Tamara Horowitz Memorial Fund Award

The Tamara Horowitz Memorial Fund Award, administered by the Department of Philosophy, supports limited-term summer graduate research on the scholarly topics central to Horowitz: philosophical and experimental studies of human decision-making, analytic feminism, and the status of a priori cognition. Tamara Horowitz was passionate about social justice, self-determination, and inclusiveness. Successful applicants should also reflect these values.

Applications are open to all Ph.D. graduate students in any department within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.

Tamara Horowitz was a member of the Pitt Philosophy Department for sixteen years, from 1984 until her death in 2000 at age 49. Before coming to Pittsburgh, Horowitz taught at New York University. Horowitz completed her doctoral work at MIT, where she was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy. At fifteen, Horowitz received a scholarship to study mathematics at the University of Chicago. There, her interests shifted to philosophy after a course with Elizabeth Anscombe. Horowitz’s philosophical interests were broad, with a particular focus on epistemology, decision theory, and their interconnections. Her most mature reflections on these topics appeared in her posthumously published book The Epistemology of A Priori Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2006). Horowitz had a deep interest in social and political issues. She taught a popular course in social and political philosophy and another in feminist philosophy.

Past Awardees