School of History, Philosophy, and Religion

 Current PhD Students

Nicholas Blanchard

(ABD, Farber)

I moved to Corvallis from California's San Joaquin Valley and in the process traded two seasons for four. I was beside myself in autumn and cannot wait to see this thing called spring. Fresno was very good to me, however. I completed a bachelor's and a master's degree in biology at California State University, Fresno. My undergraduate interests centered on ecology and evolution, while my graduate project dealt with molecular genetics and plant pathology. I spent summers in the field, at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and at the University of Tennessee. Mulling over my choices at the end of my first masters, I visited Oregon State and was immediately drawn to the History of Science program. My experience thus far has left me pleased that I took the tangent that led me here. The warmth, enthusiasm, and commitment of my mentors and colleagues are telling of the pride and fulfillment they find in their work.

My interests in the history of science gravitate toward evolutionary biology. Subsidiary and related interests include: developmental biology, evolutionary theory, animal science (i.e. artificial selection), plant pathology, and famine study. I travel whenever the opportunity arises. I also enjoy a good game of basketball, however much it suffers once I join in. I am obsessed with old cars and older architecture. As time and money allow, I also collect and restore antique furniture and obsolete gadgets.

Barbara C. Canavan

Barbara C. Canavan is a Ph.D. student in the History of Science. She has a professional background in public health leadership, and a master's degree with focus on the environment and global health. 

Barbara has participated in national research on immunizations and disease, and serves as a research associate for the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative (Columbia University) on the Past and Future of Pandemic Disease.

Her research interests include the history of infectious disease, disease eradication campaigns, and how changes in the natural environment influence global health.

Laura Cray

My research currently focuses upon the biological sciences of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.  Most recently, I have been researching the history of myrmecology (the social study of ants) and entomology and am in the process of writing about William Morton Wheeler’s efforts to apply his observations on the social structure of ant colonies to social planning in human societies in the 1910s-1930s. Other areas of interest include the history of the natural sciences, and cartography.

An Oregon native, I received my BA in Anthropology from Western Oregon University.  There, my research focused upon historical archaeology of homesteading in the American West.  My honors thesis, “Rock Walls and Rusted Dreams: An Archaeological Examination of Homesteading on the Crooked River National Grassland, Oregon,” examined the cultural, economic, and ecological causes for the collapse of the homesteads in the 1930s and the ways in which those events have contributed to modern conditions on the Grassland. Also included was a discussion of cognized environments and the ways in which they shape human understanding of the world through culture and individual interaction with the landscape. I hope to apply my anthropological background to the history of science to create an interface between scientific thought and constructions of social and physical environments.

Brenda Kellar

Did you know that the European honey bee, Apis mellifera L., is an introduced species in North America? How would the United States be different if that introduction had not taken place? Perhaps the recent bee mortality problem has made you wonder what will happen if honey bees disappear from the U.S.? These are the questions that started my fascination with agricultural economics and technologies.

Closely tied to those fields, and equally fascinating, is the way in which knowledge about pollination grew and disseminated. Three hundred years separated Nehemiah Grew's (1641-1712) identification of pollen as the male in sexual plant reproduction and the 20th century acceptance of honey bees' importance to pollination for many plant species. My research focuses on those three hundred years.

Linda Richards

(ABD, Hamblin)

In 1972, before my ninth birthday, I wrote President Nixon and asked him to send my father home from Vietnam. Instead, on my birthday, the June issue of Life magazine arrived on my doorstep. In the magazine was the now famous picture of nine-year-old Kim Phuc, running after being napalmed by American forces. Just as napalm was a product of chemists in a laboratory, I found science intimately connected to dominance. I studied science with the intention of understanding both its application to nuclear warfare, as well as its potential to create health and sustainability.

I have a BS in Science/Math with a Peace Studies minor from Southern Oregon University (SOU). As a certified mediator, journalist, community organizer, public education employee, and co-director of a small nonprofit, I have been educating the public and students about nuclear issues and conflict resolution in a variety of settings for over 20 years. My SOU Masters in Management project was collaboration for veterans' health with the Military Science Department. At my graduation in 2007, I was awarded the Universidad de Guanajuato Award at Southern Oregon University as the female outstanding graduate student. My interests in the history of science are broad, encompassing nuclear science, environmental history, leadership, ethics, and traditional ecological knowledge. I am thrilled to have access to Atomic Energy Archives, and the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Special Collection, and the amazing faculty at OSU. I intend to research nuclear history and create nuclear history curriculum from the environmental justice perspective, with a minor in Peace Studies. I look forward to obtaining a PhD from OSU and an academic career as an effective communicator and teacher. A commentary by Linda, "No More War! 50 Years Later," was published in Life@OSU, and she was recently profiled in the article "Peace on Earth is at the heart of OSU doctoral candidate's work."

Rachel StClair

My personal interest in the history of science emerged when I enrolled in a course about ancient western science as an undergraduate at University of California, Santa Barbara.  Upon completion of the course, I realized that history of science was the ultimate way to please both my parents: the scientist and the sage.  Never being a parent-pleaser in the past, I decided to try something new.  I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History from UC Santa Barbara but wanted to continue on in the history of science.

I was fortunate enough to end up at Oregon State for graduate school.  I began with a Master’s and have worked my way up.  I am mainly fascinated with the history of life sciences and their interactions with society.  More specifically I am interested in the history of medicine. I did my Master’s work on the College of American Pathologists. I used CAP to understand the decline of pathology in the post-World War II period.  Pathology had its status as a medical specialty called into question due to converging social factors like the rise of hospitals, the emergence of privatized health insurance, and government control. 

I hope to take my PhD work in a slightly different direction, but still focused on the history of medicine and medicine’s interplay with society.

Mason Tattersall

(ABD, Luft)

Mason Tattersall is a doctoral candidate in the History and Philosophy of Science who works in the fields of modern intellectual history and the history of science, primarily dealing with the history of questions of relational and transcendent meaning, epistemology, and ontology in European philosophy and the history of science (particularly quantum mechanics). Other areas of interest include: the history of philosophy, particularly the thought of Martin Heidegger; issues of authenticity, meaning, belief, and the history of nihilism; the existentialist tradition, especially Heidegger, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche; historiography and historical thinking; the history of scientific thought, art, literature, expressionism, and visual culture (especially film).

Mason received his BA and MA at the University of British Columbia. BA Honours Thesis: "Encountering Historiography: The Possibility of a Heidegger-Friendly Historiography." MA Thesis: "The Concept of Authenticity in Heidegger's Being and Time: Thoughts and Revisions on a Critical Theme." He is currently working on his PhD thesis on the intersection between philosophy and theoretical physics in Central and Northern Europe in the 1920s.

Andy Hahn

My interest in the history and philosophy of science began after I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BA in philosophy and a minor in mathematics.  Through the history and philosophy of science, I found scientific explanations and methods which I had not previously come across that suited my affinity for the arts and humanities.  In particular, I became interested in Goethe's morphology and the use of the imagination as a tool to understand the natural world. 

To study Goethe's work in closer detail, I completed a Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies here at OSU.  My thesis looked at his use of the imagination in The Metamorphosis of Plants while placing it in three distinct contexts:  its own historical context, it's potential contributions to current theories of natural aesthetics, and its application in a contemporary institution that interacts with adult learners and is engaged in the debate over the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture.

As a PhD student in the History of Science program here at OSU, I want to continue to look at Goethe's morphology, turning to how it has been received, interpreted, and put to use since Goethe's original formulation.  

Current Masters Students (History of Science)

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Jindan Chen

I received a B.S. in physics from Nanjing University in China in 2008, and an M.S. in condensed matter physics also from Nanjing University in 2011.  This fall, I moved to Corvallis, as a first-year M.S. student in the History of Science Program.

Currently, my primary interest in this area is the development of mechanics in the 19th and 20th century, in particular, how the advancement of mechanics is influenced by its social and cultural settings. I'm also interested in the convention of laboratory practice.

I hope to take advantage of my physical background to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the progress of mechanics in a broad background.

In my spare time, I love folk dancing, playing zither and table tennis.

Tracy Jamison

I am originally from a predominantly African American locality in Illinois, literally called the “Village of Robbins”. My interest in the history of science began when I realized that Science was fundamentally socially constructed. As a child, I was educated to believe that science was a concrete entity that represented ‘Truth with a Capital T’. Therefore, as a youth, I internalized supposed ‘scientific’ explanations for the sociocultural, health and economic disparities that I witnessed everyday in my community. Consequently, I was ecstatic to discover (through some excellent instruction in my classes at OSU) that not only was the enterprise of science amenable to reinterpretation, but also that I could have a significant part in the analysis to help represent those marginalized voices that are not often heard!  

I received my B.S. in Liberal Studies (Cum Laude, themed Social Justice in Medicine) from Oregon State in 2010. My research in the history of science currently focuses upon how federal antipoverty programs affected African Americans in the middle 20th century. However, my research interests lie in exploring the hermeneutics related to the scientific endorsement, enactment and denial of cultural imperialism.  I am concurrently seeking a Master of Science in the History of Science and a Master of Public Health focusing on health disparities in vulnerable populations. I Chair a local childhood literacy program, First Books Oregon State through the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA). Lastly, and most importantly, I am a single mother of three beautiful daughters who give me the strength everyday to continue my journey.

Peter Rumbles

I graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a BA in History, as well as a BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. After 4 years of undergraduate study, I took a course on the Environmental History of North America. I instantly recognized that I had found the ideal combination of my two degrees, and began pursuing it. I spent a year between the end of my Bachelors degree and the beginning of my Masters living in the East Village of New York City, where I worked at the New-York Historical Society and the Intrepid Museum of Sea, Air and Space, as well as assisting as a historical researcher on a PBS documentary about President Bill Clinton.

At Oregon State University, I hope to focus on 20th Century Environmental History, with current interests aimed at urban ecology and sustainability, natural history, public history, and the importance and history of New York City's Central Park. I hope to one day be the head curator of a museum similar to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, or the Grande Galerie de l'Evolution in Paris.

 Anna Dvorak

Anna Dvorak graduated from Michigan State University with a BS in History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science.  Originally a Genetics major, she found discussing interactions between society and science, much more interesting and rewarding.  It was also a way to unite the hard science classes she was taking with her love for her history electives.  As an undergrad, Anna focused on science in the World War Two era, and in the Third Reich in particular.  She finds the contradictions which existed in German society at this time and how they were translated into the Nazi practice of science and their views of science especially intriguing. 

During her time at MSU she planned an independent study which delved into the atomic bomb projects in both the United States and Germany.  This sparked her interest in atomic energy and the atomic bomb:  how it’s been used (and misused) and how the public views it.  Anna wishes to continue in this vein for her MA, however, she is currently exploring where this topic will lead her next.

Current Masters Students (Applied Ethics)

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Laura Rhoades-Stovall

I am a graduate student in the Applied Ethics (Philosophy) dpt. working on my second Master of Arts degree. My first M.A. is in History from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville with my thesis being on Queen Elizabeth I as a monster. I am also a mother of three with a son studying at OSU in Geology.  I am also married to a fellow Applied Ethics graduate student, David Stovall.

My area of interests are aesthetic philosophy and art. My thesis work centers around the ethics of display in regards to human remains, especially where medical museums are concerned. The questions I am interested in answering are: Whether these displays are ethical, especially in this day and age? What part does the treating of human remains as objects have in regards to such things as organ donation and treatment of the dead? Do human remains displays really give us a true understanding of human biology or is it a modern type of "freak show"? I intend to pursue a Ph.D. after earning my M.A. in Philosophy.

Thomas McElhinny

Thomas is a native Oregonian, having grown up in the Portland metro area.  Since graduating from Oregon State University with a BS in Philosophy he has followed his interests to an internship with Amnesty International in San Francisco and back to attend to some unfinished business with philosophy.  Thomas is an avid white water rafter in the summers, music fanatic, and wanderer, as well as working as a graduate teaching assistant.

Thomas’ academic interests, particularly in applied ethics, focus on the confluence of activism, the web, and privilege.  Considering the vast wealth and opportunity stratification worldwide, the uncertain future of anthropogenic climate change, and failures to meet these challenges (amongst others) with the action required, seems to require individuals to reassess our moral duties to act, and how we act, so as to alleviate harms.

Adam Hughes

Adam Hughes is a native North Carolinian and Oregon State alumni who is studying applied ethics at Oregon State University. His interests are feminist philosophy and ethics, and how they interact with children's cartoons and animation. 

Following graduate school, Adam hopes to enter animation as an animator and form a collective group of  animators and writers interested in making feminist children's cartoons.

Matt Gaddis

Matt Gaddis’ current research focuses on the way that moral norms are developed and the effect that class plays on the ways in which moral norms are taken seriously and enforced. He is particularly interested in the ways that class affects moral development in the current American context and the legal ramifications of this development. He works with Sharyn Clough and Andrew Valls, and his work is largely informed by Dewey, James, Davidson, and Rorty.

Matt is also interested in Confucianism and the way that practice affects our conception of morality and our moral development. In his free time Matt enjoys pretending to be a poet, wandering about, and playing cards.

IS THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR YOU?

Sean’s MA research focuses on the application of contemporary and classical pragmatism to liberal democratic educational theory.

His work on pragmatist theory is informed by Rorty, Davidson, Dewey, and Wittgenstein, and his interests in liberal democratic theory are guided primarily by Rawls, Sen, Levinson, and Gutmann. He works closely with Philosophy faculty Jonathan Kaplan and Sharyn Clough to critique and improve the justifications supplied by State Boards for educational goals and standards here in Oregon and in liberal democratic contexts more generally. He completed his MA practicum at the Department of Education in Salem, working with charter schools, State standards construction, and textbook selections.

Following graduate school, Sean plans to work with the Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and local school districts, in order to make their curricula selections and pedagogical practices more consistent with well-justified accounts of our liberal democracy.  He also plans to develop a Dewey Laboratory School curriculum that services at-risk youth by focusing on experiential, embodied, and individualized learning and lesson plans that are broadly informed by a pragmatist liberal account of human flourishing.

Current Masters Students (MAIS)

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Jane Yao

“If you don’t know where you are going, you had better know where you come from.” This in my view echoes what I find in the Bible:”Out of the dust wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:19b) I had searched for ten long years for the meaning of my existence until Divine Providence guided me to Corvallis from my hometown, a serene small village. In 2002, I received my B.A. in History from Fudan University in China. As a MAIS student with two fields in History and one in English, I have decided to focus on Christianity in modern China. By focusing on the issue of identity, I will explore how, in the late nineteenth century, Chinese Christians negotiated their new identity by embracing their nation, adopting a foreign religion, and aspiring to be cosmopolitan. I am also interested in examining how Chinese converts and Western missionaries shaped each other as they worked in tandem to establish a Chinese Christendom.

Susanne Ranseen

MAIS:
ecology, forest management, history

I received my BA in world history from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California in December of 2008.  I am currently working on my MAIS combining ecology, forest management, and history which allows me to work both in the FES (Forest Ecosystem and society) and the History department.

My thesis concerns the impact of suppression management on tree and fuel density in dry forested systems dominated by Ponderosa Pine and how it affects high severity fires in those areas.  This summer I traveled to the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff Arizona to have a first-hand look at the Schultz Fire area and to study the fire’s impact and species recovery two years after a high severity fire.  By looking at the history and language of fire management combined with the realities on-the-ground of high severity fires, I was able to get a sense of the health of dry forested systems in the American Southwest.