2022 Purdue College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Discovery & Creative Endeavors (EIDCE) Awards   

Humanities

 Dr. Daniel Kelly's research focuses on issues at the intersection of philosophy of mind and cognitive science, moral theory, and evolution. He turned his dissertation into a book on the genetic and cultural evolution of disgust called "Yuck! The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust," and has published on numerous topics such as moral judgment, moral progress, climate change, social norms and norm-guided activity, the psychology of group membership, racial cognition, implicit bias and responsibility, cross-cultural diversity, and David Foster Wallace and free will. While getting his PhD at Rutgers, he also became a founding member of the Moral Psychology Research Group, which includes like-minded philosophers and psychologists investigating morality from both conceptual and empirical perspectives."

Since starting at Purdue in 2007 Dr. Kelly has gotten involved with the Center for the Environment and the Building Sustainable Communities Cluster, and has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He regularly teaches Introduction to Philosophy and Philosophy of Mind. He has also taught courses and seminars on Minds and Morals, Philosophy of Biology, Evolution of Human Cognition, Conceptual Foundations of Cognitive Science, and Norm Psychology. He designed new courses on the Moral Psychology of Climate Change and on Individualism, Identities, and Selves - and is currently putting together a course on Fun and Games and the Life Worth Living.

Much of Dr. Kelly's recent work has been exploring ways to apply the insights of the cognitive, behavioral, and evolutionary sciences to social issues like climate change, misinformation and polarization, and systemic injustice. He is currently co-authoring a public-facing book that shows how those insights can be used to reconcile individual and structural approaches to social change. In addition to philosophizing Dan enjoys reading novels, making witty remarks, and - in his words - "chasing waves along the California coast with my wife and dog in our bitchin’ van."

  Dr. Kathryn Cramer Brownell is an Associate Professor of History at Purdue University and a senior editor of the “Made By History” column at the Washington Post. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections between media, politics, and popular culture, with a particular emphasis on the American presidency. Her first book, "Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life" (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), examines the institutionalization of entertainment styles and structures in American politics and the rise of the celebrity presidency. She is now completing her second book project, “Cable America,” which explores the political history of cable television from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Social Sciences

 Tara Grillos is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Purdue University. She received her PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado's Institute of Behavioral Science. Her research focuses on questionsrelated to participatory decision processes, collective action, and public goods provision, particularly with respect to natural resource dilemmas in developing countries. Her work has been published in policy-oriented peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Climate Change, Nature Sustainability, Ecological Economics, World Development, and Environmental Science & Policy, as well as top disciplinary outlets, such as the American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, and Public Administration Review. She is also PI of a recent National Science Foundation grant related to collective decision-making and local public good provision in Kenya.

  Swati Srivastava is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. She received her doctorate from Northwestern University, where she held affiliations with the Buffett Institute for Global Studies and the Center for Legal Studies. Her research has received awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew Mellon Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, and International Studies Association.

Srivastava researches power in global governance, especially public-private relations between governments, corporations, and NGOs. Her forthcoming book, Hybrid Sovereignty in World Politics (Cambridge University Press), examines the hybrid entanglements of the English East India Company, Blackwater, the International Chamber of Commerce, and Amnesty International. Her latest research evaluates the political power of corporate algorithmic governance. She also directs an undergraduate research group at Purdue on the politics of Big Tech.