Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society

SOURCE Spinoza Award Supports Interdisciplinary Inquiry

Tuesday, November 9, 2021, By News Staff
Share
College of Arts and SciencesphilosophySchool of ArchitectureStudentsThe Source

Through the continuing generosity of alumnus William Hrushesky, M.D. (B.A. ’69), the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative engagement (The SOURCE) offers the Spinoza Award to fund undergraduate work that explores philosophical aspects of issues that arise within the sciences or other professional disciplines. Three students have received this award thus far.

Dr. Hrushesky, a distinguished clinician and medical researcher, studied philosophy as an undergraduate at Syracuse, and especially admired the intellectual rigor, scope and independent thinking in the work of the renowned 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, after whom this award is named. Spinoza was a brilliant young ex-communicated Spanish/Jewish immigrant whose family and community fled the Spanish Inquisition to Holland near the end of the 16th century. Future grants in this program will be renamed the Patricia A. Wood, M.D., Ph.D., Spinoza Award, in honor of Dr. Hrushesky’s late wife, who was a multi-talented medical researcher, entrepreneur and patient advocate, and a vivid and vibrant paragon of creativity, graciousness and generosity.

The Spinoza Award has inspired its student recipients, as well as their faculty mentors, to bring the innovative and challenging ways of thinking inspired by Baruch Spinoza to the fields of architecture and emerging theater.

Miquon Jackson

Miquon Jackson ’21

Miquon Jackson (A&S ’21), a 2021 recipient, developed and presented an e-theater adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Rosmersholm” in June 2021 with a team of professional actors. His original plan was for live theater; the COVID pandemic required him to invent an entirely new approach to the interplay between theater and technology as an exploration of the human condition. Jackson worked with faculty mentor Samuel Gorovitz, professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences. The experience provided Jackson in-depth reflection bringing principles of philosophy to the themes of the play, and also concrete experience leading a team through the co-creation of a theatrical event.

“Confronting Ibsen’s text with my fellow artists (and Americans at large) has made a significant difference in my life,” says Jackson, who graduated with a degree in philosophy. “My essence, both as a thinker and as an artist, has undergone a significant change. I look forward to utilizing my theatrical skills to make philosophical changes in our splintered society.”

Natasha Liston-Beck

Natasha Liston-Beck ’20

Natasha Liston-Beck ’20 (School of Architecture) and Yundi “Wendy” Zhang ’20 (School of Architecture) 2020 Spinoza recipients, co-created an architecture thesis project with the support of the award and their thesis advisory group faculty mentors, professors Sinead MacNamara, Julie Larsen and Britt Eversole.  Their project, “Continuous Interior Space Architecture: An Omni-orientational Archive of Interfaces,” examined new possibilities for space architecture design, envisioning the closed world of the spacecraft as a digiphysical reality where these physical and digital spatial experiences are utterly entangled. This inquiry prompted them to consider various aspects of decision-making under uncertainty, and ethical aspects of conflicting priorities in a new kind of context.

Wendy Zhang

Yundi “Wendy” Zhang ’20

After graduation, Liston-Beck interned with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, doing software development for spacecraft iterative design and analysis. She now works as an architectural designer with BRPH, an architecture and engineering firm in Huntsville, Alabama, engaging with projects ranging from rocket test stands to education facilities and entertainment districts.

Zhang worked with a startup in Hong Kong on 3D printed clothing after her graduation, and is pursuing a post-graduate degree in architectural technologies at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. The critical thinking skills developed through their collaborative research project have served both well in their ambitious post-graduate pursuits.

Students interested in applying for the 2022 Patricia A. Wood, M.D., Ph.D.,  Spinoza Award will go through the SOURCE Grant Application process either in fall or spring. Visit The SOURCE webpage for instructions. The research proposal must include explicit plans to explore philosophical issues in relation to the sciences or other professional disciplines. Students from any major are eligible, provided only that they will consider the philosophical aspects of the area they pursue.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • College of Law Advocacy Program’s National Trial League Recognized by Bloomberg Law’s Law School Innovation Program
    Thursday, January 26, 2023, By Robert Conrad
  • Associate Chief Information Officer for Academic Services Jenny Gluck Announces Retirement
    Thursday, January 26, 2023, By Eric Ferguson
  • College of Law’s Innovation Law Center Recognized by Bloomberg Law’s Law School Innovation Program
    Thursday, January 26, 2023, By Robert Conrad
  • A Warm Winter Welcome to Newest Arts and Sciences Faculty
    Thursday, January 26, 2023, By Diana Napolitano
  • Hendricks Chapel Welcomes Assistant Muslim Chaplain Imam Dzemal Crnkić
    Thursday, January 26, 2023, By Dara Harper

More In Health & Society

Navigating Healthy Relationships This Valentine’s Day

It’s hard to miss the approach of Valentine’s Day if you step into most U.S. stores this time of year. Products and advertisements are blanketed in pink and red, reminding customers of all the merchandise they can buy to demonstrate…

Learn Skills for Loving the Body You’re in With The Body Project Virtual Workshop

The prevalence of diagnosed eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, are on the rise in the U.S., as Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital reports that as many as 30 million Americans have an eating disorder. Many…

New Research Shows Pandemic’s Toll on Frontline Health Care Workers

For frontline health care workers, the mental health impact from the pandemic is extending beyond career burnout. Much of the attention on the mental toll suffered by frontline workers has focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). New research from a…

Psychology Professor Part of Two Grants Totaling Over $5M to Advance Alcohol-Related Research

During his nearly 30-year career at Syracuse University, Stephen Maisto, professor emeritus of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, has devoted much of his research to the assessment and treatment of substance use disorders. Continuing that work, Maisto was…

Former Syracuse University Athletic Trainer Credited With Performing Life-Saving CPR on Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin

Former Syracuse University football athletic trainer Denny Kellington is being praised for helping save the life of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin after Hamlin collapsed on the field in the first quarter of a “Monday Night Football” game vs. the…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.