Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Irie Browning! Irie has received the Golden Eagle Award from the EWU Retiree’s Association. The EWURA awards two Golden Eagle scholarships annually—one to a STEM student and one to an arts/humanities student. Candidates come from the general EWU scholarship application. The students who are awarded the scholarship attend the EWU retiree’s association annual breakfast to meet the donors and the board, and are interviewed for the Retiree’s Association newsletter. Irie had a wonderful time meeting and talking with the retirees at the breakfast.
Irie’s first McNair Summer Research Internship, under the mentorship of Dr. Christopher C. Kirby, examined John Dewey’s Pattern of Inquiry and how it could be applied to inspire a greater passion for learning in college freshmen. In Summer 2023, she will be once more working with Dr. Kirby, this time in virtue ethics as it applies to friendship. Her project proposes a philosophy of hope and love as a path forward in our hyper-individualized modern culture.
Her most recent presentations have been “Democracy & Dragons: Deliberation and Inquiry through Collaborative Storytelling in Dungeons & Dragons,” a Capstone research project presented in different forms at EWU’s Philosophy Club in May 2023 and the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Summer Salon in June 2023, and “The Telos of a Table: An Aristotelean Reflection on the Meaning of Crafted Objects,” presented at EWU’s 2023 Student Research and Creative Works Symposium.
