Graduate Student Research Spotlight | Josh Brekel

Josh Brekel, a philosophy graduate student, recently attended the 10th Biennial Meeting of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA) in Groningen, Netherlands. At this conference, Brekel met people working in his field and learned about their varying approaches to philosophy of science. Brekel felt this conference tailored to his interests and fueled his passion for learning, “I think we can all benefit from more curiosity. This conference certainly correlated to that interest,” he said.

Brekel knew of this conference from a previous experience with a sister organization, “I knew it presented a fantastic opportunity. I was thrilled to get the opportunity to showcase my research while also seeing other fascinating projects in philosophy of science,” he said. Heading into the conference, he felt prepared from courses he took at the U such as Philosophy of Biology, Advanced Inductive Logic and Metaphysics. These courses provided him with a background knowledge in probability theory while also helping him better understand the interplay between logic and metaphysics.

A benefit of this event was the chance to connect and network with people working in his field. “While these connections typically start out as mere professional relationships, when things go well, they can blossom into professional partnerships and even close friendships,” Brekel said. By interacting with other professionals in his field, he was exposed to new experiences and approaches, “I saw some presentations on work I had never considered before. Better yet, all of this occurred in a historic university location,” he said.

Brekel presented research at this conference, “A New Look at Keynesian Weight of Evidence,” that stemmed from his M.A. at Colorado State University. He said, “The work I presented at this conference is largely an outgrowth of that work, although it would never have been good enough to present to a conference, if it weren’t for the feedback and assistance received from people at Utah.” Brekel thought about Keynesian approaches to evidence for the past five years; it percolated up that at the University of Utah and eventually coalesced in this new form to the Netherlands for this conference.

Having this new experience, Brekel feels motivated to attend more of these conferences, he said, “Now I want to go to every EPSA meeting.” Brekel applied eight months before the conference and because of this he advises those interested in this opportunity to plan ahead. He also advises graduate students to push past any feelings of imposter syndrome and, “Just submit it and forget it, until they come calling of course,” he said.