Shannon Spaulding, assistant professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University, was awarded the 2014 Robert M. Griffith Memorial Award at the 106th meeting of the Southern Society of Philosophy and Psychology (SSPP) Conference.
The SSPP conference awards the Griffith Memorial Award annually to two papers, one paper from the field of philosophy and the other from the field of psychology. Applicants must be current or pending SSPP members and have either received their Ph.D. within the five years prior to the conference or must be a current Ph.D. candidate.
The title of Spaulding’s winning paper is “Imagination, Desire, Rationality”. The paper explores consumer responses to fiction and whether those responses are affected by imaginative or irrational desires.
Spaulding is the first OSU Ph.D. student or faculty member to receive the SSPP award since it was created in 1958 as the SSPP Junior Award. The award was renamed the Richard M. Griffith Memorial Award in 1971.
This summer Spaulding has been overseas speaking at universities and conferences in Germany and England. She will continue her international speaking events through the upcoming fall semester.