John Brunero (left), associate professor of philosophy at UMSL, has been awarded a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellowship at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values. Berit Brogaard, professor of philosophy at UMSL, has been elected president of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology. (Photos by August Jennewein)

It’s a few months into 2013, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Missouri–St. Louis is already off to a stellar year.

Berit Brogaard, professor of philosophy at UMSL, was elected president of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, during its annual meeting held Feb. 28 – March 2 in Austin, Texas.

Her responsibilities will include selecting program chairs and overseeing program planning for the annual meetings in 2014 and 2015. She’ll also give the presidential address at the 2015 meeting.

She’ll hold the presidential post until 2015.

And come September, UMSL will be without the expertise of John Brunero for a year. But it’s for a great cause.

Brunero, associate professor of philosophy at UMSL, has been awarded a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellowship and will spend the next academic year at Princeton (N.J.) University’s Center for Human Values.

The 10-month fellowship will begin Sept. 1 and run through July 1, 2014. Brunero will be doing research and writing on topics involving human values in private and public life. During his stay he’ll also be working on a book on instrumental rationality — that is, the rationality of taking the means to one’s ends.

Brunero has been teaching at UMSL since 2006. He regularly teaches courses in ethics, political theory and the philosophy of law. He’s also the pre-law adviser for the university.