Two newly-hired assistant professors of philosophy specializing in ethics will begin teaching here in the fall, the philosophy department announced in its most recent newsletter.The department's chair, Prof. Jerry Samet, said the department has sought to fill one assistant professor position since last fall, but because of the high caliber of applicants, which numbered over 175, the administration ultimately approved the hiring of two candidates, Marion Hourdequin and Sarah McGrath.

"We see this unexpected and virtually unprecedented second appointment as a very strong expression of support on the part of the administration for philosophy and for the humanities," Samet wrote in the newsletter.

Hourdequin and McGrath concentrate their research on different areas of philosophical ethics. Samet said their focus will broaden the scope of the department's studies and free up current professors to instruct other courses.

Samet said that the department hired candidates who specialize in ethics at the request of students who enroll in introductory philosophy and human rights courses that are too crowded. Those courses, he said, can now be spread among more professors.

"For the philosophy department, [the faculty additions] mean that we can offer more courses in a wider variety of fields in areas we wanted to expand," Samet said. "Given our teaching loads, there were some courses we wanted to teach but couldn't."

Both new professors have received high distinctions in the past.

Hourdequin is completing her Ph.D. at Duke University. She is writing her dissertation on the link between evolutionary biology and ethics. She is also interested in Chinese philosophy and the philosophy of the environment. She is currently collaborating with Prof. Dan Pearlman (BIO) to design a course that also deals with environmental studies.

McGrath received her master's degree from Tufts University and her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in philosophy. She has been an assistant professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. McGrath's interests include biomedical ethics, particularly those related to cloning. Prof. Andreas Teuber (PHIL) noted the value of the new fields the professors will cover, such as environmental ethics, which Hourdequin will be teaching. He said he noticed that "students were way ahead of the faculty" in pursuing environmental issues in the past few years, and that the faculty is now looking for ways to further those interests.

Samet is optimistic the new professors will greatly aid the department.

"I expect that the department will be a livelier place by adding more people...we will provide more resources for the students while attracting more [students] to the field," he said.