On 15 June Allyson Carr made ICS history. She became the first PhD candidate to complete all the requirements necessary to the reception of the first PhD from ICS in which ICS is the only granting institution. She did so by defending her thesis entitled "Fiction as Philosophy: Reading the Work of Christine de Pizan and Luce Irigaray to Write a Hermeneutics of Socially Transformative Fiction-mediated Philosophy." Along with thesis director Bob Sweetman, she was examined by Jim Olthuis and Lambert Zuidervaart and by two external examiners Doctors Jill Ross and Suzanne Conklin-Akbari of the University of Toronto. In the thesis Allyson had the nerve to put women thinkers of very different eras (15th century and 21st century) and scholarly cultures into a conversation that allowed her to explore the ways in which fiction can be employed to further philosophical thought. She succeeded in this delicate task in ways that made her thesis an exceptionally engaging piece to read and think about. The degree will be conferred at our convocation in May 2012. Congratulations Allyson!
