The History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religious Studies Department is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Howard Z. Fitzgerald Philosophy Essay Contest.

  • First Prize: Jordan Thomas, “Ethics of Ambiguous Imaginings: Expanding on Zheng and Stear”

  • Second Prize: Andrew Stuart, “Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Authoritarianism” 

  • Third Prize: Emily Hess, “A Developmental Approach to AI: How Spelke’s Core Knowledge Theory Could Advance Machine Learning" 

The Howard Z. Fitzgerald Philosophy Essay Contest is restricted to papers written for IUP philosophy courses.