Derek Lee: Presenting and Publishing on Authenticity [Research Stories]

The following post is written by Honors Program student and UHP SURE Award winner Derek Lee.
My SURE award culminated in the presentation of an original paper, “Authenticity and its Application as a Moral Ideal”, at the San Diego State University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. The piece first started in Professor Ralkowski’s Arts and Humanities class on Existentialism. After writing the final paper for the class, I wanted to look further into how philosophy melded the unique concepts in Existentialism with the concepts in Ethics—the major focus of my studies. Under Professor Ralkowski’s guidance, I delved into the current dialogue between philosophers on the subject. I gathered a greater appreciation of what the major arguments were, and made my own arguments stronger. At the end of the summer, I submitted my paper to the conference, and was accepted to present. I had the further honor to be published in the upcoming special edition of the Dialogue, the conference’s journal.
The conference itself was probably the best part of the SURE experience. I had the opportunity to present my paper to both undergraduates and professors, who gave me valuable feedback and furthered the arguments made in the paper. I also had the opportunity to see other undergraduates and Masters students present their original works, taking part in the same process they assisted me in. The pieces involved were on a variety of topics, and I learned a lot from being exposed to so many ideas in the three day time span. I was even exposed to a theory I had little work in—just war theory—which will be the subject of my senior thesis. Without the funding from the SURE award, I would never have been able to afford attending the conference, and would have gained far less from the research project.