Zeynep Üsüdür / Visiting Ph.D. student at UC, Berkeley

img_0746Currently, I am visiting UC, Berkeley as part of my Ph.D. studies. I have been here since August and will leave in December – it is a very short period to establish more profound research ties, but enough to gain inspiration and new perspectives on my Ph.D. project on curiosity. Alva Noë is my faculty sponsor and he has organized a research group, or rather, a research community with Ph.D.’s, postdoc’s, and visiting researchers who are all somehow connected to him. The format is very similar to the CFS research seminars, where we meet every week and everyone affiliated with the center has the possibility to present. In Berkeley, the idea is to get together every second week; someone from the group gives a short presentation of his or her work-in-progress and the group discusses it. It is informal and a great opportunity to receive feedback from people working within different, but related areas. Since the group is guided by Alva Noë, the topics presented are related to philosophy of mind. I will present next month. My visit at UC, Berkeley is not based on my participation in a research environment with people working on the same topics as me (I would have liked that, but to my knowledge, there is no place with a research group on the philosophy of curiosity). Yet, it is extremely valuable for me to be able to participate in a research group on a continuous basis in order to open up my project and receive inspiration to approach the topic from the perspective of philosophy of mind.

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