Assistant Professor Judith Carlisle’s courses empower students to examine, discuss, and explore topics they will face in their careers and the wider world.
College students searching for courses that will advance their careers skills might overlook philosophy, but the Professional Responsibility class at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, connects theory with analytical skills so they can navigate challenging real-world scenarios ahead.
At the end of the spring semester in 2026, students presented their research and analysis on dozens of topics, from artificial intelligence in the workplace to political disagreement and parenting practices, with posters outlining their premises, possible objections, and responses.
“These are ethical questions our students will actually encounter in their lives and careers,” Assistant Professor Judith Carlisle said. “Many of them will eventually be in positions where they make policy or medical decisions or supervise others. I want students to have the tools to think through these kinds of ethical decisions carefully and critically before they are in the heat of the moment.”
The course, Philosophy 244, draws undergraduates from majors across the university seeking to fulfill ethics or Volunteer Core curriculum requirements. They learn not only logic and critical thinking but how to disagree with other people. “Disagreeing well involves learning how to understand opposing arguments charitably and explaining your own position persuasively to people who don’t already agree with you,” Carlisle said.
Timely Topics
During the final poster presentation, the students took turns discussing their ideas, listening to classmates’ questions, and responding to criticisms. “Those are skills needed no matter what degree you’re getting or job you’re going on to,” Carlisle said. “We all have to be able to explain ourselves clearly, concisely, and in a well-reasoned way.”
Changing a position in the face of new evidence also is a skill. “That’s one of the hardest things to do, to change your beliefs,” she said. “In philosophy, this happens all the time. You’re confronted with new evidence that doesn’t fit with what you thought … and so, you have to change your beliefs to fit the evidence. That’s another skill we practice in class.”
Students discover that they have been applying abductive arguments in their everyday reasoning and learn the advanced philosophical versions for that. “One of the cool things students discover is that many philosophical reasoning strategies are extensions of skills they already use in everyday life,” Carlisle said. “The course helps them refine and apply those argument forms more carefully and systematically.”
As students choose their topics for the final presentation the professor encourages them to focus on something they can be excited thinking about deeply in a rigorous, philosophical way.
For senior Kate Webinger, majoring in geology with a paleontology minor, the assignment was an opportunity to consider the ethical limits of conducting research in national parks. Caleb Peterson, a sophomore majoring in biochemistry, worked with first-year finance major Odin Mitchell to explore scientists’ responsibility for disclosure and full transparency.
Nicholas Hamada, an accounting major, teamed with Thomas Camacho, who is double majoring in business management and the College of Arts and Sciences’ language and world business program, with a focus on Spanish and international business. They examined mass surveillance and the Patriot Act, a law first passed before they were born but with provisions that were under judicial and legislative review in the weeks before their presentation.
Thinking Deeply
Carlisle’s interest in philosophy came when she was an undergraduate. “I was very science-oriented as an undergraduate,” she said. “Then I took a philosophy course where there were not always clear answers, and it was not even obvious that the questions could be fully resolved by scientific study. At first it was uncomfortable, but I eventually fell in love with thinking carefully about these deep and difficult questions.”
She combined her interests by entering a specialized doctoral program in philosophy-neuroscience-psychology and researching trauma. “During Covid, when I was writing my dissertation, there was a lot of discussion about trauma,” she said. “It was a word that was everywhere, but I didn’t really know what it meant, and so I dove in and thought, let’s use the tools of philosophy to try to figure out what it is that everyone’s talking about.”
“I was investigating scientific understandings of trauma and trying to organize the different frameworks people were using,” she said. “Then I realized there was this huge body of literature on artistic representation and healing through art. Suddenly there was this whole other side of the picture that I knew nothing about.”
Interdisciplinary Exploration
A new special topics course from the Department of Philosophy, Trauma and Art, invites graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students to join Carlisle in exploring the connection between the two.
“When you’re studying the philosophy of trauma, there isn’t a lot of groundwork that’s already been done,” she said. “That means students are often working through genuinely open questions and helping develop the conversation themselves.”
As part of the course, the students visited the Homelands exhibition at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture to study how Native Nations artists processed trauma through art. They returned to the museum to present their final assignments, an opportunity for philosophically informed creative activity, through art, music, and literature.
One student discussed the Jungian archetypes of human personality through the Black Rock Shooter anime franchise, while another wrote poetry for the assignment.
Philosophy graduate student Kiana Nakagama, inspired by philosopher Susan Brison’s book Aftermath, sculpted several pieces to represent symbolically how trauma can disrupt the sense of self.
Musical representations of trauma included composition, performance, and a curated playlist.
“I was impressed with their willingness to be vulnerable and open about a really difficult topic to talk about,” Carlisle said.
She also encouraged her students to submit their research papers to the Tennessee Value and Agency conference, which the philosophy department is hosting in October 2026, the first time since the pandemic.
With the theme Grief, Trauma, Anger, and Resilience, Carlisle and Professor Avery Kolers, head of the department, hope the conference will foster interdisciplinary conversations including philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, literature, social theory, public health, and related fields.
by Amy Beth Miller