(ISEE) is pleased to announce publicly the 2023 winner of the Andrew Light Award for Public Philosophy. ISEE established this award to promote work in public philosophy and honor contributions to the field by Dr. Andrew Light, who was recognized for his distinctive work in public environmental philosophy at ISEE’s 2017 annual summer meeting.
With this award, ISEE strives to recognize public philosophers working in environmental ethics and philosophy, broadly construed, and who bring unique insights or methods that broaden the reach, interaction, and engagement of philosophy with the wider public. This may be exemplified in published work or engagement in environmental issues of public importance.
This year’s Andrew Light Award winner is Dr. Justin Donhauser of Bowling Green State University (USA). The award recognizes Dr. Donhauser posthumously for outstanding achievements in public philosophy over the course of a highly engaged, but sadly truncated career.
Dr. Donhauser began work in public philosophy as a Master’s student at the University at Buffalo more than 15 years ago. As a doctoral student at the same institution, Justin Donhauser engaged in interdisciplinary and publicly-engaged philosophy in relation to ecological restoration, through a project supported by the National Science Foundation. During this time, Donhauser and fellow doctoral student Robert Earle participated in a 2009 workshop at Colorado College that brought together restoration practitioners with academic scholars from multiple disciplines. Also while a graduate student, Donhauser worked with Buffalo Niagara Waterkeepers and University at Buffalo colleagues to develop local restoration plans.
As an assistant professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Dr. Donhauser continued his active engagement in public philosophy, publishing work in environmental philosophy, robot ethics, ethical issues in climate science, and the value of endangered species, and he served for multiple years as the Director of the Institute for Ethics and Society at BGSU.
Dr. Donhauser both practiced public environmental philosophy and encouraged others to do so. In 2020, he served as a consultant for the development of a United Nations policy brief on the use of underwater robotics in monitoring marine ecosystems, and in 2023, he helped to organize the Bowling Green State University Public Philosophy Video Competition, which invited persons of “all ages and levels of experience” to participate. One colleague described Dr. Donhauser’s efforts to organize this competition as reflecting his “earnest enthusiasm for making space for everyone within philosophical communities.” Dr. Donhauser’s approaches to public environmental philosophy have not gone unnoticed: also in 2023, he delivered the Inaugural Annual SUNY Buffalo State Sustainability Lecture, “Five Ways to do Environmental Philosophy that Matters.”
One colleague noted that Dr. Donhauser’s “record of public philosophy is both topically broad and deep: academic work, popular and advocacy work, and lots in between, across many different issues,” and another described him as “incredibly prolific,” noting particularly the strength of his contributions over the course of a relatively short career.
The 2023 Andrew Light Award honors Dr. Donhauser’s deep commitment and extensive work in public environmental philosophy, recognizing in particular his engagement with contemporary issues at the intersection of environment and technology, and his important work as an advocate for inclusive and publicly-engaged environmental philosophy.
ISEE - International Society for Environmental Ethics 