Summer teaching workshop: integrating statistics into philosophy instruction

Despite their relevance to many problems in contemporary philosophy, concepts and methods from statistics, data science, and computing more broadly are rarely encountered in philosophy teaching. This workshop will contribute to growing a community of philosophers who aim to better integrate these concepts and methods into their teaching. 

Application deadline: 1 May 2025
Event date: 4-6 August, 2025 
Location: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Minneapolis Campus 

This workshop is for philosophy teachers aiming to integrate concepts or methods from statistics, data science, and computing into their teaching and/or mentoring. Each participant will have two hours during the summer workshop, arranged how they would like, to describe, test, and receive feedback on a lesson plan, assignment, etc. with the entire group. 

In addition, there will be introductory presentations and discussions by two workshop facilitators on a variety of statistical ideas that would serve as helpful background for the variety of topics that will or could be broached during the workshop and in teaching philosophy using statistics more generally. 

Attendees from outside the Twin Cities Metro area will receive free single en suite accommodations near campus and at least $400 towards travel expense reimbursement. 

Applicants should fill out this form no later than 1 May 2025. The form asks for a CV and a cover letter. Your cover letter should include the following information: 

• Your institutional context: relevant information about the educational institution(s) at which your teaching intervention will occur, such as the typical student population and their goals.
• Your specific teaching context: relevant information about the instruction setting(s) in which you would like to intervene, such as the expected number of students, what they are studying, at what stage of their studies they are typically in, and how much time of you do and would like to allot for concepts and methods from statistics.
• Your pedagogical goals: your goals for student learning in the aforementioned settings(s), what (if any) statistical content you are currently teaching towards those goals, what intervention you would like to make, and why.
• Your proposal for how you plan to use your 2 hours during the teaching workshop. For example, you might begin with a 20-minute discussion of the above context and goals, followed by two 20-minutes lessons, then a 45-minute discussion of the lessons, with 5-minute breaks in between. 

There is no minimum or maximum cover letter size, but most will be less than 2000 words. The workshop is supported by NSF CAREER grant #2042366, A Modern Philosophy for Classical Statistical Testing and Estimation. 

Samuel C. Fletcher (University of Oxford and University of Minnesota): Convener & Facilitator 
Corey Dethier (University of Minnesota): Facilitator 

If you have questions about the workshop or the application process, please email Corey Dethier ([email protected]).