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A love for arguing and solving puzzles led graduate student Carla Valenzuela to philosophy. "Philosophy to me is like a whole bunch of puzzles you have to work your way through," she says. When an eye-opening high school class further exposed her to readings in philosophy, she was hooked. "It seemed like they were asking similar questions to ones I had asked myself, and I was relieved to not be the only one asking them," she says.
Now in her sixth year as a logic and philosophy of science graduate student, Valenzuela is the recipient of the 2007-08 Stephen K. Tamura Fellowship. Awarded annually through the Alumni Association, the rotating university fellowship recognizes Valenzuela's excellence in academia. The recently awarded fellowship follows her receipt of the School of Social Sciences' Kathy Alberti Award for Graduate Student Excellence in 2006-07.
Valenzuela's research is abstract, focusing on the history of early analytic philosophy, specifically on theories developed by Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell and Frank P. Ramsey. She is currently in the process of solving a puzzle many graduate students grapple with: her thesis. Her dissertation focuses on the evolving views regarding the conception of modern logic. It examines the theory of concepts and functions in the development of quantificational logic, from its critical role in establishing Frege and Russell's claim that arithmetic is reducible to logic to its rejection in Ramsey.
Upon completion of her graduate degree, Valenzuela plans to pursue a career in academia where she can focus on her love for research and teaching - activities she says that both engage her intellect while allowing her to continue solving puzzles.
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