Our graduate students have had a productive semester, giving numerous presentations and organizing several events that showcase their strengths as members of UGA’s Philosophy graduate program. We’re proud of how active our graduate students are and of how much they’re accomplishing while representing UGA!

PhD candidate Alex Asay published his first book, On Bernard Suits’ Philosophy: How Play, Games, and Sport Shape a Life Worth Living (Routledge) with Francisco Javier López Frías. This is a particularly noteworthy accomplishment for a graduate student, and we are proud of his work! In addition to this book, he published an article, “Detective Fiction, Gameplay, and the Recovery of Narrative” in ODRADEK. Studies in Philosophy of Literature, Aesthetics, and Theory of Cognition. Asay also presented “Sport and the Goods of Trying” at the What is Good in Sport? workshop at Arizona State University, and “Can Sex be a Game?” at the 47th Annual Midsouth Philosophy Conference in Memphis, TN.

Max Barton will be presenting his paper "Against the Moral Arguments for Culling Barred Owls in the Pacific Northwest" at the International Society of Environmental Ethics (ISEE) conference this July in Colorado.

Daniel Deweese will present his paper "Geist 1776: Hegel and the Fate of the American Revolution" at the 36^th International Hegel Conference: Hegel Global in Rome, Italy, this September.

Kali Grecia gave comments on Georgi Geoff’s “Quantification and the ‘so-called’ challenge for inferentialism” and presented “Wittgenstein’s Parallel Solution to the Problem of Bridging the Gap in the TLP” at the Mid-South Philosophy conference held in Memphis, TN in March, as well as presenting “Kierkegaard’s Supra-systematic Philosophy” at the UGA Graduate Student Symposium.

Alex Hollatz-Guestella co-organized with Kali Grecia an Aesthetics Lab trip to a local gallery, OCAF, to visit and speak with their new curator. He also organized the first Philosophy Graduate Student Symposium for our department, at which 8 students presented papers, works in progress, and displays of their current research. This event received excellent feedback from the graduate students, and he hopes to continue arranging similar meetings in future semesters. Alex also served on the organizing committee for our own Student Philosophy in the South event and presented “Supererogation in the Face of Negative Consent” at the Mid-South Philosophy Conference in Memphis.

Kobi Korankye presented at two conferences this semester. At the North Carolina Society for Philosophy (NCSP) and South Carolina Society for Philosophy (SCSP) joint meeting hosted at Furman University, he presented “Organs in a Gift Box: Living Directed Organ Donation as a Gift Giving Practice,” while the University of Iowa Graduate Philosophy Student Conference saw him give the paper “Deepfakes and Epistemic Authority: The Case for Expert Verification Standards.”

In March, Robert Martin presented a paper entitled “Divine and Human Trustworthiness” at the Gordon H. Clark Symposium in Lookout Mountain, GA, an annual combined undergraduate and graduate philosophy hosted by Covenant College. His paper was awarded first place overall.

Quentin Murphy presented a paper, "The Meaning of the Disappearance of Piety in Plato's Republic" at UGA's 6^th Crossroads Conference.

Nathan Pagel participated in the Philosophy Graduate Student Symposium, presenting his paper “The Tragedy of Wilderness Appreciation.”

Shagun Sharma gave a talk titled "“Howzat?!: What the Computer is Doing in the Gentleman’s Game” as part of the Arts and Emerging Technologies colloquium organized in collaboration with The Research Center of the Slovenian  Academy of Sciences and Arts. She also presented a paper titled "Morality as Striving Play" at the Midsouth Philosophy Conference in Memphis and commented on Byron Hyde's paper titled “Can Paying Athletes Undermine Their Autonomy?” Shagun was also the recipient of the 2025-2026 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.

Guillermo Zapata advised a group of undergraduates on the publication of a philosophy zine titled Pollen, was awarded $1000 by the Wilson Center as graduate research funds, and was awarded $2000 by the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory for research at their field station.