Outreach & Public Philosophy

Bringing philosophy to people outside academia is one of the most rewarding activities I have been part of. Here are some highlights.

Mexico

Chapel Hill

Maine

I am part of the Scholar Strategy Network.

I have written a couple of op-ed to bring philosophical insights outside academia.

BDN: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the real danger of echo chambers

Google doc version click here

PHP: ‘Privacy is power,’ and we all deserve to have it back

Google doc version: click here

UNC- Chapel Hill

Being part of UNC allowed me to constantly be part of different types of outreach efforts.

From 2016 to 2021, I served as a judge for the National High School Ethics Bowl in both the national competition and the North Carolina regional competition.

In the fall of 2017, I was part of the Philosophy Outreach at Atria Senior Living. I, along with my colleague Pavel Nitchovski, engaged in weekly discussion sessions with the philosophy club at Atria Senior Living community.

From 2018-2019, I was one of UNC's Maynard Adams Fellows in the Public Humanities. Maynard Adams Fellows get together to create and organize activities that promote public engagement with the humanities. I actively participated in bringing to life two of such activities:

I, along with all the Maynard Adams fellows, helped organized the 2019 E. Maynard Adams Symposium. The Maynard Adams Symposium brings to the Chapel Hill community eminent philosophers to give a public philosophy talk, and allow them to engage in conversation with the speaker. In 2019, Philip Kitcher was our keynote and I had the honor to give comments to Kitcher’s talk “Why is Climate Change so Difficult to Address or Stop?”.
I, along with my colleague Matt Hernandez, organized and ran a session with the participants of the 2019 National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB) for them to critically reflect on the values of the Ethics Bowl.

The 2018-2019 Adams Fellows

Mexico

In 2011, when I was an undergraduate student at UNAM, I was part of the first cohort of ‘Filosofía a las Calles’ (‘Philosophy to the Streets’). Filosofía a las Calles is an outreach effort organized by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the civic organization Ateneo de la Juventud. Filosofía a las Calles brings professional philosophers to public spaces (at that time the subway system of Mexico City) to engage in philosophical discussions about interesting topics (like the meaning of life) with the people who happen to be around and are interested to have a conversation with some philosophers.

Some of the people whom I talked to told me that they have thought about the meaning of life for a long time, but they had never been able to express their thoughts or worries about it because no one seemed to care. They also told me that they did not know that philosophers wonder about those issues, and they would really like to be part of these talks in the future. This interactions motivated me to keep looking for outreach opportunities.

Mexico