2026 Ancient Philosophy Summer Program at the Center for Canon Expansion and Change

University of Minnesota Twin Cities, May 31 - June 6, 2026

CCEC Summer Program

The Center for Canon Expansion and Change (CCEC) seeks applications for participants in its 4th annual Summer Program, now funded by a $500,000 grant. Participants will take part in a week-long collaborative workshop, in which they learn about figures in an expanded canon of ancient philosophy (such as Sappho, Critias, Phinty the Pythagorean, and Melissa) and cutting-edge research on them; discuss inclusive, student-centered, and equitable pedagogy (with 2 sessions dedicated to teaching a predominantly white subject in predominantly white institutions); and collaboratively craft their own ancient course syllabus. After the workshop, participants and guides will meet regularly and continue to communicate as their courses (and future versions of it) are implemented. Participants will also receive an award from CCEC attesting to their experience with canon expansion and inclusive teaching.

DETAILS

The Summer program is scheduled to take place from May 31 to June 6, 2026, at the University of Minnesota.
Participants will take part in a week-long collaborative workshop, in which they learn about figures in an expanded canon of ancient philosophy and cutting-edge research on them; discuss inclusive, student-centered, and equitable pedagogy (with two sessions dedicated to teaching a predominantly white subject in predominantly white institutions); and collaboratively craft their own ancient course syllabus.
The Center for Canon Expansion and Change will offer $400 toward toward airfare and will provide coverage of accommodation.
Faculty members who are able to secure funding from their institutions should communicate this in the application.
Funding information will be shared with the selected participants.
If you have any questions about the program or would like additional information email ccec@umn.edu
CCEC summer program is funded by a $500,000 grant: https://www.mellon.org/news/mellon-foundation-awards-14m-for-humanities-grounded-research
1- Statement of interest (1 page outlining your interest in the program and how it connects with your research and/or teaching)

2-Curriculum Vitae.

The statement of interest and CV should be combined into a single .pdf file.

We welcome applications from advanced graduate students and faculty members (contingent or permanent). We especially encourage applications from individuals of groups underrepresented in (Anglo-American) philosophy.

Faculty members with institutional funding to participate should communicate this in the application.

Applications should be submitted by April 5, 2026. Applicants will be notified of admissions decisions by April 30, 2026.
Application is closed

CCEC 2026 Ancient Philosophy Experts

Simon J Dutton

(Emory University)
Simon Dutton is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Emory University specializing in the history of Ancient Greek Philosophy (especially Plato). He reads Plato as a literary philosopher, attending to the use of narrative, imagery, and characterization in his interpretation of the texts. He has a lot of love for the erotic dialogues (and sex, gender, and sexuality in the ancient world), but finds himself writing almost constantly about Book I of the Republic.
Chelsea C. Harry

(Southern Connecticut State University)
Chelsea C. Harry is a Professor of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University and the founder of Philosophy in the Schools New Haven. She works on the philosophy of nature with specialties in ancient Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle, and late 18th-19th Century German thought, engaging historical texts to address contemporary problems like sustainability and climate change. Since 2018, she has been working to expand the philosophical canon, recovering and celebrating the perspectives of lost and marginalized voices.
Kris McLain

(Marquette University)
Kris McLain’s current work interweaves feminist methodology with the interpretation of texts by women philosophers from antiquity. Her book project considers the metaphor of Socratic midwifery as a formative and provocative model for collective knowledge creation when placed in conversation with reproductive justice theories. They also publish in teaching and learning scholarship. She will have a dual title PhD in Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies in Summer 2025 and will be a teaching assistant professor at Marquette University starting in Fall 2025.

CCEC 2026 Remote Experts

Adriel M. Trott

(Wabash College)
Adriel M. Trott is Professor of Philosophy and Andrew T. And Anne Ford Chair in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College. She begins a new position as Director of Liberal Arts Pathways this summer at Wabash. Trott is the author of Aristotle on the Nature of Community (Cambridge 2014) and Aristotle on the Matter of Form: A Feminist Metaphysics of Generation (Edinburgh 2019). She is currently working on a project on Greek autochthony as it confronts a constellation of contemporary crises including loss of maternal agency, ethnonationalism, climate disaster and indigenous resistance to settler colonialism. Her research interests are concerned with the meaning of nature and its significance for thinking political life and social order. She teaches broadly in the history of philosophy and in social and political philosophy.
Danielle Layne

(Gonzaga University)
Jackie Murray

(University of Buffalo)
John Proios

(University of Chicago)

CCEC 2026 Pedagogy Experts

Jason Swartwood

(Saint Paul College)
Jason Swartwood is an instructor of Philosophy at Saint Paul College. He has published work on practical wisdom, philosophical methodology, practical ethics, and pedagogy in philosophy. He is the author, with Ian Stoner, of Doing Practical Ethics (OUP 2021), which applies a skills-focused, practice-based method for teaching ethics.
Eddie O'Byrn

(University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Dr. eddie o’byrn is an assistant professor of African American Studies at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After completing a Philosophy Ph.D in 2019 at Penn State, Dr. o'byrn worked at Carleton College teaching philosophy and africana studies before transitioning to an interdisciplinary department. Their work has appeared in journals including Hypatia, Sartre Studies International, and the Critical Philosophy of Race journal. Currently, Dr. o'byrn working on a book project tentatively titled - Existence Precedes Enslavement.
Tamara Fakhoury

(University of Minnesota - Twin Cities)
Tamara Fakhoury is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Her recent publications examine a range of under-theorized resistance practices, including what she calls Quiet Resistance, and the morally fraught conditions from which such practices often emerge. She is currently completing a manuscript titled Rethinking Resistance, which examines how resistance takes shape when democracy is absent or unstable.
Angela Carter

(University of Minnesota - Twin Cities)
As a McNair scholar, Angela M. Carter became a first-generation college graduate in 2009 when she earned a BA in English from Truman State University. Dr. Carter completed her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota in 2019. Angela is currently co-leading a Mellon-funded initiative to establish a Critical Disability Studies program at the UMN, as well as co-leading a new grassroots organization, named AmplifyMN: A Disability Justice Collective in the community.
Jeanine Weekes Schroer

(University of Minnesota Duluth)
Dr. Schroer is a philosopher of race and feminist theory and an Associate Professor of Philosophy at UMD in the Department of Geography & Philosophy. Her teaching and research concern the ethics and politics of social oppression and its remedies, including, the metaphysics of race and racism; feminist ethics and social theory; and empirical and experimental philosophical approaches to racism, sexism, and ethics. She co-edited the first philosophical volume on Microaggression -- Microagressions and Philosophy (with Lauren Freeman), as well as special issues of Hypatia (on the ethics and politics of epistemic practice) and Mississippi Quarterly (on mass incarceration). Schroer has won University of Minnesota’s Justice, Equity, and Inclusion Award, as well as the Horace T. Morse Award for Undergraduate Education. Schroer is also committed to support her community through volunteer work with the Junior League of Duluth, Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA), and Black Liberation Lab (an organization dedicated to supporting Black folk of Duluth in struggle for self-definition, rich and meaningful lives, and transformative healing from white supremacy).
Michael Bennett McNulty

(University of Minnesota - Twin Cities)
Ian Stoner

(Saint Paul College)

CCEC 2026 Summer Program Participants

Kaitlyn Newman

(Middle Tennessee State University)
Dr. Newman earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Pennsylvania State University in 2020 and earned her B.A. in Philosophy and B.S. in International Relations from Middle Tennessee State University in 2013. She currently teaches at her alma mater (MTSU), and previously taught at Georgia College & State University for 5 years. Her research focuses on 20th century Continental Philosophy, ethics, and social-political philosophy.
Madeline R. Brenchley

(Boston College)
Madeline Brenchley is a second‑year PhD student in philosophy at Boston College with research interests in ancient Greek philosophy, continental philosophy (esp. 20th century), and classical reception studies. Within these areas, her work focuses especially on the philosophy of science, metaphysics, and gender theory. As a participant in what is often considered the ‘biological turn’ in Aristotle scholarship, Madeline is methodologically dedicated to rereading Aristotle’s theoretical and practical works through his biological and zoological writings.
Daniele Manni

(Triton College)
Daniele Manni teaches philosophy at Triton College, in River Grove, IL. He is a graduate of the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. At Triton, Daniele teaches a variety of introductory courses and coaches the Ethics Bowl Team. His academic interests include ancient theories of moral development and - more recently - the philosophy of education. Daniele lives with his family in Chicago.
Elizabeth Schiltz

(College of Wooster)
I’m a Professor of Philosophy at the College of Wooster. My main areas of interest are in world philosophy, with a particular focus on the self and its flourishing in ancient Greek, South Asian, and East Asian traditions. I teach classes in those areas, as well as in ontology, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of sports. My most recent research projects have focused on bodily practices in classical philosophical traditions. I am now preparing for new projects on the roots and implications of conceptions of the role of work in flourishing lives.
Eleanor Oser

(Boston University)
Eleanor is a fourth-year PhD student at Boston University. She works primarily on Aristotle’s ethics and moral psychology, with broader interests in ancient literature, especially Sappho. Before arriving at BU, she spent two years serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer in southwest Alaska. Outside of philosophy, she enjoys painting and spending time outdoors.
Seulah Lee

(University of Minnesota-Twin Cities)
I am a second-year PhD student of Political Science at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her research interests include history of political thought, ancient and early modern ethics, history of science, empire, settler colonialism, politics of citizenship, historiography, aesthetic education, and decolonization of knowledge.