- My projects start from the premise that we have poor solutions to repair our broken world. We have mistaken our problems for something other than what they really are. Inequality, violence, economic, political, and environmental injustices might be better understood as problems of care.
- The decaying social and political fabric, our natural and built environments in crises, our organizations and institutions buckling under stresses should be reframed as problems of care. My decades of research and practice into these issues became the scaffold for the seminar on Philosophy of Care. This seminar inquires into how an ethics and politics of care can serve as a theoretical grounding to understand pressing social, political, economic, and environmental needs. This work is a component part of a group I am a part of called, the Maintainers network. We are a global research network interested in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world. I apply this care based perspective to institutions, organizations, questions of action and agency, and practical ethics.
- This project has resulted in creation of the Care Lab. The Care Lab unites theory, research, and practice. Our work supports practices and interventions that identify problems and solutions, guide policy and practice, assist private sector and non-profit organizations, government and military agencies, philanthropic organizations, K-12 and higher educational institutions, and public health agencies integrating care, maintenance, and repair into decision making, organizational culture, programs, policies, and activities.
- My research and teaching sits at the intersection of history, ethics, politics, and education. As a Historian who specializes in American History I use history as a site to explore and understand issues of leadership and strategy. As a Philosopher I bring the tools of ethical and political theory and critical analysis to public policy problems and issues facing organizations and institutions.
- My experience with the pandemic reframed my trajectory. Along with my focus on the Philosophy of Care, I also focus on the place of humor in our lives. I lead a seminar on Philosophy and Humor. “Socrates walks into philosophy class and says…” This seminar introduces philosophy while it models and encourages critical thinking practices by a study of philosophical issues related to laughter, comedy, and humor. Historical and contemporary philosophical theories of humor as well as the psychological, political, and moral dimensions of humor sits at the core of the inquiry. The seminar explores jokes, the absurd, the forms and types of humor, as well as the possibilities of humor as a tool of personal, organizational, and political transformation. Examples from the visual, performing, and printed arts run alongside our philosophical texts.
One core idea of my work as an educator, both before the pandemic and certainly after, is that intellectual growth and critical inquiry can run in parallel with mirth, respect for others, care, play, fun, experimentation, laughter, and joy. The dark, the sad, the tragic, the serious; they are always with us when we think and read and write about humor and care. What we laugh at and why is terribly serious and very important. Humor and Care are important philosophical topics. No joke.
- A new project, justice across the generations, addresses the moral and political status of children and youth. What would an global, intergenerational and intragenerational theory of justice look like? How might the when of theory figure in questions of distributive and formative justice? I explore how we can understand responsibilities and obligations to the natural environment and the human and non-human animals of the future. The project tries to construct concepts can be brought to bear to understand moral and political issues of the past, present, and future. Future work will focus on the discursive, moral, and political character of apologies for past injustice and the case for reparations. How do the demands of justice and care function in individual lives and in sustainable societies?
One of the things that has always interested me is what makes people interested in the things, the ideas, and the projects they pursue. To that end, I am interested in environmental philosophy (I was a scout), discourse ethics, (I was a debater), philosophy of care, (I am a husband, father, son, friend, philosopher, etc.), classical and contemporary theories of citizenship, and ethical issues in society, (I read the news).