Peter Boghossian
Instructor of Philosophy
Office: NH M424
Email: pgb@pdx.edu
BIOGRAPHY
Peter’s main focus is bringing the tools of professional philosophers to people in a wide variety of contexts. Peter has a teaching pedigree spanning more than 20 years and 30 thousand students--in prisons, hospitals, public and private schools, seminaries, colleges and universities, Fortune 100 companies and small businesses. His fundamental objective is to teach people how to think through what often seem to be intractable problems.
Peter’s primary research areas are critical thinking and moral reasoning. His doctoral research studies, funded by the State of Oregon and supported by the Oregon Department of Corrections, consisted of using the Socratic method to help prison inmates to increase their critical thinking and moral reasoning abilities and to increase their desistance to criminal behavior. Peter’s publications can be found in Diálogos, Education Policy Analysis Archives, The Clearing House: Educational Research Controversy and Practices, The Radical Academy; Offender Programs Report, Teaching Philosophy, Corrections Today, Informal Logic, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Inside Higher Ed, Essays in Philosophy, Federal Probation Journal, and the Journal of Correctional Education. If you’d like to learn more about his scholarship, his podcast interview with Philosophy News http://www.philosophynews.com/post/2011/12/05/Interview-with-Peter-Boghossian.aspx is a great place to start.
His work has been noted on The Huffington Post, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Science and Reason, The Skeptic, and other media outlets; he’s was an invited guest on the Lars Larson show, interviewed for the cover story of the Mercury, and advocated via social media by the Executive Director of the Skeptic Society, Michael Shermer, and bestselling author and head of Project Reason, Sam Harris.
Peter was a Councilman for the State of Oregon (LSTA), an advisor to Sockeye Magazine and The Weekly Alibi, wrote national philosophy curricula for the University of Phoenix and was a research fellow for the National Center for Teaching and Learning. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Prison Advisory Committee for Columbia River Correctional Institution, teaches critical thinking and ethics at Portland State University, is an Affiliate Research Assistant Professor Oregon Health Science University, is Co-Director of PSU’s Center for Correction’s Research, and serves on the board of directors of various non-profits.
When he’s not working, Peter spends time with his family, practices jiu jutsu, watches science fiction movies and television (Stargate Universe, Battlestar Galactica, Misfits), and plays computer games (Star Craft 2, Fallout 3, Skyrim).
You can follow Peter on Twitter @peterboghossian. If you want to join Peter’s mailing list and learn about his upcoming public lectures and debates, from your mobile phone text “DELUSION” + your email address to 22333.
