Could you introduce yourself?
“My name is Marina Uzunova. Fun fact: ‘uzun’ is Turkish for ‘tall’/‘long’; I am properly named in my native Bulgaria and misnamed in the Netherlands. I was born in 1988, or as someone once spontaneously commented, the ‘pre-Berlin Wall era’; actually, it’s the ‘post-Chernobyl era’.”
Which courses did you teach in PPE?
“So far, I’ve taught the seminars for Methods of PPE I and III, History of Philosophy I and II, as well as Institutional Economics (also the lectures), and once the lectures for Political Philosophy II. I’ve also supervised ten amazing students.”
What was the focus of your PhD research at PPE?
“My PhD is about measuring how powerful the members of hierarchical organisations are in virtue of the positions they occupy and the decision mechanisms such organisations use. I do that using game theory and the theory of networks. (PPE students have seen some related work on this during the second half of Methods of PPE III.)
I’m finishing final revisions on the thesis, and starting − or continuing − a project with Roland (Luttens) on fair allocation problems. I will also be teaching Institutional Economics and supervising students, which means I kind of still am and will be at PPE over the next couple of years.”
Do you remember your first day of teaching in PPE? What was your development in PPE between the first and last day, how did you change?
“I do remember my initial weeks, because I was completely soaked during the first seminar of every day, trying to explain derivatives, FOCs, and SOCs without slipping on the puddles around me. I feel like my initiation was complete when I learned to love the HEMA rain suit. As for the last day, this is awkward, as I am still at PPE . . .
But there are many changes, let me single out two. First, in the beginning, I did not fully appreciate each course I was teaching as part of the larger PPE curriculum. This was partly because I didn’t know PPE that well, partly because, as a Judo, you are teaching this one, or two, courses at a time. Students, however, are taking multiple courses, so their experience of the curriculum is inherently different. I now try to relate to this more consciously and teach accordingly.
Second, in the beginning, I used to see my role as follows − there are certain sets of skills, tools, pieces of knowledge, or ways of thinking that students need to acquire and my role is to help students acquire them. I now worry much more about what gets repressed and displaced as students acquire these things. For example, having been taught how to see and reason about subject x, students are then very reluctant to even imagine stepping out of these boundaries. (This becomes apparent, and leads to much frustration, during the thesis writing process.) I now try to make room for more ‘supervised freedom’ with respect to various parts of a course, including − now that I can decide on this − how students are assessed.”
What was your favourite course to teach in PPE? (And why)
“Contemplating an answer to this question is like contemplating an answer to ‘Who is your favourite niece or nephew?’, feels very indecent. Over the years, I have genuinely enjoyed teaching all the courses I’ve taught. A big reason is, of course, the students and the fact that, as a Judo, you see them go from juniors to seniors (sic) − so there is a relationship you sustain, and can build on, from one course to the next. The other big reason is the teaching staff − working with all the professors and other Judos associated with these courses has just been very enjoyable.”
What is your best memory of PPE?
“So many. To keep things light, a few of the funny ones that immediately come to mind. Dori, squinting at my best scrambled-eggs improvisation on natural deduction, unimpressed: ‘What’s the point, Marina? Why are we doing this?’. Discussing Plato’s allegory of the sun during a seminar under the actual sun. (This is maybe more ‘niche funny’.) Third-years writing their thesis and finally learning the hard way not to ask ‘How’s the writing going?’. Anne, butchering potatoes off-screen during a Zoom seminar for History of Philosophy − Norman Bates style. Kant can really provoke violence.”
Is there something exciting you would like to share about your life outside of your work?
“Since my nephew and niece have been recurring characters in seminars, this might interest PPE students: there is a new niece, Marina Jr. She is still too young for scrambled eggs, but the pedagogical possibilities are endless.”
Do you think (the interdisciplinary nature of) PPE has had an influence or an effect on your research and teaching methods?
“Definitely, but in a way that I did not expect when I became interested in PPE. I studied undergraduate philosophy in Bulgaria, where, for various historical and such reasons, political philosophy used to be non-existent − we studied lots of history of philosophy (all sorts of Ancient, Byzantian, scholastic, basically, the older the better; but also existentialist, postmodern), lots of metaphysics, and lots of German idealism.
What is normally done at the intersection of philosophy and economics is (contemporary) analytic political philosophy − this was completely new to me when I started my master’s. It drew me in, as it offered a way to combine economics and philosophy, which I was studying more or less in parallel at the time and couldn’t really reconcile. Now, I feel a little bit less of an outsider in PPE and can appreciate more of its limitations, as a discipline. Dealing with these limitations has definitely affected the way I teach, though I’m still not sure how to make it all bear on my research.”