People
Center Staff
Current staff of the Center for Dewey Studies
Matthew J. Brown
Director; Boydston Professor of American Philosophy
- Phone:
- (618) 453-4347
- Email:
- matt.brown@siu.edu
- Related links:
Paula J.A. McNally
Program Assistant
- Email:
- pmcnally@siu.edu
- Related links:
Molly Kelleher
Graduate Assistant
Ph.D. student in Philosophy; interests include aesthetics, American pragmatism, and 20th century Continental philosophy.
- Email:
- molly.kelleher@siu.edu
Stephen Houchins
Graduate Assistant
MA candidate in Philosophy; AOS: American pragmatism, philosophy of language, metaphysics
- Email:
- stephen.houchins@siu.edu
Houston Sarvis
Graduate Assistant
MA Student in Philosophy
Current Visiting Fellows
These scholars are currently visiting the Dewey Center through our Visiting Fellows Program.
Jeremy Smyczek
Visiting Fellow, Fall 2026 - Spring 2027
Assistant Professor of English; Director, Composition Program – St. Bonaventure University.
Project: Rhetorical Creationism: Deweyan Pragmatism, Dualism, Agency, and Environments
- Email:
- jeremy.smyczek@siu.edu
- Related links:
Kevin Taylor
Visiting Fellow, Fall 2026
Associate Professor of Teaching, Philosophy; Director, Religious Studies – The University of Memphis
Project: Dewey in Japan: Pathways in Transnational Pragmatism
- Related links:
Jessica Soester
Graduate Research Affiliate, Fall 2026
Ph.D. Candidate in Philosophy – SIU. Adjunct Professor, Philosophy – The University of Memphis.
Project: John Dewey’s Economic Thought and the Problem of Pragmatist Political Economy
- Email:
- jsoester@siu.edu
- Related links:
Affiliated Faculty
Douglas Anderson
Professor Emeritus in Philosophy
- Email:
- dra3@siu.edu
- Related links:
Kristen Cameron
Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education and Curriculum & Instruction
- Email:
- kcameron@siu.edu
- Related links:
Nicholas Guardiano
Associate Professor of Philosophy; Alwin C. Carus Archivist, Special Collections Research Center
- Related links:
Sabrina Starnaman
Assistant Professor of Practice in Philosophy
- Email:
- sabrina.starnaman@siu.edu
- Related links:
Kenneth Stikkers
Professor of Philosophy (retired)
- Email:
- kstikker@siu.edu
- Related links:
Previous Directors
Larry Hickman
Director 1993-2015
- Related links:
Jo Ann Boydston
Director, 1966-1992; Assistant Director 1961-1965
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George E. Axtelle
Director, 1961-1965
Former Staff and Graduate Assistants
(In some cases the dates are approximate. Please send us corrections if you have them.)
Former Visiting Fellows
Siwen Yang
Visiting Fellow, September 2025 - April 2026
PhD Candidate in Philosophy of Science, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Project: Scientific Knowledge as Niche Construction: An Analysis Grounded in John Dewey’s Theory of Inquiry
- Email:
- thinkinyang@163.com
- Related links:
Marcello Ruta
Visiting Fellow, October - December, 2025
Privatdozent at Universität Bern
Project: Artistic Reconstruction: For a Deweyan Progressive Concept of Tradition
- Related links:
- Related links:
Fergus Selsdon Games
Visiting Fellow, January - March 2025
PhD Candidate in History, University of Cambridge
Project: Dewey’s Future: Progress and Democracy in American Thought, 1944-2000
Jin, Shi
Visiting Scholar, October 2023-October 2024
PhD Candidate in Philosophy, Fudan University
Project: Returning Back to Practical Living Experience: A Comparative Study of Dewey and Heidegger
- Email:
- jin160016@126.com
Zhang, Nan
Visiting Scholar, May 2022 - May 2023
PhD Candidate in Education, Beijing Normal University
Project: Research on the Relationships between John Dewey's Theories and the Trends of Educational Thoughts in Modern China
- Email:
- zhang_nan@mail.bnu.edu.cn