Meg J. Wallace        

University of Kentucky            

Philosophy Department

www.megwallace.org

1413 Patterson Office Tower

Lexington KY 40506   

meg.wallace@uky.edu 

_______________________________________________

Academic Positions

Associate Professor, University of Kentucky, 2016-Present

Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky, 2010-2016

Visiting Assistant Professor, Oberlin College, 2009-2010  

Research Interests

Metaphysics - composition, persistence, ordinary objects, ontology

Mind, Language - fictionalism, mental fictionalism  

Education

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Ph.D. Philosophy - 2009

M.A. Philosophy - 2005

Syracuse University 

Department: Philosophy 2000 - 2003 [Ph.D. program - transferred]

University of Arkansas  

Department: Philosophy 1998 - 2000 [Ph.D. program - transferred]  

University of Oklahoma

B.A. History - 1998

Publications - Professional Philosophy

2022   “Mental fictionalism” in T. Demeter, T. Parent and A. Toon (eds.) Mental Fictionalism:

Philosophical Explorations. New York and London: Routledge, 27-51.

2022    “Mental Fictionalism: a foothold amid deflationary collapse” in T. Demeter, T. Parent

              and A. Toon (eds.) Mental Fictionalism: Philosophical Explorations. New York and London:

Routledge, 275-300.

2021        “The Polysemy of ‘part’” Synthese 198, 4331–4354 (2021). Online: 2019;

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02088-x

2020        “Counterexamples and Common-sense: When (Not) to Tollens a Ponens” Analysis

80(3) 544-558 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anz056

2019        “The Lump Sum: a Theory of Modal Parts”  Philosophical Papers 48(3): 403-445 (2019);

https://doi.org/10.1080/05568641.2018.1562310

2018        “The Haecceitic Euthyphro Problem” co-authored with Jason Bowers Analysis 78(1): 13-22

(2018); https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anx117

2016        “Saving Mental Fictionalism from Cognitive Collapse” Res Philosophica 93(2):

405-424 (2016); https://doi.org/10.11612/resphil.2016.93.2.5

2015        “Rearming the Slingshot?” Acta Analytica 30 (3): 283-292 (2015);

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-014-0246-4

2014        “The Argument from Vagueness for Modal Parts” dialectica 68 (3): 355-373 (2014);

https://doi.org/10.1111/1746-8361.12073

2014        “Composition as Identity, Mereological Essentialism, and Modal Parts”  in

Composition as Identity, eds. Donald Baxter and Aaron Cotnoir, OUP (2014)

2013        “Counterparts and Compositional Nihilism: A Reply to A.J. Cotnoir” Thought: a Journal in

Philosophy vol. 2(3): 242-247 (2013); https://doi.org/10.1002/tht3.92

 

2011        “Composition as Identity: Part 1” Philosophy Compass vol. 6(11): 804-816

(2011); https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2011.00431.x

 

2011        “Composition as Identity: Part 2” Philosophy Compass vol. 6(11): 817-827

(2011); https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2011.00430.x

 

Public Philosophy & Pedagogy

2022 - “Circus and Philosophy: Teaching Aristotle through Juggling” (revised reprint) CircusTalk;

        https://circustalk.com/news/circus-and-philosophy-teaching-aristotle-through-juggling

2021 - “Circus and Philosophy: Teaching Aristotle through JugglingAesthetics for Birds;
        
https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2021/12/02/circus-and-philosophy-teaching-aristotle-through-juggling/

Under Contract - In Progress

Presentations

“Modal Parts and Material Plentitude”

Material Plentitude Conference (UT Austin, TX) March 2020 (canceled COVID-19)

“Deflating Mental Fictionalism”

Mental Fictionalism Conference (Budapest, Hungary) October 2019

 

“Physicalism and Compositional Pluralism”

Conference on Physicalism at University of Louisville (Louisville KY)  May 2019

 

“Mereology for Abstracta: the Polysemy of ‘part’”

Conference on Mereology and Identity (Pisa, Italy) July 2017

 

“Modal Parts and Ontological Disagreement”

Midwest Annual Workshop in Metaphysics (Milwaukee, WI) October 2015

Mid-Atlantic Philosophy of Language Workshop (Morgan Town, WV) August 2015

Central APA (St. Louis, MO) February 2015

 

“Saving Mental Fictionalism from Cognitive Collapse”

Conference on Mental Fictionalism, University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland) July 2014  University of Louisville (Louisville, KY) February 2015

 

“The Lump Sum: A Defense of Modal Parts”

University of Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany) October 2014

Pacific APA (San Diego, CA) April 2014

University of Vermont (VT) March 2014

 

“Rearming the Slingshot”

Pacific APA (San Francisco, CA) March 2013

 

“Mereological Essentialism and Modal Parts”  

University of California, Davis (Davis, CA) March 2013

 

“Composition as Identity, Mereological Essentialism, and Modal Parts”

Midwest Annual Workshop in Metaphysics (St. Louis, MO) October 2012

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, VA) April 2012

University of Louisville (Louisville, KY) March 2012

“Composition and Counting”

Joint Meeting of the Illinois and Indiana Philosophical Association (Charleston, IL)  November 2010

 

“Argument from Vagueness for Modal Parts”

Mountains-Plains Philosophy Conference (Washington, PA) October 2010

Pittsburgh Area Philosophy Conference (Washington, PA) September 2010

“Composition is Identity”

University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY) March 2010

Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) April 14 2009

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA) January 23 2009  

Comments

John Keller’s “A Theory of Ontological Commitment” Central APA (Chicago, IL) Feb 2022

Dan Korman’s Objects: Nothing Out of the Ordinary; author-meets-critics Pacific APA (San Diego, CA) March 2018

 

Elanor Taylor’s “Three Problems for Grounding”; Central States Philosophical Association (Chicago, Il) October 2014

 

Tim Button’s “There is No Theory of Truth”; Metaphysics Back at the Ranch (Tucson,  AZ) February 2014  

 

Andrew Graham’s “A Defense of Five-Dimensionalism”; Central APA (Chicago, IL)  March 2014

 

Kristin Seemuth’s “An Eliminativist Response to the Argument from Charity”; Illinois Philosophical Association (Urbana-Champaign, IL) October 2012

L.A. Paul’s “Categorical Parsimony”; INCP 14 (Boise, ID) April 2011

 

James Shaw’s “Semantic Defect in Context”; Pacific APA (San Diego, CA) April 2011

 

“The Distributivity of Masses”; Central APA (Minneapolis, MN) March/April 2011  

 

David Kovak’s “Semanticism versus the Schmenglish Argument”; Joint Meeting of the Illinois and Indiana Philosophical Association (Charleston, IL) November, 2010

 

Joseph Baltimore’s “Lewis’s Special Problem of Profligate Causation”; Pittsburgh Area Philosophy Conference (Washington. PA) September 2010

 

Dan Korman’s “Universalism, Vagueness, and the Argument from Borderline Hammers”; Pacific APA (San Francisco) April 2010

 

David Ian Spencer’s “Why Do We Need Tense?”; Pacific APA (Vancouver) April 2009.

 

Joe Salerno’s “Must and Can”; Eastern APA (Philadelphia, PA) December 2008.

 

Brad Skow's “Are Shapes Intrinsic?”; Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, (Bellingham, WA) August, 2005.  

University and Professional Service

Department Chair - starting July 2023

Director of Undergraduate Studies, 2017-2021

Graduate Student Admissions Committee, 2015-2016, 2018

Executive Committee, 2014-2015

Speakers Committee, 2014-2016, 2021-2022

Search Committee, 2014-2015

   Referee - Acta Analytica, Analysis, American Philosophical Quarterly, Australasian

Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Philosophy, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, European Journal of Analytic Philosophy, Mind, Mind and Language, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophers’ Imprint, Philosophical Papers, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Synthese, TOPOI    

Referee, Central States Philosophical Association, Fall 2014

Referee, Kentucky Philosophical Association, Fall 2011

Referee, Pittsburgh Area Philosophy Conference, September 2011

Research Assistant to William G. Lycan, Fall 2005-2009  

Awards, Funding, and Fellowships

OVPR Research and Creative Activities Program Support (Circus Lab) - 2022-2023 (4.2K)
Let’s Make a Difference Initiative (Philosophy Department Renovations) - 2021-2022 (15K)  

OVPR Research and Creative Activities Program Support (Circus Lab) - 2020-2021 (4K)

UK Facilities Management Funds (Circus Lab) - 2019-2020 (10K)

A&S Award for Innovative Teaching, 2019

Oberlin College Teaching Award, 2010

Horace Williams Fellowship UNC, 2009

Horace Williams Fellowship UNC, 2007

Head Teaching Associate UNC, 2006-2007

Horace Williams Fellowship UNC, 2003-2004

Syracuse University Teaching Award, 2003  

Teaching Experience

Circus and Philosophy

Philosophy and Science Fiction (honors and non-honors)

Metaphysics  

Metaphysics and Epistemology (mid- and upper-level)

History of Analytic Philosophy

Symbolic Logic I

Symbolic Logic II

Introduction to Philosophy - Experience and Reality

Philosophy of Religion    

Graduate Seminar: Unity (spring 2021)

Graduate Seminar: Fictionalism  

Graduate Seminar: Space, Time, and Possible Worlds  

Graduate Seminar: Paradoxes  

Independent Study: Properties and Universals, 2011

Independent Study: Modal Logic, 2013

Independent Study: Time, spring 2017

Independent Study: Causation, spring 2018

Independent Study: Counterfactuals, fall 2019