Deane Curtin
Department Chair/Professor of Philosophy
I am fascinated with the multiple ways people connect with place. My scholarship and teaching focus on international ethics, particularly the ethics of community development, and environmental ethics. These interests are reflected in two recent books: Environmental Ethics for a Postcolonial World (2005), and Chinnagounder's Challenge (1999).
Recent invitations to speak have taken me to Peru for the keynote address at the First International Congress for Sustainable Development at Cesar Vallejo University, and to Tel Aviv University, where I spoke on ethics and population growth at the Inaugural Conference for the Tarnesby Chair in the College of Medicine.
Over the years, I have been a visiting professor at several universities around the world: Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, Kings College, Cambridge University, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Fiesole, Italy, and the Centre for Research on a New International Economic Order in Chennai, India.
At Gustavus, I designed and led the Community Development in India program, and served as the Raymond and Florence Sponberg Chair of Ethics. I'm also a core faculty member in the Gustavus Environmental Studies Major.
I particularly enjoy traveling with students, having led student programs in Japan, India, Spain and Morocco. This January I'm guiding students in Italy on a course titled Florence and the Italian Countryside. At Gustavus, my courses include Philosophies of the Environment, Ethical Theory, Philosophy of Art, and a new seminar on Baruch Spinoza and the Japanese Buddhist philosopher Dogen. Future interests include a seminar on the ethical implications of Darwinism.
Selected Syllabi
- Spring 2005 - PHI-241: Philosophy of Art (pdf)
- Spring 2006 - PHI-109: Philosophies of the Environment (pdf)
- Fall 2006 - PHI-104: Individual and Community (pdf)
- Fall 2006 - PHI-246: Ethical Theory (pdf)