Category: SRS Round 2 (February 2024)

Describing & Categorizing People for Image Descriptions (Prof. Rachel Levit Ades)

2 students are sought for a project on “Describing & Categorizing People for Image Descriptions” with Prof. Rachel Levit Ades that will begin on 6/9/2024 and last for 6 weeks

Project Description:

Image descriptions, sometimes known as “alt text,” explain images for people who are blind and low-vision. However, almost all guides neglect when and how to describe the social categories—such as the race, gender, and disability status—of people portrayed. How do we create a “good image description” when that image contains a person? For example, when is it relevant or important to mention someone’s race? My summer project involves looking to how other disciplines describe people as a way of offering context and guidance for what current accessibility practices should be. We will examine how questions of race and description have been addressed by those in art history and the library sciences, and extrapolate techniques and wisdom from these disciplines to answer the issue now posed by electronic image description.

Prerequisites

Experience in art history, philosophy, sociology/anthropology, English, digital humanities and/or museum studies preferred

Special Comments

Students should plan on working in person at least 4 out of the 6 weeks of the project. We will work virtually June 23-June 29.

Project Information

Estimated Start Date: 6/9/2024

Estimated End Date: 7/19/2024

Maximum number of students sought: 2

Contact Information: Prof. Rachel Levit Ades (rlevitades@wlu.edu)

Effective Altruism and Its Critics: Dignity, Ethics, and a More Just World (Prof. Howard Pickett)

2 more students are sought for a project on “Effective Altruism and Its Critics: Dignity, Ethics, and a More Just World” with Prof. Howard Pickett that will begin on 6/1/2024 and last for 8 weeks

Project Description:

“Effective Altruism and Its Critics” will give SRS participants an opportunity to read about, discuss, and research the main debates related to the increasingly popular effective altruism (EA) movement. We will examine the work of effective altruists and their critics (including Kantians, contractualists, and others) both charitably (looking for their best insights) and critically (looking for the limitations of their arguments). In other words, we will neither uncritically BASH nor uncritically PRAISE Effective Altruism. Each SRS student will be given the opportunity to research a particular philosophical issue related to EA and also apply our thinking about EA (and its alternative ethical frameworks) to a social problem that matters to YOU! By participating, you will gain a better understanding not only of EA but also, more broadly, of some of the most important debates in ethical theory and, last but not least, some of the most promising ways of adressing one of our world’s most pressing social problems.

Prerequisites

Ideally, applicants will have some familiarity with ethics and with addressing social problems in respectful ways (e.g., through courses in POV or PHIL). However, applicants with background in Effective Altruism or ethics, even without coursework in POV or PHIL, will also be considered.

Special Comments

Project Information

Estimated Start Date: 6/1/2024

Estimated End Date: 7/26/2024

Maximum number of students sought: 2

Contact Information: Prof. Howard Pickett (Picketthy@wlu.edu)