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Advising

nyasha bovell

As the Department Coordinator, Nyasha Bovell is a great resource if you have any questions about program requirements, department procedures, or events happening within the department.  Nyasha is always happy to chat, so please feel free to stop by Emerson 303 to say hello!

 

Megan Entwistle

Megan is a PhD candidate in Harvard's Philosophy Department.

As Assistant DUS, she is available to discuss any questions you might have about the concentration--what classes to take, whether to write a thesis, or just what it's like to concentrate in philosophy.

 

cheryl chen

Cheryl Chen received her Ph.D. in philosophy from UC Berkeley and taught at Bryn Mawr College before coming to Harvard in 2006. She works mainly in epistemology and the philosophy of mind, though she also has interests in the philosophy of religion, metaphysics, the history of philosophy, and applied ethics. Research topics include: transcendental arguments, the relation between perception and belief, first person thought, the epistemology of religious experience, and the passage of time.

 

Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies

seth robertsonSeth Robertson received his PhD in 2019 from the University of Oklahoma. He was a Dissertation Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing there, and an inaugural member of the APA Graduate Student Council. His research interests include moral psychology, the history of ethics, early Chinese ethics, social epistemology, virtue ethics, and metaethics. Seth’s research focuses on ways in which non-normative information should constrain our normative theorizing. He has written about the intersection of social intelligence and virtue ethics as well as situationist psychology and moral development in the context of early Confucian ethics, and is currently working on epistemic injustice and rhetorical manipulation. Seth is one of the founders of The Deviant Philosopher, a web resource which helps philosophy instructors better include philosophy from outside the traditional canon in their teaching.

Undergraduate Studies Office

The Director of Undergraduate Studies, Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies serve as academic advisors for all philosophy concentrators. You can speak to us about all academic matters related to the concentration as well as your other classes.

  • Deciding on whether the Philosophy Concentration is right for you
  • Pursuing a joint concentration, including the Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB) program
  • Course selection inside and outside the department (esp. planning for courses in future semesters)
  • Tutorials
  • Distribution requirements within the Concentration
  • The Thesis writing process
  • Study abroad and summer funding opportunities
  • Life after college
  • Any issues related to any of the classes in the department

Crimson Cart, Advising Holds, Official Forms

Any member of the Office of undergraduate studies can lift advising holds, sign add/drop forms, and sign other forms related to the concentration.

A note on advising holds: the advising staff will only lift advising holds after an in-person advising meeting.

Meeting with Us

We maintain a list of our office hours, where you can also sign up for office hour time slots (link to Google calendar). If you see that slots are available and you'd like to drop by unannounced during any of these times, we're more than happy to meet with you if we're free. The sign-up mechanism is just there to ensure that you don't have to wait for an opportunity to talk.

Declaring a Concentration

To declare Philosophy as your concentration or as a primary or allied field in a joint concentration, you should first meet with one of us in the Director of Undergraduate Studies Office. We are:

Cheryl Chen (DUS): ckchen@fas.harvard.edu

Seth Robertson (Associate DUS): srobertson@fas.harvard.edu

Megan Entwistle (Assistant DUS): entwistle@g.harvard.edu

 

You can sign up for appointments by following this link. After the meeting, we will approve your concentration declaration request in my.harvard.

If you are declaring a joint or double concentration, you should also follow the declaration instructions for your other field. Double concentrations also require that students submit two signed copies of the Double Concentration Form, one for each concentration.

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