Maryland Philosophy Conference

Conference Organizers

Jake Bartholomew, Nick Tebben, Patrick Roney, Gilad Sharvit, Justin Harmon, and Kristen Hine

Acknowledgements

The organizers would like to thank Towson University for housing the event, as well as the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies for their generous financial support. We would also like to thank Robert Tappan, our Chair, and Paul Otto, our administrative assistant, for working with us on this event.

October 23, 2026

9:00-9:30: Registration and Breakfast (LA 4400)
9:30-11:25: Concurrent Sessions 1A-1D
11:30-12:30: Lunch
12:30-2:25: Concurrent Sessions 2A-2C
2:25-2:45: Break
2:45-5:20: Concurrent Sessions 3A-3C
5:20: Reception (LA 4400)

1A  Social Philosophy– LA 4302

Chair: Justin Harmon 
 
09:30-10:05 Calum Hodgson, “Towards a Realist Principle of Inclusion”

10:10-10:45    Daniel Burkett, Binghamton University, “(Not) Punishable by Death. Why the Death Penalty Can Never Count as Punishment”

10:50-11:25    Ellen Miller, Rowan University, “Love through Alienation in Butler’s “Bloodchild” and Merleau-Ponty”

1B History of Philosophy--LA 4315

Chair: Patrick Roney

09:30-10:05 Jason Caro, “The Reluctant Path beyond Kant's Radical Evil”

10:10-10:45 Kevin Busch, Claremont McKenna College, “A Problem for Humean Modality”

1C Ethics and Social Philosophy-- LA 4303

Chair: Jake Bartholomew

09:30-10:05 Xiamara Brooks, “Did You Mean It?”

10:10-10:45 William Allen, Bowie State University, “Insurrectionist Ethics and the Late Period of W.E.B Du Bois”

10:50-11:25 Michael Nestor, “Governing at the Edge of Convergence: Anticipatory Ethics for Artificial Intelligence, Synthetic Biology, and Quantum Computing”

1D Metaphysics--LA 4317

Chair: Chloe Tran

09:30-10:05 Philip Matveev, “Selective Effective Metaphysics”

10:10-10:45 Chad Hall, UConn, “Higher-Order Vagueness and Ideal Language Philosophy”

10:50-11:25 Hong Phuc Nguyen, “Truth and the Internalization of Predication: From Plato to Leibniz 

PHIL/RLST Chair Welcome and Lunch: 11:30-12:30, CLA Cafe

 

2A  Social Philosophy and Language —LA 4302

Chair: Rachel Hubble

12:30-1:05 Isaac Raymond, University of Oxford, “Microaggressions and the Directive to Be: Speech Acts, Presupposition, and Heteronomy”

1:10-1:45 Jed Young, “Reclaiming Graham v. Connor: Epistemic Injustice In Police Brutality Court Cases” 

1:50-2:25 Sophie Gibert, University of Pennsylvania, “Manipulation and Voluntary Consent”

2B  Ethics --LA 4303

Chair: Kristen Hine
 
12:30-1:05  Andrea Villalba Cuesta, Lafayette College, “Shape of a Childhood”

1:10-1:45 David Atenasio, “In Defense of Root Cause Radicalism”

1:50-2:25 Elizabeth Sontag, “Debunking Labor-Based Accounts of Special Parental “Responsibility

2C  Religion and Ancient Philosophy—LA 4315

Chair: Tim Jankowiak
 
12:30-1:05 Audrey Anton, “Consenting Character: Aristotle on Responsibility for 
Akrasia”

1:10-1:45 Hydar Hussein Arastu, “Always and for the Most Part - But Not for the Sake of: Understanding Physics ii.8 through Material Constraint and Teleological Opportunism as Demonstrated by Residual Matter

1:50-2:25 Zack Akin, “Why an Unsurpassable Being Can Create a Surpassable World”

20 Minute Break

3A  Ethics and Metaethics LA 4310

Chair—Veneta Nikolera
 
2:45-3:20 Cade Schafer, “The Authority Within: Reflective Commitment and Moral 
Agency in Sentimenalist Relativism”

3:25-4:00 L. Allison Herzog, Attorney with Antitrust Division of the United States 
Department of Justice, “Causally Responsible Obstacles”

4:05-4:40 Matthew Lamb, “Objectionability and Agent-Relative Offensiveness: 
Accounting for Formative Circumstances on a Quality of Will 
Framework” 

4:45-5:20 Tyler Olds, “Kant on the Value of Human Beings”

3B  Science and Metaphysics—LA 4317

Chair: Nick Tebben
 
2:45-3:20 Leo Alvarez Ceja, “Mereological Voids”

3:25-4:00 Marcos Alcázar Estrella, University of Connecticut, “The Theory of Inquiry and the Problem of Biological Individuality”

4:05-4:40 Rich Wilson, “Husserl’s View of Science: From Philosophy of Arithmetic to The Crisis of the European Sciences”

4:45-5:20 Tyler Hess, “Was Hobbes a Compatibilist?”

3C  Technology—LA 4302

Chair: Dami Daniel 
 
2:45-3:20 Josh Greenbaum, “Engagement All the Way Down: Why Language-
Model Agents Don't Fix Recommendation” 

3:25-4:00 Matthew Taylor and Kimora Hardy, “Vicious Technologists”

4:05-4:40 Michael Milhim, “Is Ad-Blocking Theft?”