It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Julian Wolfe—a dedicated educator, brilliant philosopher, guitar player and beloved father and grandfather. Born in Ottawa in 1941 to Norman and Bella Wolfe, Julian spent his life pursuing knowledge and sharing it generously with generations of students.

A Lifelong Legacy of Learning and Teaching

After graduating from ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University where he won the Senate medal for outstanding academic achievement, Julian’s intellectual journey led him to the University of Toronto, where he studied Philosophy at the PhD level, specializing in Western Philosophy. He began his distinguished teaching career at Brock University before returning to his hometown of Ottawa in 1968 with his young family.

Upon his return, Julian accepted a position at St. Patrick’s College, which was acquired in 1967 by ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University and then fully integrated in 1968. He became a foundational member of what is affectionately known as the “old department” at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€”a tight-knit group of thirteen scholars who anchored the Philosophy department together for nearly twenty years. Throughout his decades of dedication, Julian also stepped up to guide his colleagues and department, serving a tenure as Department Chair.

Julian was a passionate, enduring fixture on campus, singing in the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ tunnels and celebrating a remarkable 50 years of teaching in May 2014. An accomplished academic, his sharp mind produced numerous published articles spanning decades, exploring profound questions on logic, skepticism, and the philosophy of religion. His notable works included:

• The Criteria of Sleep (1968)
• Plato’s Cynical Argument for Immortality (1968)
• Infinite Regress and the Cosmological Argument (1971)
• Dreaming and Scepticism (1971)
• Omnipotence (1971)
• Julian Wolfe and Infinite Time (1980)
• Hume on Evil (1981)
• Informal Logic (1986)
• God, Determinism & Liberty: Hume’s Puzzle (1992)

Personal Interests

Despite living with Parkinson’s Disease for 11 years, Julian spent 25 years enjoying the winter months in his West Palm Beach Florida condo. He was an avid basketball and ping pong player and cyclist. He instilled a love of swimming in his children by bringing them regularly to the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University pool. He was very health conscious as a vegetarian and never once ate dessert until he moved into an Ottawa retirement home two years ago. An intellectual powerhouse in every facet of life, he wrote a book on Backgammon, authored a joke book, and remarkably memorized the entire Scrabble Players dictionary. He was known for his great sense of humour and always had a new joke to share.

Family and Remembrance

While Julian’s mind was often engaged with the great questions of existence, his heart belonged to his family. Married from 1964 to 1972, Julian raised two children, Stewart and Stephanie, who will remember him with profound love and pride. He was a proud grandfather to his three grandchildren: Cory, Jaymee, and Savannah.

Julian is survived by his three brothers, Clayton, Sheldon, and Bertram.

Donations and Contribution to Science

True to his lifelong commitment to education, Julian has generously donated his body to the University of Ottawa for medical research, ensuring his final act was one of contribution to future generations.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made in Julian’s memory to the Parkinson Society of Canada at .

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Congratulations to contract instructor Alessandro Fiorello on the publication of a new peer-reviewed article in Acta Analytica, published by Springer Nature. The publication reflects a commitment to rigorous research and demonstrates the depth of expertise our contract faculty bring to the classroom and the wider academic community.

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Christine Koggel is a Philosophy Professor and the Graduate Supervisor in the Department of Philosophy. A leading scholar in moral and political philosophy, feminist theory, and global justice, her research examines issues of equality, power, social relationships, and justice in both local and global contexts. Alongside her extensive contributions to philosophical scholarship, Koggel is deeply committed to graduate education and mentorship, supporting students throughout their academic and professional development.

We sat down with Christine to learn more about her role as Graduate Supervisor in the Department of Philosophy and to discuss her recent recognition as the recipient of a Graduate Mentoring Award. She shared her perspectives on effective mentorship, the importance of fostering supportive academic communities, and the rewards of working closely with graduate students.

If you had to explain what you do as a grad supervisor to someone outside academia, how would you describe it?

Koggel: The Graduate Supervisor role demands year round attention – from recruiting new Masters student prospects in the fall and winter to advising and welcoming new MA students in the summer and fall to following up with second year MA students to advise and guide them in completing the MA program by the end of their second year.

What first got you interested in supervising graduate students in philosophy?

Koggel: I really enjoy the process of graduate students identifying a research project and then through meetings and feedback watching each student grow into the project to make it their own.  The process begins in the Research Seminar that all first year MA students take in the Winter semester. The goal of the Research Seminar is to have them explore, identify, and delineate the research project they will go on to write in their second year. To have them take ownership of their own work and then work hard with their supervisors to produce the best thesis or research essay possible is a joy to witness each and every time.

When you think about really good mentorship, what does that look like to you?

Koggel: I think good mentorship is about reaching out to discuss the kind of mentorship that works best. Each student is different and has different ways of doing their best work. In supervising students, for example, I ask them to tell me how they work best — whether they want lots of supervision with some pushing, or a bit more hands off to let them work independently, or setting deadlines to help them keep the process moving along. The everyday work of advising MA students requires mentorship that is open and honest – not always telling them what they want to hear by way of requirements or deadlines but being clear on what will work to have them complete the MA program.

Has the way you mentor students changed over time?

Koggel: I have always been a hands on Graduate Supervisor – from reaching out to prospective students to tell them how unique and great our two year MA program is, to working with the Graduate Administrator to assign TAships, to meeting with the first and second year students early in the fall semester to make them aware of opportunities, resources, timelines to completion, and courses that allow them to meet the requirements. I have come to know the ins and outs of rules and regulations so mentoring isn’t as difficult as it was when I first took on the role of Graduate Supervisor.   

Your philosophical work engages with justice and relationships. How does that shape how you mentor?

Koggel: The research I do on theories of justice and care shape how I think about relationships – especially relationships of power and oppression. I hope my research also shapes the relationships I have with graduate students in both the MA and EPAF PhD programs. My research interests enter into the courses I teach and the research projects that I supervise. There are times when particular relationship dynamics in a classroom get in the way of some students being able to speak up. I try to be aware of these dynamics and to discuss them in and outside the classroom in ways that are sensitive to those dynamics and the effects of them. For example, if a student or two reports that aggressive behavior by another student stops them from speaking up and thwarts their learning process, I have been known to discuss the article “Philosophy as a Blood Sport” that explains how women, for example, have been and continue to be marginalized in the classroom and in the discipline of philosophy more generally by longstanding perceptions of philosophy as a discipline that is about tearing down arguments rather than building them together. 

 Are there any values or ideas that guide how you support your students?

Koggel: The values that guide me most in advising, teaching, and supervision are commitment and dedication to the success of our students and the MA program in general. Perhaps the most important value that guides me in supporting students is respect. To follow up on the previous question about relationships, if students fail to listen to or hear what classmates are trying to say, I explain that the very topics we discuss in many of my courses – discrimination, inequality, injustice, oppression – call on the values of respect, compassion, patience, and attentiveness.

How do you stay supportive while also setting boundaries for yourself?

Koggel: Setting boundaries is not always easy. It does depend on the support that is needed. Often it is about referring students to people who are better positioned than I am to help with mental health issues, for example.

What’s a piece of advice you find yourself giving students most often?

Koggel: When students tell me that they are struggling with deadlines in their course work or research projects, the piece of advice I give them most often is to encourage them to reach out to their instructors/supervisors to keep them in the loop and to work with those instructors to set timelines to try to ensure they can complete their work. I give this advice to my own students and supervisees, but it often involves reaching out to them first and advising them to keep the doors of communication open.

What keeps you motivated to keep doing this work?

Koggel: There are a bunch of things that keep me motivated: hearing from students how much they appreciate the individualized attention that our MA program provides; having the support of colleagues and administrators in the department;  having students successfully complete their theses and research essays; being at convocation as our students cross the stage; having our own students (undergraduate, MA, and EPAF PhD) be awarded university wide medals and prestigious external grants; writing letters that succeed in getting our students into some of the best PhD programs in Canada and the U.S.; maintaining contact with our graduates to hear about their successes after finishing at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´; and reading the amazing things that students have written in testimonials about our MA program and in letters that supported my getting the Faculty Graduate Mentorship award! It was truly humbling to have so many students present at the award ceremony and to have excerpts from their letters read at the event.

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The Department of Philosophy extends its heartfelt congratulations to our Undergraduate, Master of Arts in Philosophy, and PhD in Ethics and Public Affairs graduates this spring. Your commitment to academic excellence has distinguished your time with us. We are proud to celebrate your accomplishments and the contributions you have made to our community. As you move forward to new opportunities and challenges, we wish you continued success and fulfillment. Congratulations on this well-deserved achievement.

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Warmest congratulations to Editor-in Chief Kyla Bruff and Editorial Assistant Jeremy Garbe on the publication of the fifth volume of Kabiri: The Official Journal of the North American Schelling Society. This outstanding achievement reflects both scholarly excellence and dedicated editorial leadership, bringing together a rich collection of contributions that advance contemporary engagement with Schelling’s thought across metaphysical, ontological, and theological dimensions. 

The volume’s inclusion of new studies of striving, nature, logic, reason, love, sin, being, life, and revelation throughout Schelling’s work, and the translation of Schelling’s Literary Estate makes it a noteworthy contribution to the field and will be a valuable resource for scholars of German Idealism and beyond. 
 
Kyla also co-organized a workshop on Schelling and the Frankfurt School last summer, and a report on this workshop is included in the volume. Kabiri is open access, so please feel free to check it out!:  

Congratulations to Kyla and Jeremy on this accomplishment!  

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Congratulations to Dylan Ireland and Jack Ragan on being nominated for the 2025–26 Outstanding TA Award presented by Teaching and Learning Services! This award recognizes the exceptional contributions teaching assistants make to undergraduate and graduate education through their dedication to student success, creation of positive learning environments, and innovative teaching practices. We are proud to celebrate their commitment, excellence, and impact on student learning. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition!

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Congratulations to Jeremy Garbe on presenting his paper, “Since Time Was, I Am, For Ever”: Temporality and the Scope of Human Freedom in Beauvoir’s Philosophy and Literature, at the 2026 Stanford/Johns Hopkins Phil + Lit Graduate Student Conference at Stanford University.
Jeremy presented on the panel Living in Retrospect, offering a compelling analysis of temporality, existential freedom, and moral action. His work examined how the phenomenological experience of time shapes human freedom, responsibility, and self-determination, while also highlighting the unique power of literature to illuminate existential philosophy.

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Congratulations to Klaus Kytayko on presenting at the 22nd Annual Student Research Conference for the Center for the Studies of Gender and Sexualities (CSGS), hosted by California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA)!

Klaus presented their paper, Full Emasculation Now!: Transfeminism and Transmasculine Femininities, as part of the panel “Trans Studies: Philosophical and Developmental Analysis.” Their work offered a thoughtful and critical exploration of transmasculinity, femininity, and resistance to patriarchal social structures within contemporary trans philosophy.

The conference featured leading scholars such as Talia Mae Bettcher, and Klaus was also one of only two international presenters in attendance! Congratulations on this outstanding contribution to trans studies and philosophical research!

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Congratulations to Theo Dunn on the successful defense of his Master’s thesis titled, A Feminist Relational Approach to Understanding the Ethics of AI Girlfriends.

Theo’s research examines the ethical implications of AI girlfriend technologies through the lens of feminist relational theory, challenging mainstream individualist approaches that focus primarily on autonomy and personal choice. The thesis argues that human-AI relationships cannot be separated from broader social and political structures, including patriarchy and systems of oppression, and explores how these technologies may shape both personal relationships and public life.

Congratulations, Theo!

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We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of retired Professor Randal Marlin. He was an extraordinary teacher, scholar, mentor, and friend whose impact on generations of students and colleagues will long be remembered.

Professor Marlin joined ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University in 1966, at a time when the university itself was still young and rapidly growing. Drawn in part by ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s strong journalism program, he brought together philosophy, ethics, media studies, and public life in ways that were innovative long before such interdisciplinary approaches became common. Early in his career, he developed courses exploring society, values, and technology, encouraging students to think critically about persuasion, power, and the responsibilities of communication.

His academic work was profoundly influenced by French philosopher Jacques Ellul, whose writings on technology and propaganda inspired Professor Marlin to examine the ethical dimensions of communication in modern society. After receiving a Department of National Defence fellowship to study with Ellul in France in 1979–1980, he returned to ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ and created the now legendary “Truth and Propaganda” course, which became one of the university’s most respected and enduring classes.

Professor Marlin devoted much of his career to the study of propaganda, ethics, communication, and civil liberties. His influential book, Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, remains an important contribution to the field and reflected his lifelong commitment to intellectual honesty and ethical inquiry. He was also widely respected for his advocacy of free expression and civil liberties, serving as past president of the Civil Liberties Association of the National Capital Region.

Colleagues and students admired Professor Marlin for his kindness, curiosity, integrity, and generosity. He challenged people to think more carefully, communicate more honestly, and engage more thoughtfully with the world around them.

Professor Marlin will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege to know him, learn from him, and work alongside him. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, former students, and colleagues.

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