The Whiting Foundation has just announced that they will be awarding seven $50,000 Fellowships and five $10,000 Seed Grants to a vibrant cross-section of public-humanities collaborations. We are pleased to announce that the APA’s nominee Dr. Michael Burroughs (California State University, Bakersfield) has been awarded one of the Fellowships for his project Humanities Beyond Bars—a public program on incarceration that reimagines public safety, exploring the philosophical and historical roots of prisons and their material and social consequences, featuring scholars, activists, and formerly incarcerated students. For more information, please see the Whiting Foundation’s announcement.
The Whiting Public Engagement Program (WPEP) is a distinctive national grant founded to champion the public humanities in all forms, and to highlight the roles scholars play in working to deploy the humanities for the public good. Since it began in 2016, the WPEP has given $2.4 million to launch and expand projects in the US and beyond. Winners are selected through a highly competitive process beginning with nomination by a university, scholarly society, or state humanities council and proceeding through two further stages of peer review by expert public humanists.
Michael D. Burroughs is an associate professor of philosophy and director of the Kegley Institute of Ethics at California State University, Bakersfield. He also serves as vice president of the Public Philosophy Network and is a past president of the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization. Michael is the founding editor of Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice, a journal devoted to advancing research in and on public philosophy. He has held past leadership and academic positions at Penn State University (Rock Ethics Institute and Department of Philosophy) and UNC-Chapel Hill (Parr Center for Ethics and Department of Philosophy). In his work as an educator, he focuses on ethics, ethics education and moral development, philosophy of education, public philosophy, and social and feminist epistemology. In his work at the Kegley Institute, he strives to make philosophy and ethics accessible and engaging both at and beyond the university, including a focus on working with children and teachers in Pre-K and K-12 schools, senior citizens, and currently and formerly incarcerated persons. More information on Michael’s work and current projects can be found on his professional website: www.michaeldeanburroughs.com.
