For a philosopher to receive funding from the National Science Foundation is in and of itself noteworthy, but the plans for the money are more noteworthy and even potentially groundbreaking.

Using the $70,000 award, Nancy McHugh, associate professor of philosophy and director of the women’s studies program, will conduct research for a grant titled “Situated Communities: A Pragmatist Approach to Scientific Research,” and then write an eight-chapter book, author at least four articles and make presentations at conferences on the subject. For as complicated as the subject matter sounds, and as ambitious as this grant project truly is, McHugh’s motivation is actually quite simple.

“I am frustrated by the distance philosophy and philosophers have from issues that matter substantially in the world,” McHugh said. “I also firmly believe that the kind of action that can come out of philosophical thinking can create substantial changes in how people live.”

McHugh, who wrote her dissertation on the role of democracy in science, said she has been interested in the subject of social and ethical impact of knowledge generating practices of science for several years. After attending a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar on Feminist Epistemologies at The Pennsylvania State University two years ago, McHugh was inspired by conversations with colleagues to seek out new ideas in her field. A trip to Vietnam in 2004 for a seminar titled “Transition and Transformation in Vietnam,” quickly brought some. While there, McHugh visited a peace village in the Tu Du Hospital in Saigon, where Vietnamese people suffering from the effects of Agent Orange, a herbicide developed for the American military to defoliate trees and shrubbery in tropical climates, are being treated.The use of Agent Orange, a mix of the chemicals 2,4,D and 2,4,5,T, was discontinued in 1971, but two generations later, the Vietnamese population continues to suffer in new and sometimes mysterious ways from the spraying.

“There was a clear desire on their part to work with scientists, educators and doctors, but not too much was said about philosophers,” she said.

As someone interested in the study of epistemology — defined as the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity — McHugh was troubled by the notion that laboratory studies indicated one thing about Agent Orange exposure and its lingering effects, but the reality of the situation on the ground in Vietnam was clearly another.

“Scientists tend to dismiss evidence from the ‘wild’ nonclinical setting, which ironically is the setting in which life takes place, and we actually experience things.”

Using case studies on the effect of Agent Orange on Vietnamese women and children, hormone replacement therapy and endometriosis (a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus is found elsewhere in the body), McHugh hopes to “illustrate how choices in research methods affect lives and actual communities,” according to her grant proposal.

She plans to take a sabbatical soon to focus on her research and writing for the grant.