About

The Public Philosophy Initiative (PPI) at Boston College is a project that provides resources to graduate students interested in building careers in public philosophy— allowing their philosophical inquiry to support real-world problem-solving.

Public Philosophy Technical Workshop

The Technical Workshop is a weekly workshop where graduate students meet to develop their own public philosophy projects. We discuss what Public Philosophy is, the ethics of public philosophy, do hands-on exercises to guide students through the development of their own projects technical skills to aid those projects. Technical skills range from participatory action research methodologies to grant writing. Students who participate in the workshop for one year and present their work at an end-of-year colloquium are awarded a certificate to mark their participation.

Exemplar Workshops

The Public Philosophy Initiative regularly invites faculty and public philosophy exemplars beyond academia to host hands-on workshops with students on skills they have found helpful for building their careers, as well as discussions about how they developed their careers in public philosophy and what they’ve learned along the way. Exemplars are all invited to join our digital network where they can continue to connect with other students and public philosophers, supporting one another’s work beyond the workshops.

Community & Digital Resources

PPI is building an online network to showcase their students and the mentors who support our efforts. This is a great place to meet other folks doing public philosophy and exchange resources! We also offer public-access digital resources that have been developed as guiding exercises for our technical workshop. Here, you can work at your own pace and access the many technical skills we have explored over the years at PPI! Feel free to reach out with other resources you think could be helpful to those engaged in public philosophy!

Ian Olasov, Director, Public Philosophy Network (PPN), PPI Faculty Mentor, Editor, Companion to Public Philosophy

“Public philosophers often work in isolation from one another. There's a lot of reinventing the wheel, and while it's often personally rewarding, it's seen professionally as a sort of cute or trivial extracurricular. It's so heartening that energetic and enthusiastic young philosophers are developing programs like PPI, bringing public philosophers together to collaborate and share resources and do the work. You love to see it.

Meet the Leadership Team!

  • Michaila Peters

    FOUNDER & DIRECTOR

    GRANT WRITING/SUPERVISOR

  • Gregory Fried

    FACULTY ADVISOR

  • Laura Santer

    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, GRANT WRITING ASSITANT

    Participant, Certificate Awardee, 2022-present

Thanks to our sponsors