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Slide 1: Rodin's The Thinker
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Slide 2: iStock photo
Our Student, Mohsen Mahdawi
It has come to the attention of members of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University that one of our students, Mohsen Mahdawi, was detained in Vermont by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.
We express our horror and dismay at the fact that a legal resident of the United States — someone who has been accused of no crime — should be detained in this manner. We would like to convey our sympathy and our support to Mohsen, to his family, and to his friends.
We call upon the Provost and Acting President of Columbia University to assist by all means, including through the provision of material and legal resources, any Columbia student targeted or detained—and seemingly only for having exercised their right to the free and peaceful expression of political opinion.
Philosophy at Columbia University
Home to a distinguished tradition of philosophical research and teaching, the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University provides a comprehensive academic atmosphere for pursuing advanced study in a wide range of philosophical subjects and methods—systematic, analytic, and historical. The Department has a faculty with an unusually broad range of interests and areas of expertise that span the main periods of the history of western philosophy and nearly every major area of contemporary philosophical debate.
Department News
We congratulate Emeritus Professor Philip Kitcher on receiving the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Humanities for 2025.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Humanities category has gone in this seventeenth edition to the Anglo-American philosopher Philip Kitcher, described by the committee as a “humanistic intellectual” whose trailblazing work addresses a broad spectrum of the core questions of our time.
Gadfly publication featured in the Columbia Spectator
Callia Fielding spoke with Gadfly editors Aharon Dardik and William Freedman. Read the full article here.
Professor Achille Varzi participates in the Biennale Architettura 2025
Prof. Achille Varzi is a participant of the Biennale Architettura 2025 in Venice, Italy (May 10-November 23, 2025). He helped organize the "Archive and the City" project. For more information, please see this website.