The American Philosophical Association (APA), the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT), and the Teaching Philosophy Association (TPA) are pleased to announce that Professor Maralee Harrell (Carnegie Mellon University) has been selected as the winner of the 2018 Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching.
The Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching, which includes $1,000 and a plaque, recognizes a philosophy teacher who has had a profound impact on the student learning of philosophy in undergraduate and/or pre-college settings. The selection committee received thirty-nine nominations of remarkable philosophy teachers in this year’s competition. Five finalists were selected to submit more detailed information, with Harrell emerging as the winner for her exceptional teaching achievements.
David Concepcion (Ball State University), chair of the APA committee on the teaching of philosophy, said, “Dr. Mara Harrell’s contributions to the teaching of philosophy are broad and deep. Harrell uses problem-based learning and other empirically validated pedagogies to help students meet the rigorous goals she sets for them. An example of her creativity is that she has ethics students put engineers on mock trial for the Flint water crisis. In her numerous publications regarding teaching, she has refined the key elements of argument mapping and created extremely flexible and useful argument mapping software. Because it is freely available online, and accompanies her textbook What is an Argument? (MIT, 2016), her research and software has helped many thousands of students improve their critical reasoning skills. Additionally, Dr. Harrell has a distinguished record as a service leader in philosophy teaching. Among other efforts, she directs teacher training programs and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Teaching Philosophy. Mara Harrell’s contributions to philosophy teaching have improved student learning in her classes, her department, her university, and throughout the world.”
Professor Harrell graduated with a B.A. in physics from Pomona College in 1992. She then received an M.S. in physics in 1996, and a Ph.D. in philosophy and science studies in 2000 from the University of California, San Diego. She was the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Colorado College before coming to Carnegie Mellon University in 2003. Harrell’s research interests include philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, epistemology, educational technology, and educational research.
