Dept. of Philosophy & Religion
Students

Student Activities | Student Organizations | Alumni

Student Activities

The department is proud to offer interested students a number of unique and exciting opportunities to extend their education beyond the classroom. The exact activities vary from year to year - for example, a group of students in a class may propose attending an undergraduate conference to present their papers, as happened in 2004 when students from the Asian Philosophy seminar traveled to the Southeastern Asian Studies conference. The list, however, always includes:

The National Ethics Bowl: Held each year in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE), the National Ethics Bowl is inspired by TV's College Bowl. In the Ethics Bowl, up to 40 teams from schools across the nation prepare for debate on a set of 13 ethical case studies. The cases present ethical dilemmas in a variety of areas, the classroom (e.g. cheating or plagiarism), to  personal relationships (e.g. dating or friendship), professional ethics (e.g. engineering, law, medicine), and social and political ethics (e.g. free speech, gun control, etc.) The cases for each round are randomly selected and then a moderator poses a specific question for the team to answer about that case. A panel of expert judges evaluates the answers for clarity and intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant factors, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness. Funding for travel and expenses is provided by the Department of Philosophy & Religion and the Rutland Institute for Ethics. Clemson's team has done well in recent years, making it to the semifinals in 2004, placing third nationally in 2005, and winning the national championship in 2008. For more information, contact the coach, Charlie Starkey

If you would like to propose an activity or need information about anything not discussed here, please contact the Undergraduate Coordinator, Kelly Smith.

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Student Organizations

Clemson has an extremely active body of undergraduates interested in extracurricular Philosophy and Religion activities. In fact, interest has grown so rapidly that the department now has an undergraduate coordinator, Kelly Smith, whose job it is to oversee and facilitate all student activities. What's really important about this fact is that the department has allocated a small budget which can be used to facilitate said undergraduate activities. At the moment, this includes:  

1) Free pizza and cokes at the monthly meetings of all three of our student organization (The Philosophical Society of Clemson,  the Clemson Bioethics Club and the Religious Studies Club)

2) Occasional distributions of free club T-shirts and paraphernalia

3) Coordinating occasional trips by students to undergraduate conferences, such as the National Undergraduate Bioethics conference discussed above.

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Philosophy & Religion Alumni

NOTE:  This is a new effort for us and we would really like to keep track of all our alumni.  Please send an email to Kelly Smith if you would like to update your information.

GraduationNameMajor(s)Where are they now?
Dec., 2006Jamie MerchantPhilosophy & EnglishPursuing a Ph.D. in Rhetoric at Northwestern
May, 2005Matt Lubniewski

Philosophy:
Law, Liberty & Justice Production Studies in Performing Arts

Pursuing J.D. at the Univ. of Pittsburgh
Dec., 2004Ambrea WattsPhilosophyPursuing J.D. at Duke Univ. Editor of the Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy (2008)
August, 2004Alexander HooperPhilosophy:
Religious Studies
 
May, 2004Jonathan HillerPhilosophy:
Law, Liberty & Justice
Charleston School of Law
"   "Allen ParkerPhilosophy
Physics
 
"   "Vanessa PengPhilosophy:
Law, Liberty & Justice
Law School
"   "John C. (Chess)
Wallace
Philosophy:
Law, Liberty & Justice
 
"   "Kevin (Tuck) Tucker

Philosophy

 
August, 2003Daniel Fisher

Philosophy

 
"   "Michael C. CoffmanPhilosophy 
May, 2003Bryan BuckleyPhilosophy
Economics
 
"   "Pavol KamasPhilosophy 
"   "Thomas C. Smalls IIPhilosophy 
"   "Peter R. StonePhilosophy
English
FSU Film School
"   "Danielle TrexlerPhilosophy:
Religious Studies
History
Duke University Divinity School
Dec., 2002James Bennington

Philosophy

 
August, 2002Ashlea SmithPhilosophyEmergency Room nurse at AnMed Health Medical Center
May, 2002Karen KillianPhilosophy 
"   "Tiffany Lambert

Philosophy

 
Dec., 2001Phillip (Chip) GoffPhilosophy
History
Pursuing masters in History at Clemson
May, 2001David Bradley Jones

Philosophy

Administrative assistant, Rutland Institute for Ethics
"   "Suzanne Kirayoglu Philosophy
Financial Management
 
Dec., 2000Christopher Lempesis

Philosophy

 
"   "Jeff MurtoPhilosophy:
Religious Studies
Nursing school, MUSC
Summer, 2000Rick D. Garner

Philosophy
Political science

 
May, 2000Grayson L. Cash

Philosophy

Pilot/flight instructor, Delta Airlines
"   "Erin Putnam

Philosophy
English

 
"   " Andrew Woolum 

Philosophy
PRTM

Park Management / Pursuing Ph.D. in Natural Area Recreation at Univ. of Florida

Dec., 1999

Matthew Holden
Warren

Philosophy

 

Summer, 1999 

Nathan Masters

Philosophy

 

Dec., 1997

Thomas Dale AdamsPhilosophy 

"   "

Robert C. Campbell

Philosophy
English

 

"   " 

Lewis Gordon Porter IVPhilosophy
Psychology
 

Summer, 1997

Hal Beverly

Philosophy 

May, 1997

Tressa Denise LewisPhilosophy
Political Science 
 
Dec., 1996Jennifer L. CampbellPhilosophy
Psychology
 

"   "

Stephen WukelaPhilosophy
Political Science
 

May, 1996

Brandon Culbertson

Philosophy

 
Dec., 1995Timothy GumkowskiPhilosophy 
Summer, 1995Barbara RethPhilosophy  

May, 1994

John C. (Chris) Campbell 

Philosophy
Psychology

 

"   "

Amanda Cheek

Philosophy
Psychology

 

Dec., 1993

Cecilia Herles  

Philosophy
English

Ph.D., Philosophy, UGA (2006)

"   "

Brian Kassa

Philosophy

 

May, 1993

Sean Patrick Doyle

Philosophy

 

"   "

Jamey B. Johnson

Philosophy
political science

 

"   "

Michelle Little

Philosophy
Political Science

 

Dec., 1992

Bruce Baker 

Philosophy
English

Pursuing Ph.D. in American History at UNC

May, 1992

Clarence D. (Jimmy)
Agan III

Philosophy

Dr. Agan is senior minister at Clemson Presbyterian Church

"   "

Charles Edward
Ramsey

Philosophy

 
May, 1991  Brian Keith SandersPhilosophy
History
English
 

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