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McDowell Conferences & Fellows

The 26th McDowell ConferencePhilosophical Questions of AI:
Technology, Society, and Ethics

Thursday, October 23, 2025, 9:00 a.m.—5:30 p.m.
Butler Boardroom, American University
Edspace conference site

Keynote: "Person, Thing, Robot" by David J. Gunkel (Northern Illinois University)

Headshots of speakers from the 2025 McDowell Conference

McDowell Professorship 

The William Fraser McDowell Professorship was established in 1937 on the basis of a gift to the Department of Philosophy and Religion from the estate of Bishop William Fraser McDowell. The four previous incumbents were Professor Aubert Bain Potorf, Professor Harold A. Durfee, Professor Jeffrey Reiman, and Professor Ellen Feder. The present incumbent, Professor Jin Y. Park, has among her responsibilities the organization of the McDowell Conference and the appointment of McDowell Fellows.

McDowell Fellow

2019: Anika Simpson
(Morgan State University)

Schedule

9:00-9:15
Arriving
9:15-9:20
Opening of the Conference (Jin Y. Park)
9:20-9:35
Welcoming Remarks (Linda Aldoory, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences)
9:45-11:30

Panel I. Moderated by Farhang Erfani

Brian Jordan Jefferson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)–“Political not Technical: Artificial Intelligence & the Genealogical Method”
Gordon Hull (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)–“Crash Test Dummies: AI and the Zombie Juridicial Subject”
Leigh Johnson (American University)–“Delete, Retain, Haunt: The Spectral Ethics of AI Memory”
11:30-12:50
Lunch Break
1:00-2:10

Keynote speech, moderated by Ian Rhoad

David J. Gunkel (Northern Illinois University)
“Person, Thing, Robot”
2:30-4:15

Panel II. Moderated by Jerome Clarke

Peter Hershock (East-West Center)–“Existential Risk or Evolutionary Opportunity? A Buddhist Reflection on AI and Human Freedom”
Neda Atanasoski (University of Maryland, College Park)–“Feminist Approaches to AI in the Age of the ‘New’ Cold War”
4:30-5:30
Roundtable discussion, moderated by Jin Y. Park (American University)

Keynote: "Person, Thing, Robot"

David J. Gunkel, Northern Illinois University, USA (dgunkel@niu.edu)

Abstract: Robots and other kinds of artificial intelligence (AI) are a curious sort of thing. On the one hand, they are designed and manufactured technological artifacts. They are things. Yet, and on the other hand, these things are not quite like other things. They seem to have social presence. They are able to talk and interact with us. And many are designed to mimic or simulate the capabilities and behaviors that are commonly associated with human or animal intelligence. These technologies therefore invite and encourage zoomorphism, anthropomorphism, and even personification. In the book Person, Thing, Robot (MIT Press, 2023), David J. Gunkel sets out to explore and answer the vexing question: What exactly are these things? Rather than try to fit robots and AI into the existing moral and legal categories by way of arguing for either their reification or personification, however, Gunkel argues for a revolutionary reformulation of the entire system, developing a new approach to technology ethics and law that can scale to the unique opportunities and challenges of the twenty-first century and beyond.

Biography: David J. Gunkel (PhD Philosophy) is an award-winning educator, researcher, and author, specializing in the philosophy of technology with a focus on the moral and legal challenges of artificial intelligence and robots. He is the author of over 90 scholarly articles and has published fourteen books, including The Machine Question: Critical Perspectives on AI, Robots, and Ethics (MIT Press 2012); Of Remixology: Ethics and Aesthetics After Remix (MIT Press 2016); Robot Rights (MIT Press 2018); Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond (MIT Press 2023); and Communicative AI: A Critical Introduction to Large Language Models (Polity 2025). He currently holds the position of Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University (USA) and Professor of Applied Ethics at Łazarski University in Warsaw, Poland.

Past Conferences

  1. 2019 Black Feminism and Marriage Abolition
  2. 2017 Philosophy of Children
  3. 2016 We Have To Do Something About Mental Illness…but it won’t stop mass shootings
  4. 2013 Philosophy and Climate Change
  5. 2012 Philosophy and the Family
  6. 2011 Philosophy and Criminal Justice
  7. 2010 The Place of Religion in Public Life
  8. 2009 Philosophy, Politics and Film
  9. 2008 Philosophy and the Emotions
  10. 2006 Rights of and Duties to Children
  11. 2005 Ethics and Genetics
  12. 2004 Philosophy and Tolerance
  13. 2003 Philosophy for the 21st Century
  14. 2002 The Philosophical Implications of September 11th
  15. 2001 Philosophy and Democracy
  16. 1999 Philosophy and Race
  17. 1998 Philosophy and Human Rights
  18. 1997 Philosophy and Feminism
  19. 1996 The Morality of Welfare for the Poor
  20. 1995 Philosophy, Ethics and the Environment
  21. 1994 Philosophy and Moral Education
  22. 1992 Philosophy, Health Care and Euthanasia
  23. 1991 Philosophy, Morality and War
  24. 1990 Philosophy, Drugs and the Law
  25. 1989 Abortion, Morality, and the Law