The American Philosophical Association is pleased to announce that it will provide grants to 10 philosophy-related projects in the 2022–2023 fiscal year. For more information on these programs, visit the funded projects page of our website. Congratulations to all grant recipients!

Diversity and Inclusiveness Grants

The board of officers originally committed up to $20,000 for 2022–2023 to support one or two programs aiming to increase the presence and participation of underrepresented groups in philosophy. Learn more. Out of eight applications seeking a total of $139,041 in support, the board ultimately chose to fund the following two projects at $10,000 each.

• The Lavender Library: Institutionalizing Access to Queer Theory, Courses and Speakers at a Regional Comprehensive University in the South ($10,000)
• Savage Education: Epistemic Injustices of Native American Boarding Schools ($10,000)

Small Grant Program

Each fiscal year, the APA Eastern Division provides $25,000 for the APA’s Small Grant Program. This year’s grant application process was quite competitive, with 15 proposals requesting a total of $60,303 from our $25,000 grant fund. The following eight programs will receive funding:

• 2023 Latinx Philosophy Conference ($1,250)
• Decolonial Philosophies Feminism Conference ($2,750)
• Directory of Archives of Feminist Philosophers, Journals, and Organizations ($3,500)
• the ethi{CS} project: Professional Development on Ethics and Ethics Pedagogy for CS and Tech Educators ($3,550)
• Iowa Lyceum ($1,200)
• Learning Assistants for Philosophy: A Sustainable Model for Career-Oriented Colleges and Universities ($2,750)
• Pedagogy Resident at the Hamilton College Summer Program in Philosophy ($5,000)
• Policing, Policy, and Philosophy Initiative (3PI) ($5,000)

Diversity and Inclusiveness Grants

The Lavender Library: Institutionalizing Access to Queer Theory, Courses and Speakers at a Regional Comprehensive University in the South ($10,000)

According to the Public Religion Research Institute, Arkansans are the least supportive of measures to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination compared to all states (3/26/19). Following the central tenet that queer theory include praxis to challenge the logic of domination, the University of Central Arkansas will support the community by creating The Lavender Library: Institutionalizing Access to Queer Theory, Courses and Speakers at a Regional Comprehensive University in the South. This initiative meets needs of LGBTQ+ students in a safe, life-affirming space. Focus areas include identity development; queer theory; transgender representation; gender expression; gender identity; sexuality; intersex experiences; and intersectionality. Scholarly, autobiographical, and reference/resource materials focus on aspects of LGBTQ+ life including art; drama; health and medicine; history; legal issues; literature; music; politics; psychology; philosophy; religion; theory; and work/career issues.

Savage Education: Epistemic Injustices of Native American Boarding Schools ($10,000)

The aim of the Savage Education project is to identify and understand colonial, western pedagogical practices that contribute to the absence of Native American students (and other students of color) in philosophy. By researching and discussing the curriculum and pedagogical practices of Native American boarding schools, we hope to find better practices that encourage under-represented students to engage with philosophy courses. It will also provide early-career Native American philosophers with an opportunity to collaborate and develop research projects pertaining to Native American philosophy of education.

Small Grant Program

2023 Latinx Philosophy Conference ($1,250)

This proposal is for the 2023 Latinx Philosophers’ Conference. The first conference was organized by Latin American philosophy graduate students Mariana Noé, Ignacio Ojea, and César Cabezas at Columbia University in 2016. Since then, the conference has been held at Rutgers, Marquette, MSU Denver, and Temple University. This is a yearly conference that brings together Latinx philosophers from all around the United States. The conference provides a space for Latinx philosophers to share their philosophical work, earn valuable conference-related experience, network with their peers, and establish mentorship relationships. The 2023 conference will be held at Temple University in April 2023. The keynote speakers are Mariana Ortega (Penn State) and Manuel Vargas (UC San Diego).

Decolonial Philosophies Feminism Conference ($2,750)

For the 2022–2023 academic year, we aim to organize a graduate-level conference and provide an opportunity for interaction, mentoring, and community-building for graduate students working in the areas of decolonial feminism(s). We plan to build a network that recognizes the work of scholars working in the fields of decolonial thought and feminist philosophy. The term “decolonial thought” is used as an umbrella term that accommodates postcolonial feminisms, non-western feminism, categories, and studies that question the analytical term of “woman” and indigenous feminisms. Without the intervention of such feminisms, feminist philosophy and philosophy as a discipline lacks the much-needed intervention and rethinking necessary for revaluation of both disciplines. This initiative will diversify and extend the conversations happening in philosophical circles and bring a much necessary practice of dialogue, solidarity, and exchange amongst the scholarship produced from the global south.

Directory of Archives of Feminist Philosophers, Journals, and Organizations ($3,500)

The aim of the project is to create a website that will serve as a source directory of archives of feminist philosophers as well as journals and organizations of feminist philosophy. This annotated directory will enable scholars researching a wide range of topics and individuals in feminist philosophy to locate archived materials and enable enriched understanding of the evolution and connections among various strands of feminist thought. Funding will support not only creating the website, but also publicizing it on social media and communicating individually with many philosophers, librarians, and archivists. In this project, “feminist philosophers” includes feminist theorists in related disciplines.

the ethi{CS} project: Professional Development on Ethics and Ethics Pedagogy for CS and Tech Educators ($3,550)

The ethi{CS} project—a project run by educators at Phillips Academy, Andover, and incubated by the Tang Institute—focuses on a pedagogical method for introducing ethics into computer science classrooms and has, since 2019, built a community of computer science (CS) and technology educators and philosophers.

In the 2022–2023 school year, the ethi{CS} project will partner with Open Design Studio at Duke University to launch two projects: (1) a professional development program designed for CS and technology educators, and (2) begin to design and build a digital, open-access version of the same. We are in conversation with the Massachusetts Department of Education (DESE) to develop this PD to meet state standards for CS education (and to become approved as a Professional Development provider), and thus can be directly useful to public school educators in the state (and others with similar standards).

Iowa Lyceum ($1,200)

The Iowa Lyceum is a free academic summer camp that introduces philosophy to high school students. It is organized and run by the graduate students at the University of Iowa, and hosts its own professors and alumni for expert-led presentations throughout the week. Not only do the graduate students organize the Lyceum, but they also facilitate open-ended and thought-provoking philosophical discussions and activities with the students. The Iowa Lyceum is entering its tenth year and is shifting its priority to cater to its growing base of international students and focusing on bringing minorities to philosophy. The next Iowa Lyceum will be held entirely over Zoom and will be part of a collaboration with both the University of Iowa’s MAP (Minorities and Philosophy) chapter and International

Universities, a platform for high school students in South America, which helps students prepare their academic profiles for their university applications in the United States.

Learning Assistants for Philosophy: A Sustainable Model for Career-Oriented Colleges and Universities ($2,750)

Although many departments across the country have found ways to increase students’ engagement with philosophy, philosophers have yet to discover a sustainable, reproducible means for increasing engagement with philosophy at small, career-oriented colleges and universities. In order to bridge this gap, this project plans to expand the Learning Assistant program for philosophy at the University of Mary, a program that trains upper-level undergraduate majors to lead weekly dialogues for introductory philosophy courses. Building on our experience with Learning Assistant programs at the University of Mary, this project will increase the number of Learning Assistants in philosophy, enrich their training through a tailored course, provide them with opportunities to lead philosophy disputations at a local high school, and publish organizational and pedagogical documents that can be used by other career-oriented institutions to start similar programs on a minimal budget.

Pedagogy Resident at the Hamilton College Summer Program in Philosophy ($5,000)

Each summer, the Hamilton College Summer Program in Philosophy runs an innovative pedagogy lab with three instructors, three graduate student tutors, and twenty ambitious undergraduates for three concurrent, two-week courses in philosophy. The program gives instructors, whose courses are chosen for their pedagogical creativity, the opportunity to experiment with new pedagogies for two weeks and culminates, for instructors and graduate student tutors, in a conference on pedagogy. We propose to broaden the HCSPiP’s pedagogical impact by bringing in a Pedagogy Resident. The Resident would oversee special pedagogical programming throughout the program as well as pedagogical outreach via collaborations for publishing and conference presentations. The Pedagogy Resident will improve the value of the HCSPiP for instructors and tutors, helping them to reflect on their pedagogical experiments and organizing discussions about pedagogy, before, throughout, and after the program.

Policing, Policy, and Philosophy Initiative (3PI) ($5,000)

The Policing, Policy, and Philosophy Initiative (3PI), based at Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute, fosters collaboration and research on the ethical dimensions of policing and public safety, with an emphasis on informing policy. Many ongoing public debates over policing are, at their heart, simultaneously moral questions and question about social justice. Philosophers and ethicists have a valuable role to play in advancing these debates and our understanding of the responsibilities of police in a democratic society, what rules should govern them, and how best to promote public safety in a manner consistent with justice and fairness. 3PI promotes these goals through building an international network of philosophers and ethicists with expertise in policing, highlighting philosophical research on policing, organizing forums and competitions to encourage such research, and connecting scholars with policymakers, police practitioners, and community leaders.