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Philosopher Liz Harman from NYU to Princeton

Brian Leiter

Elizabeth Harman (ethics, metaphysics), currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy at New York University, has accepted a tenure-track offer from Princeton University, where she will half in the Department of Philosophy and half in the Center for Human Values.  (Her father, Gilbert Harman–known for important contributions in many fields, including ethics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and epistemology, among others–has, of course, been a long-time member of the Princeton Department.  This is the first case of which I’m aware in which a parent and child have been non-emeritus faculty members in the same department of philosophy.  [I am aware of some cases where faculty join a department where a parent is a retired member of the faculty:  most recently, Christopher Wellman’s move from Georgia State to Washington University, St. Louis, where his father Carl Wellman, now retired, was a longtime member of that department.]  If there are other such cases, please add them in the comments.)

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7 responses to “Philosopher Liz Harman from NYU to Princeton”

  1. Neil

    Not sure about whether they overlapped: Camo Jackson was head of the Monash philosophy department before Frank Jackson joined the department.

    Reply
  2. Matt

    Galen Strawson, I believe, was at Oxford before going to Reading. I'm not sure if he was there as early as 1987, when his father retired from the Waynflete Professorship or not, though. (None of his web pages give his dates of employment, as far as I can see.) His philosophy publications date back in to the mid 80's, though, so there's some reason to think he was at Oxford when Peter Strawson was still the Waynflete professor.

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  3. rick

    Jennifer Nagel was appointed to a tenure-track position in the Philosophy Dept. at the University of Toronto in 1999. Her father, Gordon Nagel, retired from that program in 2000. Not quite overlapping by your criteria, Philip Kremer was hired by the U of Toronto's Philosophy Dept. in 2003. His father, Elmar, retired from there in 1999.

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  4. Kenny Easwaran

    Outside of philosophy departments, an interesting example is Erik Demaine, hired by MIT computer science at the age of 20, as a result of some fascinating work on the mathematics of origami, among other things. His father is now artist-in-residence in the computer science department. I don't know if this was an odd example of a two-body problem, or something else.

    Reply
  5. Michael

    The moral philosopher James Rachels was at the University of Alabama until his death in 2003; his son, Stuart Rachels, was hired there in 1999, though I am uncertain whether they were at the same campus.

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  6. martin demaine

    Avrim Blum is the son of Lenore and Manuel Blum. All three are faculty at CMU – the three offices are next to each other. http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20011021blum1021p3.asp

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  7. Stuart Rachels

    My dad and I were never at the same university. He was at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1977 until his death in 2003; I have been at the University of Alabama (which is in Tuscaloosa) since 1999. These are no more the same university than are UCLA and Berkeley.

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