丁香园AV

by Neha Nandakumar

Arianna Falbo, Assistant Professor at the Philosophy department of Bentley University, completed her MA in Philosophy at 丁香园AV. After graduating from 丁香园AV in 2017, she pursued her PhD at Brown University, where she received a Doctoral Certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Arianna also co-founded and helps to organize the We had the pleasure of speaking with her and learning about her research, academic journey, and time here at 丁香园AV.

Research

Arianna works on epistemology and feminist philosophy with a focus on inquiry. She deals with questions about the norms of inquiry such as: When should we inquire into questions? When should we stop? How do the norms of inquiry relate to more traditional norms like evidentiary norms? More recently, she has worked on the relationship between inquiry and epistemic injustice, thinking about how one can be wronged in their capacity as an inquirer.

Arianna characterizes inquiry as a goal-directed activity we engage in when we are trying to improve epistemically upon the answer to a question. The paradigmatic example of inquiry is that of a detective solving a crime. However, inquiry is not restricted to such specialized cases. For instance, looking for the Zoom link to a meeting involves inquiry. So, too, does answering big-picture questions like 鈥渨hat should I do with my life?鈥�,  鈥渉ow can I best pursue my goals?鈥� or 鈥渨hy do I have the goals that I do?鈥� Philosophical work, too, happens through a process of inquiry. Philosophical inquiry, she points out, is an interesting case because people have been looking into the same questions for a long time but don鈥檛 seem to have settled on answers. So, if we think that the goal of philosophical inquiry is to find answers, then it seems that we aren鈥檛 very successful at it. This raises the interesting question鈥� What, then, is the goal of philosophical inquiry?

Academic Trajectory

Growing up in the suburbs of Toronto, in a Roman Catholic family, and having attended a Catholic high school, Arianna recalls being that kid who would push back in religion class, trying to figure out what things really meant. When she had the option of taking a philosophy class in grade 12, she realized that this was the space where people were asking the kinds of questions she cared about. She then went to the University of Toronto, planning to study law. As a first-generation college student, college offered her a pathway to a fancy career as a lawyer. However, after taking an introduction to philosophy course, as well as a philosophy of religion course, in her first year, she quickly realized that she really loved philosophy. Arianna decided to pursue it as a major and hasn鈥檛 looked back since.

She laughingly recalls applying to top PhD programs at the end of her undergraduate degree, not realizing how competitive the applications were. She didn鈥檛 get into any PhD programs when she first applied. However, she was lucky to have been admitted to several promising MA programs. Regarding her choice to study at 丁香园AV, Arianna says that, putting aside how ridiculously beautiful British Columbia is, she was drawn to the way that the MA program is structured. She found it to be a good place to figure out your interests, improve your writing with mentorship and support, prepare a professional paper which could be used as a writing sample for a PhD program, and even reflect on whether you wanted to proceed with a PhD program.

Arianna mentions struggling with speaking up in class as an undergraduate (and that becoming a Professor doesn鈥檛 make one perfectly immune to the jitters!). One of the things she found especially helpful about the MA program was that it helped her step outside her comfort zone and do philosophy in a community-oriented way. For instance, being part of the pro-seminar helped her practice sharing her ideas among peers. Going for dinners after colloquia talks helped her to practice conversing philosophically in informal settings. Speaking of how these experiences benefited her later in her PhD program, she says, 鈥淚 felt way more confident in academic spaces, and much more willing to participate and talk in my classes. I don鈥檛 think that, if I hadn鈥檛 gone to an MA program, I would鈥檝e felt this comfortable.鈥�

During the MA program, she grew interested in topics in epistemology, especially social and applied areas of epistemology. With a focus on epistemology, she applied to PhD programs and went on to pursue further studies at Brown University. Reflecting on her choice to pursue a masters program before a PhD, she says that being part of a masters program helped her feel much more confident in her skills and identity as a philosopher. It also helped her be vulnerable in a way she might not have been without the MA program. That is, she learned to benefit from the productive power of confusion and puzzlement, realizing that this is a part of the process of learning and developing one鈥檚 philosophical views. When describing her approach to asking philosophical questions she says: 鈥淭his is a question I have and I鈥檓 going to raise it. And even if it鈥檚 silly or stupid or there鈥檚 some confusion, that鈥檚 okay. This is what learning is all about!鈥�

On Philosophy

Reflecting on her favorite parts of being a professional philosopher, Arianna says that she really loves teaching. She teaches at a business school, and enjoys helping students develop the skills to think critically and consider the nuances of ethical and epistemological issues that they can go on implement in the business world.

Arianna also cherishes how being a professor gives her so much time and freedom to think, research, and write about philosophical questions that interest her. She has spent many years researching and developing her philosophical views, and now it feels surreal to her that she gets to be a part of the conversation; that she can contribute her view to the literature, and share them with a community of scholars, many of whom have influenced and shaped her own philosophical outlook. And on that note, with the caveat that everyone鈥檚 journey looks different so the same advice may not hold true for all, Arianna implores the importance of pursuing the philosophical questions one cares about. She acknowledges that the pressures of the job market and the structures of academia can sometimes motivate one to pursue the 鈥渉ot鈥� or most 鈥渕arketable鈥� topics, causing them hold back on pursuing the questions that they might find the most interesting. So, to graduate students who are just starting off on their professional journeys, she says to not lose sight of why you love philosophy and 鈥渋f you want to work on that really weird question that you find fascinating and that you can鈥檛 stop thinking about, just do it!鈥�