Shanti Chu
“This project helps students gain a deeper sense of agency in their lives as moral agents because they can understand how their thoughts, actions, and speech all impact themselves, their communities, and the larger ecosystem.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Personal Change Projects, Food, Community College, Alternative Assignments
Jeanne Proust
“Philosophers are not experts who simply deliver answers; they have to learn from communities and individuals who might have no background in philosophy, and who cannot be perceived as mere passive listeners. There is a great call for empowerment in that. ” Read the full interview.
Themes: Public Philosophy Network, Prisons, Podcasts, Collaboration
Jared Talley
“…I’m motivated to help people come together and work across these imagined boundaries to find ways to help the land while sustaining the communities on the land. I’m motivated to do it because I love this place and want to help think through what it means to live and thrive in the West.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Environmental Philosophy, Public Philosophy Network, Public Policy, Conservation
David W. Concepción
“. . .I’ve discovered that by supporting the students’ teachers, sometimes by teaching them how to teach, I can have a less direct but broader positive impact on the lives of philosophy students.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Teaching, American Association of Philosophy Teachers, Pedagogy
Jason Swartwood
“I’m a tiny fish in a huge pond, but I like to find ways I can use philosophy to make some ripples and splashes, however small.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Practical Ethics, Youth Prison Abolition, Philosophy for Children, Applied Ethics, Wisdom
Ben Mylius
“I think creativity and imagination are central to our ability to respond to the most pressing challenges of our time, including climate change—because so much of our attempts to make sense of and engage with these phenomena happens through stories (in all their forms).” Read the full interview.
Themes: Stories, Storytelling, Climate Change, Community Building, Environmental Political Theory, Imagination
Tyler Zimmer
“Civically engaged work forces me to find ways to talk about problems in a lucid, accessible manner. The political problems are what’s hard—we shouldn’t heap impenetrable language and jargon that take us even further from the difficulty of the problems themselves.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Gentrification, Toxic Masculinity, Inequality, Democratic Socialism, Radical Egalitarianism, Public Writing
Daniel Munro
“Most assignments students produce in university are “disposable”…Encouraging students to produce public-facing projects creates opportunities to broaden the impact of their work. ” Read the full interview.
Themes: Philosophy of Mind, Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Digital Media
Evelyn Brister
“I’ve learned that the skills we all develop from managing classrooms, organizing events, writing reports, and analyzing arguments are in high demand outside academia.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Conservation, Ecology, Restoration, Public Philosophy Network, Climate Change
Mylan Engel Jr.
“While they’re kneeling in the dirt weeding or planting, you can hear students (in slightly muffled voices) discussing the course material and the changes that they are making to live more sustainably. How cool is that!” Read the full interview.
Themes: Philosophy of Food, Community-Engaged Service, Civic Engagement Project
Tiffany Tsantsoulas
“I do not want to choose between my job and my ethical and political commitments, and I’ve now realized that there is a version of being a philosopher that necessitates the dissolution of this choice.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Prisons, Abolition, Feminist Philosophy, Collaboration
Rebecca Millsop
“If members of the profession start pushing on their social role as philosophers, we can make big changes that have real, positive effects on the environment. This impact can go way beyond the boundaries of the profession!” Read the full interview.
Themes: Climate Change, Professional Roles, Responsibility
Timothy Stock
“I get questions in the shape of: “How do you get these people to start doing rigorous philosophical work?” I think this question reveals unhelpful exclusivism and elitism about what philosophy actually refers to, which is very much already in the real world.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Enfranchisement, Listening Sessions, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Ethical Loneliness
Sergia Hay
“Public philosophy is one way of returning philosophy to the agora, where we can work out with others how we are to live well together.” Read the full interview.
Themes: SOPHIA, Discussion Group, Facilitation
Nora Mills Boyd
“The skills that you will need to do community partnerships well are not the teaching or research skills you already have. Instead, they mostly have to do with leadership, conflict resolution, and interpersonal communication.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Urban Farming, Community Partnership
Paul Tubig
“My experiences make me acutely aware of the diverse, contingent realities that shape people’s range of choices, their self-conceptions, and the possible storylines that they are confident to author. This sensitivity drives my research and public philosophy work.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Prison, Ethics Bowl, Marginalized Communities
Marion Hourdequin
“Although it’s sometimes hard to know where to start, it’s often helpful just to start somewhere.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Climate Change, Environmental Ethics, Interdisciplinarity
Kian Mintz-Woo
“What philosophers are good at is developing arguments. Sharing those with the public, in order to help create a more informed and vibrant public debate, is both deeply satisfying and also respectful to our fellow citizens by giving them the space to consider different points of view.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Climate Change, Policy, Public Speaking, Moral Philosophy, Carbon Tax
Jeremy Bendik-Keymer
“The main thing about emergent learning is to co-create forums where people are truly intellectual agents who can surface the confusion they feel and face and slowly come to terms with how to make sense of their situation.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Desperation, Emergent Learning, Reggio Emilia Approach, Community Forum, Teaching
Gabrielle Bussell
“I dream of a day when workers of all industries can truly claim the fruits of their labor without having to answer to bosses who have no concern whatsoever for their dignity, autonomy, or safety.“ Read the full interview.
Themes: Labor Organizing, Industrial Workers of the World, Service Industry, Marxism, Exploitation
Kathleen Dean Moore
“People often ask me, What can one person do? The answer is, Stop being one person.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Climate Change, Environmental Ethics, Human Rights, Fracking, Publishing
Eugene Chislenko
“I think the most helpful first step is to find someone you like—anyone, anywhere— who you can talk to about what you want to do next.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Philosophers for Sustainability, Climate Change, Sunrise Movement, Teaching
Lisa Bergin
“I have a timer on my watch that buzzes me at 11:55 AM every day. That’s my George Floyd moment, when I say something to him—when I tell him what I have done or will do toward justice that day.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Teaching, Anti-Racist Pedagogy, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Community College, Non-Western Philosophy
Anna Gotlib
“My research requires connections to the worlds outside of academic philosophy that make it possible to say something meaningful, something true, and something that is heard beyond the classroom…” Read the full interview.
Themes: Public Lecture, Lay Audience, Facebook, Narrative
Ben Hole
“…working with the ghost [fishing] nets helped us use a different kind of philosophical skill: exercising our imaginations to think of creative ways to engage with the problem.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Teaching, Civic Engagement, Ethics, Plenty-Coups, Social Justice, Radical Hope, Virtue Ethics
Nathan Nobis
“Philosophers should do more to listen to non-philosophers and see how they understand issues. What we do and the ways we engage and communicate should be motivated by empathy.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Open Access, Writing, Empathy, Ethics
Todd Franklin
“As all of my students will report, the first thing they learn from me about critical race theory is that it’s not simply something that you study, it’s something you do!” Read the full interview.
Themes: Critical Race Theory, Systemic Racism, Police Violence, STEM Education
Shelley Tremain
“[At BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY,] [w]e are enhancing the lives of disabled people, uplifting their self-esteem, and providing a venue for them to read about themselves and other disabled people, to learn about the range of experiences that disabled people have, and to witness that resistance and transformation are possible.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Disability, Philosophy of Disability, Ableism, Blog, Interviews
Noelle McAfee
“Maybe public philosophy is the best footnote to Plato, taking seriously the challenges of democracy but using philosophy to improve its prospects.” Read the full interview.
Themes: American Pragmatism, Frankfurt School, Democracy, Psychoanalysis, Public Philosophy Network
Christopher P. Long
“A real benefit of doing public philosophy is that the public holds our work accountable.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Public Philosophy Journal, Formative Review, Land-Grant Institution, Humane Metrics Initiative, Public Philosophy Network
Ron Sundstrom
“Every step of the way I have learned from and been influenced by everyday people, policy experts and professionals, and local activists that I have had the privilege of listening to in conversations, interviews, or other interactions.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Film, Liberalism, African American Studies, Engagement, Public Philosophy Network
Roksana Alavi
“Decide what you care about, and show up, watch, listen, ask, and when you are ready increase your involvement.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Human Trafficking, Ethics, Public Service, Public Philosophy Network
Talia Welsh
“I want to help develop civic-minded students who see life in general as a philosophical puzzle to engage with and not one where there is a static answer.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Phenomenology, Civic Engagement, Examined Life, Public Philosophy Network
Judy Whipps
“When I returned to finish my undergraduate degree in my early forties, my question to my teachers was often: ‘So what? Why does this matter in the world?’ As a teacher I want my students to ask—and answer—that question as well. Read the full interview.
Themes: Jane Addams, John Dewey, Feminist Philosophy, Nontraditional Students, Public Philosophy Network.
Joseph Stramondo
“By abandoning the quest to normalize a child and “fix” the problem of disability, a parent gives that child the foundation they need to imagine a future for themselves that does not rely on changing who they are.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Documentary, Disability Studies, Bioethics, Narrative, Identity, Public Philosophy Network.
Perry Zurn
“Thinking is never easy, but thinking accountably is the hardest, most rewarding thing of all.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Curiosity Studies, Podcast, Trans Philosophy, Public Philosophy Network.
Andrea Christelle
“To practice dialogue in nature is stimulating, inspiring, and regularly inspires courage, creativity, and honesty.” Read the full interview
Themes: Philosophy of Nature, Discussion Groups, Walking Tours, Sense of Place, Public Philosophy Network
Adam Blazej
“For me, public philosophy is at its best when it seeks to inspire and reflectively engage in a collective attitude of openness that is akin to the intangible sense of possibility that a movement sparks.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Graduate Philosophy Program, Community Partnership, Rethink, Community Discussion Group, Public Philosophy Network.
Clair Morrissey
“Philosophy is best done as fully and deeply part of human life, alongside and part of the practices and institutions that give shape and meaning to our communities.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Ecology, Environmental Ethics, International and Local Experiential Learning, Teaching, Public Philosophy Network.
Zachary Piso
“Unless we situate what we do within (and sometimes against) the empirical methods that brilliant sociologists, anthropologists, and others have developed, we fail to validate our claims or appropriately distinguish them from the empirical generalizations that these fields are in a better position to support.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Food Justice, Sustainability, Environmental Science, Environmental Philosophy, American Pragmatism, Feminist Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy of Science, Ordinary Language Philosophy, Participatory Research, Public Philosophy Network.
Barry Lam
“Don’t hesitate to start doing public philosophy. Unlike in academic philosophy proper, there is no training, no PhDs, no advisors, no job market. Public philosophy is just what you decide to do.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Podcast, Journalism, Narrative, Public Philosophy Network.
Danielle Lake
“I ultimately hope to inspire students to see themselves and others as philosopher-activists: as creative, self-reflexive practitioners and resilient change makers.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Accelerated Leadership Program, Civic Democratic Engagement, Teaching, Design Thinking, Public Philosophy Network.
Peg O’Connor
“Philosophy can also help those who live/love/work with addicts as well as those who professionally engage with us to understand how so much of what others might regard as crazy or nonsensical makes perfect sense to other addicts.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Addiction, Rehabilitation, Biomedical Ethics, Public Philosophy Network.
Public Philosophy Network Exec Committee
“A commitment to democratic ideals can be seen in PPN’s name: we are a network that aims to build connections among people who are doing public work, among organizations that support public philosophy, and among philosophers and people in all walks of life.” Read the full interview.
Ian O’Loughlin
“Just being in the presence of these students who think it is so incredibly amazing that people are coming together like this to talk about ideas and philosophy reminds one that—yes, it is amazing.” Read the full interview
Themes: Undergraduate Conference, Situated Learning, Teaching
Katheryn Doran
“From prison book group members, I’ve learned never to talk with any group about an enduring text as if they were unified in their expectations, experiences, or insights—including students I work with in my day job.” Read the full interview
Themes: Prison, Book Group, Teaching
Russell Marcus
“It is absurdly embarrassing how little philosophers have valued their teaching, and how the most influential in our field continue to do so.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Pedagogy, Team-Based Learning, American Association of Philosophy Teachers, Teaching
Eduardo Mendieta
“The most important thing is that you should abandon all pretension that engaged philosophy is about your career or your theoretical work in philosophy. This has to come from the core of your being.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Prison, Critical Prison Studies, Philosophy of the City
Christian B. Miller
“Moral character exists, but for most of us it is neither good enough to count as virtuous nor bad enough to count as vicious.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Public Philosophy, Trade Books, Character
Nancy Matchett
“At its core, philosophy explores the reasons we have for thinking and caring about things in the ways that we do.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Philosophical Counseling
Michelle Catalano
“Some criticisms of civic engagement say that we are “moralizing” when we push our students into activism, but I think choosing to do nothing is equally a moralization.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Critical Thinking, Praxis, Teaching
Lori Gruen
“My research, my engaged scholarship, and my teaching have been in the service of lifting up those [people and beings] relegated to the background, moving them into the foreground.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Prison, Public Writing, Ethics of Care, Environmental Ethics, Teaching
Dan Hicks
“I’ve never really seen philosophy to be valuable in itself. It’s always been a way for me to pursue other goods, personal but especially political.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Government Policy, Philosophy of Science, Science and Technology Studies, Feminist Philosophy, Values in Science, Fellowship
Sharyn Clough
“With John Dewey, we wanted to encourage the idea that wisdom isn’t something you have, it’s something you do.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Phronesis, Pragmatism, Peace Studies, Philosophy for Children, Undergraduate and Graduate Education, Teaching
Stephanie Jenkins
“In the philosophy classroom, my aim is to catalyze…transformative experience for my students.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Student-Led Interviews, Phish, Philosophy of Art, Philosophy of Music, Teaching
Cristina Cammarano
“We connect our experience in the local public school, which has wonderful dedicated teachers serving a student population that is for the most part in poverty, with larger questions about inequality, policy, and resource allocation.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Education, Philosophy For Children, Philosophy Of Education, Teaching
Ian Olasov
“The Ask a Philosopher booths have been super gratifying…you get to make these intense, intimate, unpredictable, sort of sweetly ephemeral connections with complete strangers.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Public Philosophy, Podcast, Brooklyn Public Philosophers, Ask a Philosopher, Op-Ed
Megan Halteman Zwart
“Equipping students with skills and knowledge about how to plug into existing organizations will benefit any community the students eventually find themselves in.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Food Ethics, Semester Course, Field Trips, Teaching
Eric Weber
“When you put your work out there, people sometimes pay attention.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Public Philosophy, Radio, Podcast, Op-Ed, SOPHIA
John Torrey
“To change how Blacks are socially recognized, we must change how Blacks are valued in society. One way is by highlighting in educational spaces how central Black contributions are for society.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Pre-College Philosophy, Discussion Groups, Education, Black Americans, Teaching
Lisa Kretz
“I realized the import of tending to the emotional impact of coursework on students. In particular, I started to think about the importance of fostering hope in the classroom.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Social Change, Student-Designed Civic Engagement, Teaching
Peter Shea
“I came to think of my public work primarily as making lives available to people so that they could think about their own lives in relation to interesting alternatives.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Film, Cable TV, Intellectual Geography, Lives, Interviews
Peter Singer
“[P]hilosophy is more than an intellectual exercise. It changes lives.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Utilitarianism, Public Philosophy, Effective Altruism
Sharon Meagher
“I believe that the arts and humanities are the great equalizers, not only because they supply the content of the values that we must bring to civically engaged work, but because ‘expertise’ does not function in the same way that it does with the professional schools.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Philosophy of the City, Feminism, Arts, Humanities, Community Partners, Creative Placemaking
Yi Deng
“To learn from a group of passionate friends and practice what you have learned together—is this not a joy?” Read the full interview.
Themes: Student-Designed Civic Engagement, Ethics, Semester Course, Cosmopolitanism, Teaching
Sarah K. Donovan
“Civic engagement projects build a common context of experience that we can draw on in discussion. This helps us to build trust that is essential to developing a strong intellectual community, and sets the tone for us to be creative as we connect theory to practice.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Learning Community, Ethics, Tutoring, Immigration, Debate Club, Teaching
Monica “Mo” Janzen
“I want my students to know that they can choose the life they want to have, that they can overcome tragedy/suffering, that people care about them, and that they have power to effect change in the world.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Community College, Ethics, Experiments in Ethics, Student-Initiated Civic Engagement Projects, Citizenship, Teaching
Andrew Winters
“Being able to help members of the community recognize philosophy’s capacity to assist them in living more reflective and thoughtful lives is worth waking early to greet the stars.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Stoicism, International Stoic Week, Lifestyle, Cosmopolitanism
Adam Briggle
“I hope students walk away seeing that many of our problems today actually hinge on philosophical and humanistic questions even though they are packaged as technological or economic in nature.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Field Philosophy, Technology, Environment, Fracking, Government, Teaching
Nancy McHugh
Teaching in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program “forces me to think about justice, ethics, and our obligations to others every time I teach and every time I reflect on the experience.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Prison, Justice, Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, Environment, Student-Led Project, Teaching
Michael Burroughs
“I believe that philosophy, or asking and considering philosophical questions in life, is part of the human condition. So, I’m interested in, and my research centers on, engaging in philosophical work and related questioning with a wide range of people, especially children.” Read the full interview
Themes: Philosophy for Children, Ethics, Research, Teaching
Amy Reed-Sandoval
“The Philosophy for Children in the Borderlands program is very much a community dialogue about philosophy itself and what it can do for us—and in this sense the program both benefits and is benefited by the El Paso-Juárez community.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Latinx Philosophy, Philosophy for Children, Volunteer Work, Community Partners, Teaching
Chad Wiener
“Students learn that real projects do not follow a linear path—they demand your creative attention to address problems as they arise.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Practical Philosophy, Character Development, Student Designed Projects, Community Partners, Teaching
Soazig Le Bihan
“The feedback I get from students is that they get a sense of how projects that seem small can matter a lot.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Practical Philosophy, Examined Life, Student Designed Projects, Teaching
Kathie Jenni
“Experiencing the undisputed facts themselves often brings about personal transformations, changes in worldview, and commitments to long-term activism.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Animals, Intensive, Volunteer Work, Seminar, Teaching
Stephen Bloch-Schulman
“Civic engagement work with students is powerful, fun, hard as all get-out, and nerve-wracking. Did I mention fun? It is.” Read the full interview.
Themes: Ableism, Trust, Feminism, Justice, Community Outreach, Teaching