I have never experienced anything quite like this workshop … the experience was overwhelmingly positive, as well as being deeply useful professionally.
—Participant in the 2021 Institute

​Ned Hall is Norman E. Vuilleumier Professor of Philosophy and chair of the philosophy department at Harvard University. He is a leading scholar of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of science. Hall was educated at Reed College and Princeton University, where he received his PhD in philosophy. His books include Causation: A User’s Guide, co-authored with L. A. Paul (2013). Hall served for five years as the faculty chair of Harvard’s Standing Committee on General Education and in 2019 was named a Harvard College Professor in recognition of his commitment to research and transformative teaching.

​Rethinking the “History of Philosophy” Course

Presenter to be announced.

Philosophy and the Good Life

Meghan Sullivan is Wilsey Family College Professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Notre Dame Institute of Advanced Study. She is author of Time Biases: A Theory of Rational Planning and Personal Persistence (2018) and God and the Good Life with Paul Blaschko (2022).

Minds and Machines

Eric Swanson is professor of philosophy and linguistics at the University of Michigan, where he teaches the popular “Minds and Machines” course, and faculty affiliate at the university’s Weinberg Institute for Cognitive Science. He has written widely on the interfaces between language and epistemology, language and metaphysics, and language and ethics.

Narratives of Freedom and Justice

Ronald R. Sundstrom is professor of philosophy at the University of San Francisco, where he also teaches in the African American Studies program and the Honors College. His research embraces philosophy of race, mixed-race identity and politics, political and social philosophy, justice and ethics in urban policy, and African American and Asian American philosophy. He is the author of The Browning of America and The Evasion of Social Justice (2008) and Just Shelter: Integration, Gentrification, and Racial Equality (forthcoming).

Argument Mapping in the Philosophy Classroom

Mara Harrell is teaching professor of philosophy at the University of California San Diego. She specializes in philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, epistemology, and the use of technology to teach philosophy. She is the author of What Is the Argument? An Introduction to Philosophical Argument and Analysis (2016) and received the 2018 Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching, presented jointly by the three leading national philosophy associations.

Building a Vibrant Philosophy Program

John Rudisill, associate professor of philosophy and former department chair, and Elizabeth Schiltz, Raju Chair of East-West Philosophy, The College of Wooster. Rudisill is author of "The Transition From Studying Philosophy to Doing Philosophy," which provided a blueprint for transforming the philosophy curriculum and pedagogy at Wooster.

​The 2022 Institute will be held at the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court Hotel in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland. Lodging, most meals, and other expenses will be covered by CIC and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Participants or their institutions will be expected to provide transportation to and from Baltimore, although CIC will provide participants with a stipend of up to $250 to be used toward travel-related expenses.

​Guidelines

Up to 30 participants will be selected by competitive nomination. Nominees must be full-time, ongoing faculty members in philosophy (or a closely-related program) to assure that their institutions will continue to benefit from the content of the Institute for the foreseeable future. Faculty members of all academic ranks are eligible to participate.

Faculty members must be nominated by an institution's chief academic officer. Each institution can nominate one faculty member—as long as no one from the institution already participated in the 2021 Institute. Nominating institutions must be members of CIC in good standing.

Please assemble all of the materials below before submitting a nomination through the online portal. A complete nomination packages should be submitted as one document in PDF format. The nomination package includes:

1. A nomination letter from the chief academic officer explaining how the institution’s teaching of philosophy will benefit from the nominee’s participation in the Institute.
   
   
2. The nominee’s statement of interest, describing why they want to participate in the Institute. The statement should be no longer than two pages and address:
   • current challenges facing the institution’s philosophy program;
   • opportunities to strengthen the philosophy program; and
   • the expected impact of the Institute on the development of new courses, revision of existing courses, or any other aspect of the philosophy curriculum.
3. The nominee’s curriculum vitae (the "short version" is preferred).

Nomination Deadline

Please submit nomination materials online by January 21, 2022. The selected participants will be notified by March 2022. New Currents in Teaching Philosophy will be offered again in 2023.

​For questions about the Institute or nomination process, contact Philip M. Katz, director of projects, Council of Independent Colleges, at (202) 466-7230 or pkatz@cic.edu.

​On July 27, 2020, CIC hosted a special webinar—"Teaching Philosophy in Troubled Times"—for faculty members who were nominated to participate in the inaugural Institute. A recording of the webinar is  available. During the webinar, Ned Hall (Harvard University) discusses the unique challenges and enduring value of studying philosophy in times of crisis. Meghan Sullivan (University of Notre Dame) describes the evolution of Notre Dame’s innovative "God and the Good Life" course. And Paul Blaschko (University of Notre Dame) offers a practical workshop on designing or transforming philosophy courses for an online or hybrid format—with a focus on engaging students and making the best use of digital technologies. The webinar will be useful to faculty members in many liberal arts disciplines, not just philosophy.