Philosophical reflection, however, takes place whenever we step back from our practices and give an account of their assumptions and presuppositions, and thus philosophy is a better understood as a broad form of critical activity. My research focuses on the nature of moral experience and provides an account of the objectivity of moral judgments that emphasizes their dependence on human practices while acknowledging that the world acts as a constraint on thought and action.

2) What brought you to UWM for your graduate studies?

Chad: UWM has a top philosophy MA program which brings together a wonderful group of graduate students with very knowledgeable and supportive faculty. The graduate students have a very strong working and social environment by providing constant feedback and encouragement. This network of support allows not only an enriching and enjoyable experience while in the department, but has led to the department having a very good placement record to top Ph.D. programs in philosophy.

Adam: I came to UWM because of the exceptional quality of the philosophy department and the faculty's strengths in 18th and 19th century German philosophy and ethics.

3) What's been your best experience so far?

Chad: Often while working on papers I may be working on a part which I am not sure about. In my department it is common when people get to these points we just yell out of our offices at the first graduate student to walk by, "Hey, do you have a minute for me to run an idea by you?" Often we have that minute and it gives us important early feedback which often allows us to see potential objections before our arguments are even developed enough to be objected to, and sometimes we avoid serious mistakes when someone can show us a text we were not familiar with and which seriously affects our project. Experiences giving and getting this sort of informal but important feedback has made UWM a wonderful place for me.

Adam: Without a doubt, my best experience has been the interaction with my fellow graduate students. We have a special dynamic that mixes rigorous intellectual debate with a peculiar sense of humor. It makes for fun times around the office.

4) If you were able to merge another discipline with yours, what would that be and why?

Adam: Honestly, I would not like to merge with another discipline. Answers to philosophical questions are often helpfully informed by other fields of study, but certain questions are obscured when forced into the framework of another discipline and others simply cannot be formulated in terms of another discipline. Many philosophical questions take the activities of other disciplines as their objects of study and thus imply a certain degree of separation from the methodology of the discipline in question. Also, many disciplines aim to describe our practices whereas philosophy offers a critique and make claims about how we ought to proceed.

5) What is your favorite stress-reduction activity?

Chad: Personally, I do not have much stress to reduce. While I have a lot of work and am really busy, I enjoy it all. For what little stress I may have, my favorite stress-reduction activity is watching science-fiction for the 50's through the 70's.

Adam: Probably playing bridge, watching football, or kicking back and playing tunes on the jukebox at Scaffidi's.

6) What do you most enjoy about Milwaukee?

Chad: All of my favorite things in the city of Milwaukee relate to the Philosophy Department or the broader UWM campus.

Adam: UWM's philosophy department and my apartment, which is quite cozy.

7) Is there anything that you've had to "give up" as a graduate student?

Chad: To say "everything" may be an exaggeration, but you give up a lot. For starters, philosophy graduate programs are a lot easier if you hate money. Everyone in this department is brilliant and could easily be a great lawyer, engineer, mathematician, or scientist, or work in computers, business, or any number of fields where they would make a lot more money. Instead, they are making very little money, and don't even get stability for more than a decade or two when they might get tenure. Until then you move wherever you have to to be in the best department or take the best job opportunity no matter how far it is from your friends and family, or how bad the winters are (I'm Californian), or how crummy of an unfurnished studio apartment you have to live in. The job market is very grim, and even though one can go into other careers after getting the advanced degree, those careers will not be the slightest advanced by your degree so you will have lost many years of potential career advancement beyond the fact that many employers outside of academia will be disinclined to hire someone with a philosophy Ph.D. Luckily I care far more about doing philosophy than I do about having money, security or choice in where I live.

Adam: The hardest thing has been moving away from my friends and family at home; it's a real problem that an academic career forces many to live far from their loved ones.

8) What are your plans for after graduate school?

Chad: After I leave UWM I will go on to get a Ph.D. in Philosophy and I plan to research and teach philosophy until I die.

Adam: Next year I'm going to work on a book on Ralph Waldo Emerson with one of my previous professors. We plan to explain Emerson's rejection of a religion based on past revelation and assess his account of humanity's attempt to find meaning in the world. The project centers on how Emerson's reflections on the self, nature, and history inform his conception of our ability to determine for ourselves the shape of our social and moral world.

9) What trait do you find most necessary to succeed in graduate school?

Chad: I do not know about other departments, but in philosophy you need certain psychological traits which may make you seem insane. You have to have a serious love for and devotion to your research. This includes a willingness to devote months or years to researching a narrow topic which perhaps no one else in world would find even the slightest bit interesting, and you may be arguing for answers which even if people were interested in the topic they may think that your answer is totally wrong. While the views of our peers are important, and we must constantly work with each other providing feedback and criticism, and while everyone in the department loves to talk about their projects, philosophy is not a popularity contest and will generally not contribute to a vibrant social life.

Adam: Perseverance and patience: ideas take a while to unfold, and a good argument stems from sustained reflection.

10) Do you have any advice that you would give to a new graduate student in your program?

Adam: Relax. You'll always be overwhelmed, but there's nothing wrong with you—all the people you respect are probably overwhelmed too.