SPAWN 2025

Spawn Returning Home: Ethics at Syracuse

July 15-17, 2025

500 Hall of Languages

This conference brings back to town some recent Syracuse Philosophy Ph.D.’s who work in ethics or related areas.

Tuesday, July 15

9:15am – 10:45am:

Preston Werner, 2016 (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

“Considerative Justice and Patterns of Moral Force”

Commentator: Sarah Stroud (UNC)

11am – 12:30pm:

Travis Timmerman, 2016 (Seton Hall)

“Immutable Obligations” (co-authored with Yishai Cohen)

Commentator: Holly Smith (Rutgers)

12:30pm – 1:30pm Lunch

1:30pm – 3pm:  

Aatif Abbas, 2024 (Colgate)

“Adaptive Preferences and Context Sensitivity”

Commentator: Ruth Sample (New Hampshire)

3:15pm – 4:45pm:

Rowan Bell, 2022 (Guelph)

“The (Dis)Functions of ‘Gender Identity'”

Commentator Talia Bettcher (Cal State, LA)

Dinner

Wednesday, July 16

9:15am – 10:45am:

Lorenza D’Angelo, 2024 (Pompeu Fabra University)

“Qualities of Pleasure”

Commentator: Jason Raibley (Kansas)

11am – 12:30pm: 

Nikki Fortier, 2023 (Cornell)

“How the Attention-Demandingness of Pain Favors Felt-Quality Accounts”

Commentator: Anthony Kelley (LSU)

12:30pm – 1:30pm Lunch

1:30pm – 3pm  

Teresa Bruno-Niño, 2022 (Rice) and Joseph Van Weelden (College of New Caledonia)

“The Many Resonance Constraints on Well-Being”

Commentator: Connie Rosati (Texas, Austin)

Optional Activities!

Dinner 

Thursday, July 17

9:15am – 10:45am

Yishai Cohen, 2015 (Southern Maine)

“The Opposition of Omnibenevolence Towards Evil”

Commentator: Derk Pereboom (Cornell)

11am – 12:30pm  

Huzeyfe Demirtas, 2023 (Harvard)

“Responsibility Doesn’t Require Alternate Possibilities”

Commentator: Michael Robinson (Chapman)

Conference End

This conference is free and open to the public. Register by July 1 through this link.

Conference organizers are Hille Paakkunainen (hpaakkun@syr.edu) and David Sobel (davidsobel3@gmail.com).

Poster designed by Nikki Fortier