(Information partially updated, October 10,
2023)

Edward Sankowski, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

University of Oklahoma

Norman, OK 73019

USA

(University email)-esankowski@ou.edu;

(Personal email)-etsanko@gmail.com

I. Introduction and Overview

I received an MA and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Cornell University. I received my undergraduate BA degree in Philosophy from the City University of New York.

As a faculty member at a public research university, I suggest that readers of this website (who may be particularly interested in some of my research and creative activities) might want to look at a section of this website placed at the end:

XIV. Selective Illustrative Information about Publications, and Short List of Some Representative Publications (and selected research under review or moving towards publication)

I am comparably interested in teaching and outreach activities, as well as research and creative activity. Nonetheless, for those readers who weigh research especially heavily, reading section XIV may be particularly informative about me.

My current activities include work as a university faculty member, e.g., as a writer and researcher; teacher; and practitioner of outreach, community engagement, public service. My outreach, etc. includes local, national, and global dimensions (as illustrated below). I also work on other-than-academic projects as a person active in the world beyond academic organizations. As a faculty member and “consultant”, I have pragmatic and interdisciplinary interests in conjunction with (indeed often identical with) philosophical interests. I am a practitioner from within higher education systems. Besides that, I am a theorist seeking engaged objectivity about higher education systems, as well as a public advocate about higher education to internal and external constituencies. My advocacy role extends to my engaged citizenship and to other contexts, including various forms of extra-academic organizational innovation.

Extending well beyond academe (as an arena or as a topic), I exercise my version of engaged citizenship and organizational innovation generally, including concerns about local, national, and global issues. I also hope to further goals (e.g., about writing as such, in various modes, journalism (in an expansive sense), and about aesthetics and the arts) that extend beyond solely academic or political aims, in any confined sense of what is included in those terrains. My own writing- ; and the writing of those I teach, and interact with in research; and theory of, or reflections on language;- are central to what I do. This includes addressing philosophical topics, the study of literature, journalism or quasi-journalism, and the evaluation of propaganda.

I am a former member (and past President) of the board of directors of the state affiliate of a major national-level non-profit civic organization (name to be supplied on request!) I have served and may in future further serve that non-profit in its executive, finance, budget and educational functions, through fund-raising activities, through sharing in strategic planning, and in other ways.

I previously served (for two years, during June, 2016-May, 2018) as President-Elect (and have served, beginning June 1, 2018 and to May 31, 2020, as President) of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Oklahoma Conference. That is a usually reformist, but sometimes more thoughtfully critical, rightfully assertive organization explicitly concerned about academic freedom and related values. John Dewey was one of the co-founders of the AAUP in the early 20th century. I transitioned into a role as Past President of the Oklahoma Conference of AAUP on June 1, 2020. Thus, I have participated in transitions to two successive new Presidents, persons I respect and trust. I intend to continue commitment to AAUP-type issues. This entails responding with innovative initiatives to the re-structuring of the AAUP (and its activist supplementation) as a national organization.

As an extra-academic but citizenly commitment, I am also involved in voter education and voter registration activities.

I have registered a Limited Liability Company under relevant legal auspices with the objective of exploring possible contributions to societal development of this mode of organization.

I have been a member of the board of a non-profit trust in India aimed at improving life for the disadvantaged.

I am interested in individual and group decision-making, and draw on resources from philosophy, the social sciences, professional practice areas (such as law, medicine, engineering, journalism, public administration, business and finance), science and technology studies, and the arts, among other areas, in investigating and furthering good decision-making.

I believe that academics should act with ethical insight put to good effect not only in academic institutions but also in the non-academic world. However, not to oversimplify, besides ethics in its usual meaning, there are plenty of other types of values I care about. Besides their ethics aspects, love, hard-won knowledge (scientific and non-scientific), positive economic and societal development, aesthetics and the arts, technical ingenuity, etc. are among a variety of goods that attract my commitments.

Many decisions and active implementation of decisions include but go beyond ethics as a mode of normative engagement. This requires integrating a complex combination of ethics, law, international/global norms, management values, science, etc. This is particularly relevant, for example, with environmental studies.

I believe that both articulating and reasoning about what should be our values, explaining empirically why we have them, and acting on them, must be pursued together. This is tough to do well, and requires drawing on resources of many sorts, some of which I have mentioned.

I am interested in how the wider society makes higher education possible, and in what expectations are legitimate for the wider society about higher educational institutions. There are questions about how all the parts of human culture(s) that are supposed to be at universities and colleges can be assembled and supported, how they can live together at a school, and how such schools do and should interact with the wider society. As part of addressing this, I aim to understand the expanding goals and problems of higher education, its economics, its political and cultural roles. I hope to do my modest part to influence, for the better, higher education and society generally. I am actively attentive about where the resources come from that shape higher education, including legislative appropriations (insofar as they are relevant for the particular institution), student tuition and fees, admissions and retention policies, grants and contracts, fund-raising and philanthropy, auxiliary enterprises, organizational partnerships, etc. How this translates into the budgets, the operations, and the avowed moral or many other purposes of any university or college does occupy me. But this is only as one aspect of social organization in a wider world beyond academe. In a larger sense, it is social organization generally, and the quality of the lives that it makes possible, and other large values, that most matter; and higher education is only one of the dimensions of social organization.

REPEAT AND EMPHASIZE: In a larger sense, it is social organization generally, and the quality of the lives that it makes possible, that most matter; and higher education is only one of the dimensions of social organization. It is the wider world that I am primarily engaged in, and that gives context and meaning to academic activities. Surprisingly, this is a point occasionally forgotten by academics who may become overwhelmingly preoccupied with more isolated internecine matters.

II. My Current Writing and Practical Work

My current work is within a number of overlapping frameworks.

(A) Most prominent in my priorities currently is research in the area of interdisciplinary environmental studies/environmental policy/environmental sciences. This includes sustainability issues, and environmental justice matters, and it extends to certain areas of the environment that impact public health.

(B) My current work is also in part about what might be called Politics and Higher Learning. It is about many issues arising for decision-making concerning research universities (in particular), other schools as well, and about societal educational alternatives in an increasingly globalizing political economy and culture(s). Thus, the topics include (not listed in order of emphasis): globalization and internationalization, cross-national values differences impacting higher education, academic freedom and university governance, research on human subjects, the self-critique and improvement of academic disciplines, interdisciplinary research, diversity, university alliances with non-academic institutions, energy issues, environmental challenges, the ethics of public health research, the globalization of ethics, science and technology studies, liberal education, arts, aesthetics, and entertainment, vocational education, etc. My topics include questions about democratic legitimacy and the role(s) of research universities in broader political and educational contexts.

(C) Another aspect of my current work is about what might be called Normative Frameworks for Economic and Societal Development. This overlaps with (and includes) my interests in Environmental Studies/Environmental Policy/Environmental Sciences, as well as Politics and Higher Learning, but is more directly about issues beyond colleges and universities. As an expression of this, (in parts of March, May, and June, 2016), I taught at, and participated in collaborative research through, a university in Central Europe. During my time there, I also engaged in investigative fieldwork in a variety of locations. All this work (in an EU country) was under the auspices of a faculty of environmental engineering and geodesy. I taught and otherwise interacted academically with students there at bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels. I taught topics in economic development studies; environmental studies; and on planning and management. Subsequently, I co-authored a book (Some Problems and Possibilities for Sustainable Development) about political economy and cultural development topics. My related research collaborations in Europe continue to the present, in November, 2021. I now serve on the editorial board of a European (indeed, global-scope) environmental studies journal. A recent (2022) co-edited research volume in which I have had a significant role (as lead author of the Preface and the concluding Summary) has come out with Springer Publishers, and includes two papers for which I can take considerable credit.

(D) I also have longstanding research and teaching interests in more obviously traditional fundamental philosophical questions about the conditions for (and nature of) freedom and responsibility. These interests include topics about “freedom, responsibility, and determinism”, and the politics, economics, and cultural aspects of freedom and responsibility, as well as democratic legitimacy.

III. Fundamentals of Social Organization, Globalization

Ongoing public problems worldwide in politics and the economy, as well as culture, to my mind, re-enforce my view that we all need to think much more deeply than usual and to be actively committed to improving the fundamentals of social organization.

One recent MAJOR global concern for research and activism is, of course, the current global pandemic. That obviously poses major problems for societal and more specifically, economic development, the role of higher education, public health, etc. etc. We can and should be intensely motivated to contribute to individual/ collective projects for dealing constructively with this pandemic (and its further implications) without being objectionably opportunistic. I have an interest in this topic.

An even more recent addition (especially after May, 2020) to our national and global challenges is a notable resurgence of (long highly problematic) racism, most obviously in the US, though there are much broader aspects about this. There has been a worldwide anti-racist response as well. This overall situation too demands continued attention in research, writing, and varied activism. I have an interest in this topic.

A more recent world-shaking event (starting most definitely on February 24, 2022) has obviously been the invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s Russia. The implications of this phenomenon are multiple, and include fundamental changes in the global economy, fears about the future generally, national and international security, energy issues, attitudes about land and its significance, the future of Europe, and particularly Central and Eastern Europe. This development is likely to generate challenges for higher education. I have an interest in and concern about these phenomena.

We need educational and organizational innovation to deal with fundamentals. These days, like many others, I am in particular pondering the implications of globalization or internationalization, both opportunities and problems. “Globalization” and “internationalization” need not be interchangeable, and “globalization” may sometimes be used pejoratively. I do not go into nice details about usage here, and I am not focusing solely on pejorative uses of “globalization”.

Interest in globalization is reflected in my previous university administrative work and also in my experience of faculty life, as well as my activities ranging beyond academe. For example, in teaching Ethical Theory, Social and Political Philosophy, and in the team-taught course, Political Economy, Technological Innovation, and Values (PETIV), I have been increasingly interested in how the globalization of ethics and public policy is changing the questions we must deal with. This is having a considerable impact on my writing as well, and my pragmatic extra-academic engagement. I hope to have said something new and helpful about globalization in my published and forthcoming research publications. I comment on PETIV a bit more below.

During 2014 through 2016, in particular, my travel to Poland, China, and South Africa, coordinated with my scholarly, educational, and pragmatic interests, sharpened my understanding of some features of globalization. In July, 2018, I participated (organizing sessions and reading a research paper, subsequently published) at a large-scale international conference in Brazil.

During Fall, 2019, I engaged in research travel to Poland (Poznan, IUAES) and Canada (Vancouver, AAA/CASCA), reading in each city a distinctive research paper at each international conference..

IV. Some More Recently Delivered Talks/Papers, etc.; also Selected Scheduled Talks/Papers

In November, 2023, I will deliver a research paper, Environmental Justice, Racial Justice, Transitions, and Urban Sustainable Development, at the Annual Meeting in Toronto of the American Anthropological Association.

In November, 2023, I will deliver a research paper, Racial Justice and University Admissions in Transition: Challenging “Rule of Law” Colorblindness, at the Annual Meeting in Toronto of the American Anthropological Association.

On October 16, 2023, I convened a panel on Identity and the Ensuing Politics, and delivered a research paper, “US Identity Politics, Critical Race Theory, and Culture Wars”, at a conference of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences & World Anthropological Union, in New Delhi, India.

On November 10, 2022, at an annual AAA meeting, “Unsettling Landscapes” (hybrid, in Seattle and digitally), I presented a research paper (online), Anthropology within Land-Centered Environmentalism: New Foci Charged with Culture-Laden History (Anthropology and Environment Society). Session Title: Nature, Narrative and Memory in Unsettled Landscapes.

I co-presented (by digital means, with Betty J. Harris) a paper on an environmental topic at an international conference in Krakow, Poland, during September, 2021: “Intricacies of Cultural Heritage and Land-Centered Environments”.

I presented a research paper on November 20, 2019 at “Changing Climates: Struggle, Collaboration, and Justice / Changer d’air: Lutte, collaboration et justice”, the joint meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA). The meeting was held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, 11/20/19-11/24/19. My paper was/is entitled: “Anthropology of Sustainable Development Ideologies, Languages, and Real-World Practices”. (I also chaired the session in which my paper was presented).

I presented a research paper on August 28, 2019 at an IUAES Inter-Congress: paper title- “Critique of Political Economy Includes Anthropology about Morality within Culture(s)”; 2019 IUAES (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) Inter-Congress in Poznan, Poland, at Adam Mickiewicz University, 8/27-8/31/2019-Conference theme: “World Solidarities”.

I engaged in research travel to an international conference in Brazil, IUAES 2018, in July, 2018 (the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences).  (This was the third time since 2009 that I presented at meetings of this society). I co-organized a “panel” (with four sessions and speakers from four countries) on development studies for the conference in Brazil, and I presented a research paper there. I served as co-convener of this international, multiple-participant panel (constructed with Professor Betty J. Harris), and with the vitally valuable cooperation of a Brazilian anthropologist, for these sessions held over two days on sustainable development at IUAES, which was held in Florianopolis, Brazil at the Federal University of Santa Caterina.

I presented three papers on academic freedom at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education, held in the Washington, DC area (Arlington, VA), June 14-17, 2018.

I wrote and presented two papers on research panel sessions, on April 5, 2017, at the Annual Meeting (in Chicago) of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences. One of these papers has subsequently been published in the journal, Politics and the Life Sciences (Cambridge University Press).

I wrote and presented a paper about the political economy of universities at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Shared Governance Conference, Washington, DC, September/October, 2016.

I co-wrote a paper with Professor Betty J. Harris on race and US universities, which she presented on behalf of both of us (I was out of the country in Central Europe) at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Annual Meeting on the State of Higher Education, Washington, DC, June, 2016. Ideas from this paper are projected to be part of a larger effort about Academic Freedom.

I did a presentation/paper/talk at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Annual Meeting on the State of Higher Education, Washington, DC, June, 2015. My talk was entitled “Academic Freedom, Academic Responsibility, Environmental Issues”. Ideas from this paper are projected to be part of a larger effort about Academic Freedom.

I did a presentation/paper/talk at an APCEO Worldwide (Asia-Pacific CEOs) conference, ICIS 2014 (International Culture Industry Summit) in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China, October 8-11, 2014. My talk was entitled: “Global Cooperation: Integrating Economic Development, Cultural Industries, Technology, and Universities”. More is said about APCEO below.

I did a presentation/paper/talk at the November 2013 Annual Meeting of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, held in Jacksonville, Florida. I organized the panel of speakers for this on the topic of university interactions between the (generic) College of Arts and Sciences and the (generic) Vice President for Research. This was not a commentary on any particular school, but a more general talk.

I did a presentation/paper/talk at the October 2013 Annual Meeting of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, held in Lubbock, Texas at Texas Tech University. The title: “The Political Economy of Healthcare-Some Current Issues about Healthcare System Changes in the US (in Global Context)”.

Some Other Talks/Papers, Visits, etc. (apologies for occasional repetitions of entries appearing elsewhere on this website)-listed by reference to societies/organizations

American Anthropological Association

On November 10, 2022, at an annual AAA meeting, “Unsettling Landscapes” (hybrid, in Seattle and digitally), I presented a research paper (online), Anthropology within Land-Centered Environmentalism: New Foci Charged with Culture-Laden History (Anthropology and Environment Society). Session Title: Nature, Narrative and Memory in Unsettled Landscapes.

I presented a research paper in November, 2019 at “Changing Climates: Struggle, Collaboration, and Justice / Changer d’air: Lutte, collaboration et justice”, the joint meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA). The meeting was held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, 11/20/19-11/24/19. My paper’s title: “Anthropology of Sustainable Development Ideologies, Languages, and Real-World Practices”.

International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES)-Some entries listed here overlap with listings elsewhere on this site.

I presented a research paper at an IUAES Inter-Congress: “Critique of Political Economy Includes Anthropology about Morality within Culture(s)”; 2019 IUAES (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) Inter-Congress in Poznan, Poland, at Adam Mickiewicz University, 8/27-8/31/2019- “World Solidarities”.

I co-organized and was a co-presenter on two panel sessions, and I was a speaker on another panel session, this third panel organized primarily by a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, at the 2013 meeting of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. This meeting, the 17th of this prestigious society, was held in Manchester, England at the University of Manchester, August 4-10, 2013. My co-written papers on the two co-organized panels (and in one case, my solo paper) were about the political economy of energy, especially horizontal hydraulic fracturing for shale gas (often called “fracking” technology); the globalization of university exchanges (research, education, and public service) including the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, the USA, and states within the USA; and the globalization of medical authority and public health involving political economic development interactions between the USA and India.

I presented a paper on July 28, 2009 at the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (ICAES), a function of a scholarly society IUAES mentioned previously above. This was another instance of a major periodic conference which is one aspect of the work of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES). This was the 16th international gathering of ICAES, and was held from July 27-31, 2009 in Kunming, China . There were an estimated four thousand participants. Typically, ICAES is held every five years, though of late further, more frequent congresses have been organized. My paper, “Global and National Dimensions of Universities, Public Health, and Economic Development”, was part of a section (which I also chaired) of a panel meeting. Others on the panel were academics and government officials from a variety of countries, including India, Italy , and Egypt . My overall travel to China on this occasion included time well spent in Beijing.

Visit with possible collaborators

In May, 2013, along with another faculty member (a professor of engineering) from the University of Oklahoma, and other collaborators, including a key representative of a major international  NGO, I visited the University of Utah, where still another collaborator (an economist formerly at the United Nations) is on the faculty at the University of Utah. We collectively explored possibilities for co-operation on university activities about sustainable development.

Speaker on panel discussing technology

On March 26, 2013, I was a speaker (about the ethics of public discussion) on a panel about Privacy and Social Policy Implications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (sometimes called “drones”), at a conference of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Summit held in Norman, Oklahoma. My co-panelists were professors of law, political science, and journalism.

Asia-Pacific CEOs Worldwide (APCEO) meetings in China

Note my October, 2014 participation in APCEO’s ICIS 2014, described above.

In November, 2013 I was a speaker and participant in an APCEO (WEIS) conference (“Summit”) in Wuhan, Hubei province in China, about Worldwide Emerging Industries. I was part of a series of speakers about environmental issues and industries.

During July and September, 2012, I attended two conferences in China at which I was a speaker and participant in other ways.

One conference, which I attended in September, 2012, was the APCEO International Culture Industry Summit (ICIS), in Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province, China, at which I was a keynote speaker about “Latest Events, General Trends in Developing Global Cultural Industries-Using Technology to Integrate Modernization/Innovation with Tradition in Cultural Development”. GOS 2012 and ICIS 2012 were organized by Asia-Pacific CEOs Worldwide, a global institution endorsed by, and arranging co-operation among central, provincial, and municipal governments in China, as well as numerous other countries, multi-national corporations, medium-sized and small businesses, universities, academic scholars, and experts of all sorts, including economists and public policy specialists.

Another APCEO conference, in July, 2012, was the Global Outsourcing Summit 2012 (GOS), in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, at which I spoke about universities and strategic planning about outsourcing.

Miscellaneous Activities, including Research Project in Taiwan

During July, August and September, 2011, I traveled to Asia twice, where I engaged in study, research, and meetings in various places.

I was in residence (during part of July and part of August) as a “distinguished” faculty member doing a funded research project (resulting in a report to the Ministry of Education of Taiwan) about higher education systems. I was in residence at one local university in Taiwan.

Quite distinctly, I attended a major conference elsewhere in Asia about globalization and economic issues (Global Economic Leaders Summit, GELS, 2011 in Changchun, Jilin Province, China) where I spoke about universities and globalization; and I did a philosophical lecture (with accompanying audience discussion) about globalization, free will and responsibility, for faculty and students at a university in Jilin Province.

I was particularly interested during these travels in exchanging ideas about major issues concerning higher education systems, and general global political economy and financial systems. These two visits included contacts with citizens, various other types of residents, education officials from government, political figures, influential executives of large-scale multi-national corporations, representatives of small businesses, academics with many disciplinary orientations (economics, engineering, philosophy, public administration, business, law, etc.), and so on. I interacted with individuals with varying backgrounds of origin, current residence or citizenship, including among other places (countries, regions, provinces, cities, etc.), in Beijing, in the USA (e.g., from San Francisco-California, College Park-Maryland, Athens-Georgia), Taiwan and the Taiwanese diaspora, northeastern China (including Jilin Province), South Africa, Namibia, Iceland, Malaysia, Spain (i.e., Catalonia), Bulgaria, Poland, Austria, Australia, New Zealand. I learned a lot from these experiences about many of the topics and areas that currently pre-occupy me, such as globalization, universities, decision-processes, cultures, and values.

V. Public Presentations about Varied University Administrative Projects and Higher Education Issues

Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS)

I have organized panels and presented papers discussing my varied university administrative and faculty projects and higher education issues, e.g., at the annual meeting of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), a North American organization.

In November, 2012, I did two talks/paper presentations at panels which I co-organized for the CCAS annual meeting in Seattle. One panel was about negotiating cross-national values differences in higher education alliances. A second panel was about encouraging research in difficult economic times.

On November 5, 2011, I did a talk as part of a panel which I organized at the CCAS annual meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, about liberal education, globalization, ethics, and politics.

On November 3, 2011, I did a talk as part of a panel at the CCAS annual meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, about the formation in higher education institutions of centers and institutes as the nucleus for interdisciplinary research. This panel was sponsored by the committee on research institutions within CCAS.

On November 12, 2010, I did a talk as part of a panel which I organized at the CCAS annual meeting in New Orleans, about community engagement and research by colleges of arts and sciences. At the same conference, I led a luncheon discussion about Diversity and Deans on November 11, 2011.

On November 14, 2009, I did a talk as part of a panel which I organized and chaired at the CCAS annual meeting in Baltimore, about research collaborations across different colleges at the same university. This panel was sponsored by the committee on research institutions within CCAS. This talk fit in rather well with my participation in a group visit from my university to Washington, DC, to explore with persons in federal agencies the enhancement of federal research funding at the school. The group consisted of research and technology development administrators and representatives of various colleges at OU, including the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Business, etc. There are ongoing post-visit follow-up activities at my university in conjunction with the federal agencies. I have engaged in strategic planning across a wide range of research areas, and recently particularly in energy/environmental research areas.

Miscellaneous other presentations at CCAS are listed in what follows (in this paragraph). – At one previous CCAS annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, I presented a paper as part of a panel I organized and chaired about international and global aspects of universities; at another CCAS annual meeting in Boston, (held in conjunction with the International Council of Fine Arts Deans, ICFAD, Annual Meeting), I presented a paper as part of a panel I organized and chaired about the arts at universities and in the broader society; at another CCAS annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, I presented a paper as part of a panel I organized about the College of Arts and Sciences (and similar units) in strategic planning and budget decisions, as well as organizational partnerships, that influence the course of decision-making about the overall goals of universities. At that same CCAS conference, I also participated (using a poster and PowerPoint) in a poster/multi-media session about integrating liberal arts education and professional preparation.

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)

I have also presented my writing and ideas (combining organizational analysis and pragmatic proposals with multidisciplinary reflections) at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Annual Meeting.

On January 28, 2011, I did a talk at the AAC&U Annual Meeting (Higher Education and the Globalization of Ethics). The overall theme of this conference in San Francisco was “Global Positioning: Essential Learning, Student Success, and the Currency of U.S. Degrees”.

On January 26, 2008, I did a talk at a previous annual meeting of AAC&U about higher education-related institutional decisions about money.

Also, an invited and refereed article by me (about philosophy, public health studies, and liberal education) appeared in Peer Review, published by AAC&U (in Washington, DC).

American Association of University Professors (AAUP)

I have presented my writing and ideas at conferences organized by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Besides other entries listed elsewhere on this website, the following can be listed here.

On June 12, 2013, I did a talk/presentation/paper at the AAUP Annual Meeting on the State of Higher Education in Washington, DC. My talk was entitled-“Academic Freedom, Critique of Disciplines and Interdisciplinary Studies, Unavoidable Philosophical Real-World Ethics and Politics”.

On June 14, 2012, I did a talk at the AAUP Annual Meeting on the State of Higher Education. My talk was entitled “Academic Freedom, University Funding Alliances, and Critical Ethics of Citizen Freedom”.

On June 10, 2011, I did a talk at the AAUP Annual Meeting on the State of Higher Education. My talk was entitled “Academic Freedom and the Politics of Culture”.

In November 2010, at an AAUP conference on governance in Washington, DC, I did a talk about diversity issues and university governance.

Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS)

In October, 2011, I did a talk on “Global Justice and Global Public Health” at the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences Annual Meeting in Cincinnati. I have often presented papers at the annual meetings of this organization. At least two such papers are listed elsewhere on this website.

American Anthropological Association (AAA)

Scheduled to present two research papers in November, 2023 at the AAA conference in Toronto.

On November 10, 2022, at an annual AAA meeting, I presented a research paper (online), Anthropology within Land-Centered Environmentalism: New Foci Charged with Culture-Laden History.

On November 21, 2019, at an annual AAA meeting held jointly with the Canadian CASCA, I presented a research paper (and chaired a session) about sustainable development ideologies. See details elsewhere on this website.

In November, 2010, at an American Anthropological Association annual meeting, I read a paper about changing concepts of diversity in US higher education. I have often presented papers at this organization’s annual meetings.

VI. Some General Interests Pursued in Management, Philosophy, and Philosophy of Social Science

During June 2019 I traveled to Arlington, Virginia as a delegate, to participate in an Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education of the American Association of University Professors, on the re-structuring of the AAUP.

During March, 2019 I attended a meeting of AAUP State Conference Presidents, held at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia.

During late October/early November of 2014 I traveled to South Africa (particularly to Cape Town and Johannesburg) exploring possibilities for cooperative research about South Africa, given that country’s experience of electoral democracy for twenty years since the end of legal apartheid. (I had taught political philosophy at the University of Cape Town in 1994 after the all-race elections of that year).

In October, 2014, as described elsewhere, I traveled to participate in a conference in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China.

In June, 2014, I traveled to Poland to plan research with a Polish university colleague, whose academic background is in environmental engineering and in law. We are currently actively writing and planning further projects with other colleagues from various institutions and different European countries, and to some extent others based in Asia, and US researchers about Africa.

One general interest of mine is technology and public policy. After I co-organized a Dream Course (PETIV, referred to above) taught in Spring, 2013, involving various distinguished speakers, I have collaborated with an evolving working group assembled from around the world about sustainable development and technology. The group includes academics, practitioners in NGOs, and business-persons interested in research, education, and pragmatic interventions about political economy.

Main Interests Described in Terms of Sub-Fields of the US Academic Discipline of Philosophy

My main philosophical interests (described in terms of some sub-fields of the US academic discipline of Philosophy) are in Ethics and in Social and Political Philosophy. Some other areas in which I work (as a faculty member): Epistemology or Theory of Knowledge (i.e., Social Epistemology), Philosophy of Social Science, Philosophy of Education (especially about universities and colleges), Philosophy of Art.

I publish on free agency and responsibility, autonomy, individual and collective choice and decision, democracy, education, the social sciences, science and society, the arts.

My publications are increasingly both theoretical and pragmatic, often international in scope, interdisciplinary, empirically centered, sometimes collaborative and teamwork based. For one example of these tendencies, see the co-edited book listed under Publications: Cultural Heritage- Possibilities for Land-Centered Societal Development. (2022)

I typically present my research papers at a wide variety of types of scholarly societies, as evidenced by entries listed throughout this website. For example, I have read refereed papers about my research, not only at American Philosophical Association annual meetings, but also at American Political Science Association annual meetings (e.g., about democratic legitimacy); Association for Politics and the Life Sciences annual meetings (e.g., about the ethics of scientific research at US universities, including research on human subjects, and topics concerning the ethics of the bio-behavioral and life sciences, as well as medicine in society, and most recently, about political economy); American Anthropological Association annual meetings (e.g., about democratic legitimacy and culture); and at congresses of the International Association of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.

In Fall, 2009, on December 3, I did a talk, based on a paper of mine (“Anthropology, Political Philosophy, and the Ethics of Identity”) at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting. In this paper I discussed the ethics of identity and globalization, as well as the relevance of these concepts to normative advocacy, and to empirical explanation of normative positions in ethics and politics.

My approach to philosophy, and to improving academic strategic planning and organizational innovation, encourages interdisciplinary studies as well as seeking to advance and develop more traditional disciplines. In general, as a faculty member and as an administrator also, I have aimed to support academic strength within established disciplines in the arts and sciences, as well as interdisciplinary studies, multiple-college collaborations at the same institution, co-operation among different institutions, and interconnections between universities and the wider world.

I and a colleague in philosophy once participated in a study of environmental ethics as part of a multi-year, multidisciplinary project about water management, environmental policy, and decision-making, with many collaborators from two research universities, funded (about $850,000+ in the monetary meaning of the relevant time period) by the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Agriculture, and bringing together both varied academics and non-academics (such as public officials and interested citizens). This has been one stimulus among many to my thinking and writing about democratic legitimacy, a topic that underlies quite a bit of my research. Democratic legitimacy fits in well as a topic with my research and teaching foci on the ethics and political theory of choice and decision, freedom and autonomy, as well as responsibility.

Generally, I emphasize the potential uses of philosophy and some other university disciplines (e.g., the social sciences and professional studies areas such as law, engineering, education) in guiding practical reasoning, choice and decision, and value judgments by individuals and organizations. I make no sharp distinction between ethics and other types of decision-making, or between academic and non-academic problem-solving. I’m interested in international issues, e.g., South African democracy: as mentioned above, I’ve taught, delivered papers, and traveled there; and in issues about political and economic development in countries such as China and in India, and in regions such as Central and/or Eastern Europe.

VII. Selected University Administrative Projects about Curriculum

As mentioned above, I have done academic administrative as well as faculty work. This includes familiarity with the usual areas of university administrative activities, such as strategic planning and budgets, and among many other things, research initiatives, curricular innovation, and fund-raising.

Among other things, as an administrator I coordinated the development of a new interdisciplinary undergraduate degree program in Information Studies, now operational and very successful, and have collaborated on the development of new master’s degrees in Organizational Psychology and in Knowledge Management, among other degree programs. I coordinated development of a new interdisciplinary undergraduate degree program in Religious Studies (now operational and very successful), and I have designed a new interdisciplinary undergraduate degree option in Organizational Studies, attracting remarkable student interest. I have worked on a campus-wide project to develop curricula about the ethics (and related legal and administrative norms, and the politics) of scientific research. As part of this, I taught a course listed in the Psychology Department (under the listing, Psychology 4920, Current Topics in Basic and Applied Psychology) about the ethics of scientific research at American research universities. This course is one expression of my curiosity about the empirical and normative study of organizations, including ethics aspects and other modes of decision-making in organizations. This is a long-standing motivation of mine, and I have often taught or co-taught courses at all levels with natural scientists, engineers, management decision-makers, education specialists, and social scientists about the interconnections of science, professional studies, and individual or collective choices.

VIII. Teaching and Mentoring of Undergraduates

I enjoy teaching at all levels, including teaching of undergraduates.

I teach classes for undergraduates and graduate students, especially in Ethics and in Social or Political Philosophy, as well as Philosophy of Law. As I teach it, Ethical Theory and the other areas include study of work by philosophers, social scientists, legal scholars (and legal practitioners), business-related professionals, public health practitioners, engineers, etc. This type of philosophy is both interdisciplinary and includes empirical as well as pragmatic leadership and managerial work.

One of my undergraduate philosophy major advisees (a dual major in philosophy and mathematics) wrote a paper during Fall, 2020 (with my advice in an independent study course) about the ethics of inheritance law. She is continuing after graduation to graduate study (starting in Fall, 2021) in philosophy (and science and technology studies) at the University of British Columbia.

As noted elsewhere on this internet site, I have also taught interdisciplinary courses and courses in other departments and university units than philosophy altogether (or other than the humanities generally), particularly in the social sciences, science and technology studies, engineering, and economic and societal development studies. Some of these courses have been in universities outside the US. I have collaborated in teaching and related research and outreach with professional-school faculty, extra-academic executives, NGO leaders, and technical professionals.

One of my undergraduate students and advisees, who was an outstanding student in Philosophy of Law, received a prize for his undergraduate honors research done with me. He has gone on to practice law. Many of my former undergraduate students have gone on to law schools, and to the practice of law.

IX. Teaching and Mentoring of Graduate Students; Also, Varied Interactions with Post-Doctoral Academics; Also, Supervision of Research Activities of International Faculty 

I enjoy teaching and mentoring of graduate students, post-docs, and faculty in various fields.

I have directed fourteen completed doctoral dissertations and (at least) six masters theses, mainly in philosophy but also in interdisciplinary areas such as rhetoric and communication, and on bio-technological/healthcare policy. Of two of my doctoral students, one wrote her dissertation on the ethics and politics of moral and civic education particularly in American universities and colleges, and the other wrote on the ethics of genetics-based medical interventions.

One of the masters-level students whose thesis I supervised was an MD (physician) researching issues about end-of-life decisions. He was also a university faculty member. See text on Kevin Donovan, below.

I have served as a doctoral dissertation committee member for graduate students in different fields, including Journalism and Mass Communication, Engineering, Psychology, Political Science, Educational Psychology, English, Social Work/Public Health, etc.

I have served as a committee member for a doctoral student working on issues about African mass media, in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at OU. That student has recently (December 2020) successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, and has received) his Ph.D. Since he is a Catholic priest, he will take up his further duties as is determined by the religious order within which he works.

I am currently a member of the committee of a doctoral student in the College of Engineering.

I recently served on the committee of a master’s student in the College of Engineering; the student recently successfully defended the thesis, on sustainable development in rural India. The student is likely soon to start work post-degree on a large social entrepreneurial project about environmental and economic development issues in the Himalayas.

I previously worked, through graduate-level Independent Studies and through serving on the doctoral committee, to advance the dissertation research of a student (Phil Todd) in the University of Oklahoma College of Journalism and Mass Communication. I taught and served on the doctoral committee of this student, who in 2019 successfully defended the dissertation, about journalism and media ethics, and (in 2020) received an award (for the dissertation). The award is of national significance in media ethics.

My own doctoral and master’s students have written in many areas. Most of the graduate students whose dissertations and theses I have supervised have gone on to work in academic positions, a few in non-academic managerial and executive positions, and some in both types of positions. E.g., one is a distinguished faculty member at Marquette University, and previously was Lincoln Professor of Applied Ethics at Arizona State University, before that having taught at Fordham University. She wrote a dissertation under my direction about speech acts (including attention to the philosophy of language of John Searle), but later got increasingly interested in ethics, especially feminist ethics. Another doctoral recipient who worked with me, as his teacher and dissertation supervisor, taught at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and then moved on to a career as a higher military officer and analyst. Another student, Fuchuan Yao, who wrote his doctoral dissertation with me, went on to teach at a university in Taipei, Taiwan. He is a publishing scholar. One student of mine, Christopher Herrera, received an OU prize for his doctoral dissertation, on the ethics of research in psychology and the social sciences. He spent two years in a post-doctoral position which funded his individual research at the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics, spent more time in a post-doctoral collaborative research position at McGill University, and then got a tenure-track job at a public university in New Jersey, where he is now a tenured Associate Professor. He was chairing a search committee when I chatted with him at one meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in Washington, DC. He was then planning to be pursuing further education in a public health area while also continuing to work as a tenured philosophy faculty member. Another doctoral recipient, Lee Hester, supervised by me, wrote his dissertation on the history and normative politics of Native American sovereignty issues. He published a follow-up book with Routledge: Political Principles and Indian Sovereignty. He is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, has served as Director of Native American Studies, and has had a long career as a tenured Full Professor at a state university in Oklahoma. Another of my doctoral students who wrote in Philosophy of Law, received his doctorate, and has held a job as a professor at yet another state university, located in Oklahoma City. Another doctoral recipient who worked with me, Karen Mizell, who wrote in Aesthetics, is now a professor at a state university in Utah. One of my masters-level students, Susan Alvarado, wrote a thesis about multiculturalism, and then went on to a doctoral program in higher education administration, and employment, at the University of Texas at Austin, before receiving her doctorate there and subsequently becoming a faculty member at another college in Texas. John Duncan wrote a doctoral dissertation in philosophy under my supervision, and went on to become a faculty member in Interdisciplinary and Cultural Studies in the College of Liberal Studies (subsequently called the College of Professional and Continuing Studies) at the University of Oklahoma, where he teaches administrative leadership, among other subjects; he also has had an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Harry Moore, whose doctoral dissertation in medical ethics I supervised, served as a faculty member and chair of the humanities division at St. Gregory’s University, then a Benedictine institution in Oklahoma. Before and during his doctoral work, Harry Moore was employed as a religion and healthcare counselor at a hospital.

Kevin Donovan, a medical ethicist and physician, wrote his master’s thesis under my supervision, and has gone on to an exceptionally distinguished career including the directorship of an ethics program at Georgetown University. See below an excerpt from his Georgetown University website post as of 5/9/22; (note that the M.A. listed in his Georgetown University bio is the University of Oklahoma degree given for a thesis which I supervised):

X. Fall, 2021-Supervision of research-centered stay in USA by an international faculty member

I have been supervising (in Fall, 2021) a well-published faculty member (whose doctorate is in engineering) and whose home university is in Europe. She has visited at the University of Oklahoma, with support from a European Union grant. Her interests in land management sciences, environmental topics, and cartography are well-aligned with some of my major current research activities in environmental studies.

XI. During 2022-External examiner of doctoral dissertation

During 2022-I have served as an external examiner of the dissertation of a doctoral student at a campus of an Indian Institute of Technology university.

XII. I have often served as a reviewer (a) for organizations deciding on funding for research and creative activity, including national funding agencies (in the US and in other countries) and foundations (b) for various book publishers and journals, and (c) for universities about tenure and promotion cases.

National Science Foundation (US) Research Proposal Reviewer 2022

National Science Centre-Narodowe Centrum Nauki (Poland) Research Proposal Reviewer 2022

Currently I am serving in editorial roles on two international-scope academic journals. This includes my role as editor for evaluation of language and meaning in research for an international environmental sciences journal.

My role mentioned above as editor for evaluation of language and meaning in research for an international environmental sciences journal induced me to think more about topics in one of my earliest philosophical interests, Philosophy of Language. My thoughts and motivations here currently incline me to re-explore the “pragmatics” area in philosophy of language and linguistics. This is an expression of my interests in scholarly and other-than-scholarly communication.

I have served as a reviewer for many academic journals, including recent reviews of manuscripts in environmental sciences.

I have often served as a reviewer for other universities in tenure and promotion cases, including faculty cases at (“Carnegie R1”) research universities, such as the University of California-Santa Cruz, etc.

XIII. Both I and Professor Betty J. Harris served (in early 2018) on the program committee for an interesting international conference on “Geoinformation and Sustainable Development” held in July, 2018 in Bonn, Germany.

See http://intercarto24.net/ One indirect consequence of this contact has been my role in an international, collaborative publication about digitization of land records, in a volume on Digital Cultural Heritage, published by Springer. This publication fits in with my interest in international land use aspects of environmental studies, societal development studies, and (normative as well as factual) inquiries about the function of information technology in economic development.

XIV. Selective Illustrative Information about Publications, and Short List of Some Representative Publications (and selected research under review or moving towards publication)

What follows is (A) highly selective but generically described illustrative information, and (B) a short list including specific information (titles, etc.) about some of my (mostly) relatively more recent and representative publications and forthcoming publications, and some work in progress.

(A)

Papers published in various journals, (as well as various book chapters), about such topics as freedom, responsibility, and determinism; social and political freedom; democracy; the arts and aesthetics; education; etc. Journals include (but are not limited to): Ethics-An International Journal of Social, Legal, and Political Philosophy; Philosophical Topics; Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy (Norway); the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism; the Journal of Aesthetic Education; The Monist; The Australasian Journal of Philosophy; Philosophical Studies (USA); Philosophical Studies (Ireland); Mind; Philosophia (Israel); Canadian Journal of Philosophy; etc.

(B)

Co-edited book (Cultural Heritage- Possibilities for Land-Centered Societal Development, Series: Environmental History) with twenty-four multiple-author research studies about cultural heritage, land use, and societal development. Research studies are about topics concerning multiple countries in Europe (EU and non-EU countries in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe), North America (US), Asia (China), and Africa (South Africa).

Two of these twenty-four studies, and the Preface (of which I am lead author), as well as a concluding Summary (of which I am lead author), involve authorship or co-authorship by Edward Sankowski. Book published in 2021/2022. Springer International Publishing. Copyright Holder: Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Copyright 2022.

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“Enjoyment and Ideology”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, (forthcoming).

“Capitalism, Communism, and Environmentalism in the Ideology of Freedom” (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), Filozofia, (forthcoming).

“Disorder in Heaven and on Earth”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, 2022.

“The Pandemic, Environmentalism, and Re-Thinking Social and Political Philosophy”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, 2021.

“One Interpretation of the Current Pandemic Emphasizing Political Economy and Culture”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, 2020.

“Integration of Surface Water Protection into Land Management in Ukraine, Case Study of the Seret River”, Roman Kuryltsiv, Edward Sankowski, Nadiia Kryshenyk, Józef Hernik, Tomasz Noszczyk, Agnieszka Rutkowska, Acta Scientiarum Polonorum, serie Formatio Circumiectus – Environmental Processes, published online, 2020, and subsequently a print publication.

“Digital Heritage and Societal Development”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), Acta Scientiarum Polonorum, serie Formatio Circumiectus – Environmental Processes, published online, 2020, and subsequently a print publication.

“Technology, Science, and ‘Post-Humanity’ “, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, 2019.

“From Classic (Analogue) to Digital Forms of Cultural Heritage Protection in Poland”,
Barbara Prus, Karol Król, Krzysztof Gawroński, Edward Sankowski and Józef Hernik, forthcoming in Horst Kremers (editor) Digital Cultural Heritage, Springer. (Published online, 2019; published in print, 2020).

“Is There a Crisis of Sustainable Development?”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), in ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, 2018.

“Economic Valuation of High Natural Value Areas in Central Roztocze”,
Grażyna Gawrońska, Krzysztof Gawroński, Dorota Dymek, Edward Sankowski, Betty Harris, Acta Scientiarum Polonorum, serie Formatio Circumiectus-
Environmental Processes, (published “Online First”, 2018, subsequently in journal print issue, 2019).

“Issues with Choice Architecture, Environmental Ethics, and Globalization”, published in the journal Politics and the Life Sciences, (2018).

“Ethics of Mobility, Globalization, Political Economy, and Culture”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, 2017.

“Renewable Energy and Rural Autonomy: A Case Study with Generalizations”,
Franciszek Woch, Józef Hernik, Hans Joachim Linke, Edward Sankowski, Milena Bęczkowska, Tomasz Noszczyk, Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, (2017).

Book: Some Problems and Possibilities for Sustainable Development, Edward Sankowski, Betty J. Harris, and Jozef Hernik (Krakow, 2016), 214 pages.

“Trouble in Paradise: Political Economy and Cultural Criticism”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, 2016.

“Living Beyond the End Times”, (co-authored with Betty J. Harris), ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs, 2012.

“Globalization” and “Foreign Policy”, articles in the Encyclopedia of Global Justice (Springer, Dordrecht, 2011).

“Philosophy, Public Health, and Liberal Education,” Peer Review (journal published by the Association of American Colleges & Universities-Washington, DC)-(2009).

“Film Studies, the Moving Image, and Noel Carroll,” in The Journal of Aesthetic Education (2006).

“South African Democracy, Multi-Culturalism, Rights, and Community,” in Problems for Democracy, eds. John Kultgen and Mary Lenzi (Rodopi, Amsterdam)-(2006).

“Film, Crime, and State Legitimacy: Political Education or Mis-Education?”, The Journal of Aesthetic Education (2002).

“Negotiating Science and Values in the Illinois River Basin”, M. Meo, L. Caneday, W. Focht, R. Lynch, B. Pettus, E. Sankowski, Z. Trachtenberg, B. Vieux, K. Willett, published on a CD-ROM resulting from a conference: “Integrated Decision-Making for Watershed Management Symposium: Processes and Tools,” (2001), sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, etc. A version of this paper was also published in The Journal of the American Water Resources Association (2002).

“Liberalism, Communitarianism, and Moral Education,” Philosophy of Education (University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign,1999).

“Autonomy, Education, and Politics”, Philosophy of Education, (1998).

“Racism, Human Rights, and Universities”, Social Theory and Practice (1996).

“Art Museums, Autonomy, and Canons,” The Monist (1993).

“Blame and Autonomy” and “‘Paternalism’ and Social Policy”, both in American Philosophical Quarterly (1992, 1985).