Scholarship and Professional Activity
Case-Making for: Exceeds Performance Standards
Professional Publications
"This is Teaching"
in Philosophers in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching.
Steven Cahn, Alexandra Bradner, and Andrew Mills (eds). (Hackett Publishing Company, 2018).
Book Description:
In the classroom, philosophers face not only the perennial problems of philosophy, but the problems of _teaching_ philosophy, and specifically the problems of teaching philosophy today: how to make philosophy interesting and relevant to students who are resistant to, or unfamiliar with, the discipline; how to bring classic texts to life within our current socio-cultural context; how to serve all students regardless of their abilities, backgrounds, or declared majors; how to sustain our discipline in light of support for more "vocational" pursuits. In these essays, 24 of our most celebrated professors of philosophy offer perspectives on and solutions to these questions and more. Selected and introduced by three leaders in the world of philosophical education, the insights contained in this inspiring collection illuminate the challenges and possibilities of teaching the academy’s oldest discipline.
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Note also: Mine is the only essay from a community-college professor appearing in the book.
"Jane, I just finished reading your Hackett volume contribution, and I love it. I might be in love with it. It's fantastic. Thank you so much for writing it, amid all the other things you were doing at the time. This is just the sort of essay I was hoping we would get when we put out the call."
--Sept 23, 2017, email from Andrew Mills, President of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers; Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Integrative Studies Program, Otterbein University; and Co-editor, Philosophers in the Classroom
NEH Summer Institute on Reviving Philosophy as a Way of Life
I was also the only community college professor who was selected to participate in this NEH Summer Institute at Wesleyan University earlier this summer. Indeed, I argued that my location teaching at a community college is precisely why I should be selected.
Contrasting the super-silo-ization of philosophy in modern higher education—and its subsequent isolation from the world and individual lives it is meant to engage--those who approach Philosophy as a Way of Life are returning to an ancient idea of philosophy as a guide to a good life. During this Summer Institute, three directors (from Wesleyan, Notre Dame, and Fordham), six experts within key WOL philosophical schools (Buddhism, Confucianism, Stoicism, Skepticism, etc.), as well as 25 faculty from around the nation spent two weeks exploring the theories and practices of key philosophical ways of life, and how they might be brought into our philosophical curricula and offer a way of reviving the value, and activity, of the discipline of philosophy. Here’s the website.
Neither “continental” nor “analytic,” Philosophy as a Way of Life offers a third approach to the academic field, but one grounded on the refusal to stay merely academic. Part of the institute, then, was also about how this group can work together—long term—to further institutionalize and support this growing field within the discipline. (For those of you interested in an entry-point to Philosophy as a Way of Life, Pierre Hadot is a good start).
I will continue participating in this broad project through the Mellon Foundation Philosophy as a Way of Life Network, the next phase of the NEH project and designed to grow the overall efforts of PWOL, set to begin in June 2019.
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Summer 2018: This experience has deeply impacted my teaching. I talk a lot about that in the Teaching Section, particularly on how I fundamentally reframed my Introduction to Philosophy Course. So, I won't say a lot about that here. Please refer to the Teaching section of my portfolio for more detail on that.
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Here, though, I would like to share:
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The program curricula
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my application letter --->
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(where I argued that they should select me, not despite me coming from a community college, but precisely because of it.
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My end-of-program presentation notes on how I was going to be bringing this experience back to my classroom.
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February 2019 notice of my acceptance into the Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Project Network and Summer Institute Series
Sabbatical
My sabbatical project for the 2016-2017 academic year was a continuation of a project I began during the Spring and Summer of 2015 and was inspired by these questions: “What is the role and value of philosophy in Community College” “What can and should I be doing to ensure the vitality and embeddedness of philosophy in community college education” (or otherwise asked, “I am mid-career now…and what have I been doing? What should I be doing? Are my efforts worthwhile?)
The sabbatical included three broad projects:
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Project 1: What is the Role/Value of Philosophy at CC? A series of essays reflecting on questions like: What can philosophy contribute to our community and public sphere; How can philosophy help us understand and bridge the divide between our disconnected academic and professional silos?
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Project 2: Philosophy of Science. Research, Conference presentation, and curriculum development based on questions like: How can philosophy help make better scientists, How can science make better democratic citizens, and how can philosophy contribute to cultivating the scientific literacy necessary for a vibrant democracy?
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Part 3: Integrative-Philosophy Programming. A personal essay for publication, recommendations for steps towards “integrative-philosophy,” and the creation of marketing resources for students, based on questions like: what does a coherent and intentional philosophy curricula look like at a (at our) community college and how might we begin to orient our efforts in that direction?
What follows is the full 20-page report of these three main projects during the sabbatical year:
Pedagogical, Scholarly and Professional Presentation
“Teaching Plato’s Apology: A Way-of-Life Approach” at The 2019 American Philosophical Association Conference – Central Division, Denver, CO February 20-23, 2019.
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My contribution to our accepted panel centers on a series of scaffolded assignments I designed that culminate in “Student Apologies.” See the proposal for more on that. But also, take a look at my Student Apology Assignment in the Teaching Section of my ePortfolio.
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See the documentation at the top right for the rationale and value of presenting on this topic at APA-Central, as well as the accepted proposal.
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Click on the APA Teaching Hub Image here to link over to the Conference Program.
"Experiential learning, Public Philosophy and Wicked Thinking in Introductory Reasoning Classes," at the Public Philosophy Network Conference, Boulder, CO, February 2017.
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In this presentation, my co-presenter and I focused on teaching philosophy at a community college, and on the role of philosophy in general education, and as connected to and engaging other disciplines and fields across the college. In particular, we honed in on some of what we are trying to do in our Reasoning/Critical Thinking/Informal Logic classrooms.
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After presenting our content, we facilitated a workshop on how to bring experiential learning into a reasoning class' typical units, with an eye to what we might be do towards creating experiences for our students which connect their learning and engagement to their community, their professions and fields and their personal lives.
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At right, you can see my Presentation and travel request, where I explain how this project aligns with the mission and goals of the department and college.
"My Top Five: Top Five Lessons about the Value of Philosophy I've Learned by Teaching at a Community-College" at the American Association of Philosophy Teachers Conference, North Carolina State A&T University, Greensboro, NC, July 2018.
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Abstract: Teaching is a practice that improves with age, wisdom, and experience. In this AAPT session, we will hear from a panel of award-winning philosophy teachers, all of whom have been teaching for many years and all of whom recently contributed essays on philosophy teaching to the upcoming collection Philosophers in the Classroom (Hackett, Fall 2018). Each of our panelists has been asked to assemble and share a “top five” list, which might cover their top five courses, their top five students, their top five classroom moments, their top five teachers, their top five texts to teach, or some other category of their imagination. In addition, they each will share one pedagogical resource that they could not teach without: a website, piece of equipment, teaching monograph, etc. Session attendees will leave with a list of these valuable resources, along with their own top five.
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At right, you can see the rough reflections of my top five list/commentary. After each person presented, we had a general panel discussion on teaching philosophy.
Workshop Designer: Flash Philosophy. Presenter/workshop facilitator: "Assignment Design Charrettes" at the American Association of Philosophy Teachers Conference, North Carolina State A&T University, Greensboro, NC, July 2018.
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Participant-generated or sample course activities workshop to help maximize creative, inclusive, effective assignment design
"Wicked Thinking: What Philosophy Can Contribute to General Education" (Spring 2016). SLCC, Open Teach Series, Faculty Development Center.
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In this presentation, I explored a number of mental habits and skills that philosophy can contribute to the development of "wicked competencies" (a phrase developed by Paul Hanstedt in General Education Essentials, and now the focus of his newest book.). In particular, I highlighted philosophy's capacity to help cultivate the ability to think "Multivocally."
"Aldo Leopold and an Ethic of Sustainability," Intermountain Sustainability Summit. Weber State University, March 2017.
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As part of my sabbatical project aimed at exploring how we might better bring philosophy and the humanities into more direct conversation and collaboration with the scientific disciplines, I developed a presentation on the role and value of philosophy in Sustainability Studies, exploring what Philosophy contributes to Sustainability studies and why it is thus a critical component of a Sustainability Program. I presented it on March 16, 2017 at the Intermountain Sustainability Summit, to a broad, interdisciplinary group of academics and businesses committed to sustainability practices and to an ethic of sustainability.
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A report and the manuscript which was developed from the presentation is available on the right
Panel participant, on Teaching for General Education and for the major: Issues, Challenges, Opportunities, at the "What is an Educated Person" USHE Conference. Oct 16 2016.
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At right, I include a series of reflections I wrote about this conference panel, and the value/role of philosophy for gen ed and for majors. It appeared in my publication "This is Teaching" in Philosophers in the Classroom:
Pedagogical, Scholarly and Professional Conference Attendance.
In addition to all the conferences I attended due to my participation/presentation at them, I also:
The sessions ranged from the really big: the future of philosophy programs and how to strategically protect the health and viability of your program … to the very local: Team-Based Learning Activity Design in the philosophy classroom. The conversations ranged from meta: How do we define philosophy and how does that affect how we understand the relationship between and relative importance of teaching and research…to practical: what practical strategies can we share to cultivate a culture of teacher-training, pre-career, early-career, and mid-career, and how might we rethink the overall design of a critical thinking course or think creatively about grading… The presentations ranged from the new-and-excited: poster sessions from undergraduate students around the country on their undergraduate research projects…to the personal: Steve Cahn sharing a lifetime of experiences as a textbook writer (one of the original contributors for Hackett Publishing, working directly with Hackett, and now with keen insights into the relationship between textbooks and teaching, as well as the issues facing students, faculty, writers and publishers in today’s absurd academic book marketplace.
Attended American Association of Philosophy Teachers Conference in Saginaw, Michigan, (July 2016)
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I served on the organizing committee for this conference, which I speak about in the below section on my activity in professional organizations. But here I highlight some of the specific sessions I found particularly useful or meaningful.
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Keynote Address: Frank Tuitt, "Making Excellence Inclusive in Challenging Times: Diversity Considerations for the Classroom."
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Juli Thorson, "Using Groups to Create an Inclusive Classroom. From this session, I took some ideas for using creative groupwork to foster inclusivity (for instance, in my Intro to Philosophy class's Spotlight activities, which later then morphed into the Way-of-Life group exercises I speak about in the Teaching section.
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Mo Janzen, “Civic Engagement Experiments: Hands-On Activities Designed to Motivate Students and Cultivate Citizenship Skills.”
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And more. Click on document on the top right to see the full program. Click on the image to the right to see a document with some of my highlights.
Attended The American Philosophical Association -- Eastern Division Conference in Baltimore, MD. (January 2017)
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I attended the APA-AAPT Mini-Conference on Teaching, not only as a teacher of philosophy, but also in my capacity as the newly selected Chair of the 2018 AAPT Conference Program Committee. Each session lasted between 2 and 3 hours. They were in depth. They were very conversational, grappling with a wide variety of topics and issues:
Additional Ongoing Research Areas
Philosophical Exercises Project
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I've met with Steven Cahn (one of the more prolific anthology editors and authors in philosophy, and one of the editors of the book I contributed to) to get guidance/advice on how to pursue this project. One of the first steps, on his advice, will be to submit a sample chapter to an APA newsletter (the Committee on Teaching Philosophy, or Committee on Public Philosophy, or the like).
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I am working on developing a series of philosophical exercises which draw on/put-into-practice a variety of philosophical "ways of life." I have been organizing the outline/structure/introduction/section overviews for a series of essays and/or a book (or OER) on these philosophical exercises. The idea here is, for each philosopher/school of philosophy, I offer an introductory-level overview/history, and offer instructions for a number of philosophical activities (meditation, or thought-experiment, or enactment)
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Distinguished Faculty Lecture Application
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I have just been selected for the SLCC Distinguished Faculty Lecture for AY 20192020, which will be largely on the philosophical exercises project, but which will also be including a more general reflection on the value/purpose of philosophy at SLCC, and the role of the philosopher in helping to inspire and orient the directions of higher education. Here is the proposal I submitted:
Ancient Greece and Roman History/Philosophies: Hellenistic Period, particularly around Alexandria
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As I work to gain a better understanding of the cross-pollination of cultures, knowledges, philosophies happening between Greece, Rome and the Persian/Middle East, I will continue to be researching histories and philosophies of this period.
Philosophy as Way of Life - future directions
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Epicurus and other philosophers on Friendship
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Marcus Aurelius
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Gabriel Marcel
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Nietzsche
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Buddhism
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Russell, William James, Todd May, etc.