Purdue philosopher Sarah Robins receives 2026 Lebowitz Prize
Sarah Robins, professor of philosophy in Purdue’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named a recipient of the 2026 Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution.
Awarded annually by the Phi Beta Kappa Society in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association, the Lebowitz Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in philosophy. Unique in its design, the award is jointly conferred on two philosophers who hold contrasting perspectives on a topic of contemporary significance. Robins shares this year’s honor with co-winner Felipe De Brigard, professor of philosophy, psychology and neuroscience at Duke University.
Robins and De Brigard will present their work and engage in public dialog on “The Distinctiveness of Memory” at the annual Lebowitz symposium at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division meetings in March 2027. Related papers appear in Space, Time, and Memory (2025, eds Nadel and Aronowitz, Oxford University Press): “A Place for the Memory Trace,” (Robins) and “Simulationism and Memory Traces” (De Brigard).
When asked about the meaning of the award, Robins noted “It’s an honor to have this opportunity to model the value of respectful spirited disagreement.” She credits early mentor John Churchill with inspiring her love of philosophy and celebrates the opportunity to share the honor with longtime friend and colleague De Brigard. “When Felipe and I first began disagreeing with one another about memory, our views were expressed in universal and mutually exclusive ways: memory is reconstructive (Felipe); memory requires memory traces (me). As we’ve engaged with each other over the years, our views have both softened to concede points in each other’s direction.” Their philosophical relationship serves “as an example for students, an illustration of the benefits of being open to criticism.”
Robins’ scholarship explores questions at the intersection of philosophy and the mind sciences, with a particular focus on memory. Her WIREs Cognitive Science article “The 20th Century Engram” draws from neurobiology and philosophy to advance a richer conceptualization of engrams, the neural mechanism of memory. “My academic interest has always been drawn to philosophy and the biological sciences – each in their own right and especially topics at their intersection.”
Her interdisciplinary and collaborative interests led her to co-found Purdue’s Cognition, Agency, and Intelligence Center to advance interdisciplinary work to understand intelligent agents and their real-world consequences. In addition to her scholarly research, Robins created and edits The Memory Palace, a public-facing Substack for philosophers of memory that features posts in four languages. She is past president of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology.
The Lebowitz Prize was established in 2012 through a bequest from Eve Lewellis Lebowitz in honor of her late husband, Martin R. Lebowitz, a distinguished philosophical critic.