Quyen Pham

How do social groups change?

Social Groups, Structure, and Change (2025), in Journal of Social Ontology

The United States Supreme Court has not always had the same Justices. Nor has it always had the same number of seats. How are we able to say that it is one and the same Supreme Court that has persisted since its creation in 1789 and through many a change in both its membership and structure? The problem is even more pressing for structuralists about social groups. I describe how structuralist views can accommodate both kinds of changes, and offer enriched conceptions of structure that can better capture further complexities in groups.

Presented at ISOS Social Ontology 2023 Conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

What are social groups?

What is it that a reading group, a chess club, and a debate team have in common? Like companies and committees, and unlike genders and races, they are things with members that seem to be organized, or structured. I argue for a structuralist view about social groups, on which groups such as these are primarily characterized and individuated by what roles they have and how those are related, as opposed to, say, which people are in them.

Parts of this project have been presented at ISOS’s 2024 Conference in Durham, North Carolina and USC/Shandong 2022 Conference in Los Angeles, California.

How oppressive are biased objects?

Is a mammy jar that is hidden and long forgotten in an attic still racist? What about a mammy jar on display in a museum? I propose two sets of distinctions that allow us to better capture different levels of wrong or harm found in racially biased objects and the like.

Presented at WOGAP’s 2025 Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Where are social groups?

Where is the United States Supreme Court, right now? Is the answer always that it is in Washington, D.C., or does it depend on where the individual Supreme Court Justices are at the moment? I discuss a puzzle about the location of social groups, propose a simple solution, and explore how different theories about groups can adopt it and what issues may arise in each case.

Presented in a symposium at the APA Central Division 2024 Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.