Andrew Cullison is currently the founding executive director of the Cincinnati Ethics Center, which launched at the University of Cincinnati in January 2022. Prior to that, he was the director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University.
What do you do at the APA?
I am the Secretary-Treasurer of the Eastern Division. I started the position in January 2023, but a fun fact is that I was also Secretary-Treasurer from 2013 to 2017, and I am happy to be back in this role. If you want to learn more about the role, this post by my successor (and predecessor) is a really good read.
What excites you about philosophy?
My answer might be more about why I am excited for philosophy (or the future of philosophy). Philosophy is ubiquitous. It’s everywhere, and when I crossed over into administrative/executive roles, it was initially very surprising to me how much of my role either involved simply doing philosophy or was made easier because of skills that came from philosophy. I always believed it was a “practical” major for my students, but I had never worked in a more traditional office environment with non-academics until I was 15+ years into my academic career. Higher education is getting more and more “career-oriented,” and while that distresses me for a variety of reasons, I think there is an opportunity for philosophy to thrive even if higher education continues in this direction.
What’s your favorite quote?
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” – Frederick Douglass
I have a lot of “favorite quotes” but this one has been haunting me (in a good way) for the past year. I’ve been somewhat obsessed with trying to articulate the value of ethics education, particularly to non-academic parents who might think of “ethics education” as “trying to instill the professor’s values on their kids.” So something I’ve been trying to communicate to parents, students, and administrators is that ethics education is basically moral reasoning development and moral reasoning skills, particularly if they are widespread across a population, can function like a kind of vaccine against injustice by “giving voice to your values.” And there are studies that suggest when people are good at moral reasoning they are more likely to demonstrate moral courage—which basically just means they are more likely to speak up when they see something they think is wrong or unjust. Frederick Douglas is spot on, and it’s a good quote to lean on when articulating the value of ethics education and moral reasoning development.
Where is your favorite place you have ever traveled and why?
It’s a toss-up between St. Pete Beach and Grand Marais, MN. They are both beautiful parts of the country, and they are both nostalgic for me. My family and I went to the same spot in St. Pete Beach since 1985 when I was a young kid. My wife’s family has been going to the Boundary Waters in MN since the early ‘80s—I started going there with her family almost every year for the last 20+ years. We also still regularly go there.
What are you most proud of in your non-professional life?
The Halloween costumes I’ve made for my two kids over the years. I’m not cosplay-level good at it, but for a once-a-year hobby, I don’t think they turned out too bad.
