Photo: DePauw University, 2024
I believe that philosophy finds its fullest expression in our public lives, and ought to be practiced as such.
Done well, I think philosophy can engage all in meaningful inquiry about their values, beliefs, and about their personal, social, and political lives more generally. Given this picture, I am committed to developing meaningful and productive relationships between the academy and the surrounding community and society. I believe this involves taking seriously community members’ natural curiosity and ability to think carefully about fundamental ideas, and I strive to make opportunities to think philosophically as widely available as possible.
The Prindle Institute for Ethics
I am Associate Director for Content Strategy and Engagement at the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University, where I also teach in the Department of Philosophy. At the Institute, I oversee all digital platforms, products, and services which advance our educational mission. These include The Prindle Post newsmagazine, the renowned Teaching Children Philosophy resource collection, and the popular Examining Ethics podcast. I also lead the Institute’s national partnerships and public engagement initiatives. To learn more about the Prindle Institute and its various programs, please visit prindleinstitute.org.
Examining Ethics
HOST + EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
I oversee the development and production of the Prindle Institute’s popular podcast, Examining Ethics. The show is designed to bring insights from the cutting edge of moral philosophy and ethics education to a broad and general audience. Typical episodes feature a ~30 minute interview with the author of a new book or article exploring an interesting ethical question or dilemma. Slightly longer “special feature” episodes for the 2024-2025 season experiment with different sorts of questions and formats. Recent episodes have included a discussion with Krista Thomason (Swarthmore) on the ethics of negative emotions, and a conversation with Michael Vazquez (UNC) and Michael Prinzing (Wake Forest) about whether and how studying philosophy leads students to develop intellectual virtues. Examining Ethics is available from all major podcasting platforms, and new episodes release during the first week of each month.
Teaching Children Philosophy
CHIEF CURATOR
The Prindle Institute is the digital home of the renowned Teaching Children Philosophy resource library, which I have the honor to curate and develop for our K-5 audiences. Originally created by philosopher Thomas Wartenberg at Mt. Holyoke College in the early 2000s, Teaching Children Philosophy has benefitted from contributions from many, and grown to include over 200 discussion guides to engage young thinkers in philosophical inquiry and discussion through works of children’s literature. The resource library serves thousands of teachers and their students from all around the world each year.
Other Public Philosophy Projects
APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB)
2020-Present
I have been involved with the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl for many years. As an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, I sit on the APPE IEB Steering Committee, as well as on APPE IEB’s National Championship Organizing Committee. In 2024, I began serving as Regional Organizer of the APPE IEB Online Regional Competition, and I sit on APPE IEB’s Regional Council in that capacity.
Students discuss a case at the 2022 National High School Ethics Bowl Championship. Photo: Alex Berenfeld
Assessing the Development of Deliberative Virtues
2022-present
In recent years, I have worked with an interdisciplinary team of researchers including Michael Prinzing (Yale, Philosophy/Psychology) and Michael Vazquez (UNC-CH, Philosophy) to develop an ongoing empirical research program to assess the National High School Ethics Bowl and other related public philosophy programs. More specifically, we have been interested in whether participation in these programs measurably helps students develop key intellectual and interpersonal traits like intellectual humility, curiosity, and various other deliberative skills. In 2024, I have begun incorporating this methodology and others to study the development of similar skills and dispositions among both undergraduate students and younger adolescents participating in various ethics education programs.
The National High School Ethics Bowl
2019-2024
From 2019-2024, I served as Director of the National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB), based at UNC’s Parr Center for Ethics. The NHSEB is an award-winning outreach program geared toward moral and civic education for thousands of high school students across the country. It is designed to get students, thinking, talking, and ultimately working together to understand and respond to the most complex moral and political issues of our time. An Ethics Bowl importantly differs from a debate competition in that students are not assigned opposing views; rather, they defend whichever position they think is correct, provide each other with constructive criticism, and win by demonstrating that they have thought rigorously and systematically about the cases and engaged respectfully and supportively with all participants.
Susan J. Brison (Dartmouth) delivers the Keynote Address at the 2019 PGSA @ UT Philosophy Conference, “The Moral and Political Challenges of Speech.”
PSGA @ UT Philosophy Conference
2017-2019
In the 2017-2018 academic year, I co-founded and organized (with Tylor Cunningham and Jeffrey Pannekoek) the now-annual PGSA @ UT Philosophy Conference at the University of Tennessee. Our inaugural conference, “Justice Across Borders," focused on migration, immigration, and international justice. In 2018-2019, I organized our second conference, "The Moral and Political Challenges of Speech." Each conference brought together twelve graduate and early-career scholars from across the world, engaging and incisive keynote speakers, and UT students and community members for a two-day conversation on complex issues of public interest.
GES 5th graders discuss environmental values in Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree at Walker County Schools’ STEAM Day in May 2014.
Environmental Ethics Outreach at Gilbert Elementary
2013-2015
In the summer of 2013, I worked with Savannah Oliver of the University of Mississippi to design a co-curricular program focusing on moral and environmental education for primary school students. Over the course of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 academic years, I consulted on the implementation of this program, integrating it with pre-existing STEM curriculum in my hometown's school district to ensure that students could learn about important moral issues on familiar terms. As a result of this collaboration, a pilot program in partnership with Gilbert Elementary School encouraged students to engage each other in critical conversations, as well as learning about and grappling with tough moral and environmental issues in some of their favorite children’s books and films.