2019 PURE Undergraduate Research Celebration

This past Thursday, September 24, the 2019 PURE Celebration of Achievement event honoured participants of the Program for Undergraduate Research Experience. PURE provides undergraduate students with a unique opportunity to develop research skills and explore specific interests.

Alexandra Sellers (BA Honours in Philosophy) was invited to present her research project “Digital Domain: Where Environmental Ethics & Cryptocurrencies Collide” supervised by Dr. David Dick. In her work on cryptocurrency ethics, Alex defined a new use of the word "fencing" (as object limitations), assessing whether there might be ethically justifiable currency fencing and if we ought to support minimally-fenced currencies or more-than-minimally fenced currencies.

Ally Jokl (BA Honours in Philosophy) received PURE funding for her project “‘Evolving Pilgrim Erected Spontaneous Constructions’ on the Camino de Santiago in Spain” supervised by Dr. Rachel Schmidt in the Department of Classics and Religion. Her work served as the first formal documentation of Evolving Pilgrim Erected Spontaneous Constructions (EPESCs) along the Camino de Santiago.

Will Gregson (BA Honours in Political Science, Minor in Philosophy) examined the current rise of right-wing populism in his PURE project “Understanding the Rise of Nationalist Populism through an Examination of Structuralism and Humanism in Marxist Theory” supervised by Dr. Joshua Goldstein.

These three 2019 PURE projects highlight the incredible innovation and diversity of research interests from undergraduate students in the Department of Philosophy.