Faculty Profile for Dr. Jo Ann Carson

profile photo for Dr. Jo Ann Carson
Dr. Jo Ann Carson
Senior Lecturer — Philosophy
CMAL 115D
phone: (512) 245-3143

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Jo Ann Carson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Texas State University, where she has taught since 1988. She holds a Ph.D. (1995) in Philosophy from The University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation topic was "Meaning and the Learning Process: Toward a Pragmatic Educational Philosophy."

She has been active in organizing, planning, and coordinating the Philosophy Dialogue Series since its inception in 1995. In 2004 she designed a course, "Dialogue," to incorporate the series into the philosophy curriculum, and has taught this course since that time. In 2012 she expanded the dialogue series to the San Marcos Public Library with the goal of creating an intergenerational, "town and gown" forum.

In conjunction with the dialogue series she serves on the Common Experience Steering Committee and harmonizes the yearly common experience theme with topics in the dialogue series. In past years she has also been instrumental in bringing many speakers to campus in cooperation with the University Lecture Series, Humanities Texas, and the Department of Philosophy.

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • Fox, K. J., Anderson, A. L., Carson, J. A., Furness, S., Nielsen, E. A., Westerlund, J. F., & Holmes, D. J. (2016). Common Reading Program Faculty Guide 2016-17 – “What It Is Like to Go to War.” (C. S. Marquiss, Ed.).
  • Carson, J. A., Brown, T., Chumbley, C., Gillespie, B., & Hobbs-Darilek, K. (2013). Will Education Survive School Reform?
  • Carson, J. A. (2012). Berkeley’s Occasionalism. Southwest Philosophical Studies, 32.
  • Carson, J. A., Bishop, T., Richter, S., & Watt, E. (2012). The Ethics of School Reform.
  • Carson, J. A. (2005). [Review of Philosophical Writing, by A. P. Martinich]. Blackwell Publishing Company.

Selected Awards

  • Award / Honor Recipient: Dean’s Award for Service. 2015 - Present
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Dean’s Award for Service. 2010 - Present
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Team Service Award. 1998 - Present
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Performance Award. 1997

Selected Grants

  • Carson, Jo Ann. Common Experience Mini-grant. (Funded: 2015). Grant.
  • Carson, Jo Ann. San Marcos Public Library Dialogues, Humanities Texas. (Funded: 2014). Grant.
  • Carson, Jo Ann. Common Experience Mini-grant. (Funded: 2013). Grant.
  • Carson, Jo Ann. University Lecture Series. (Funded: 2010). Grant.
  • Carson, Jo Ann. University Lecture Series. (Funded: 2003). Grant.

Selected Service Activities

Organizer
Community philosophy dialogues at the San Marcos Public Library by planning and coordinating one dialogue per week as community outreach effort
2012-Present
Organizer
Community Philosophy Dialogues at the San Marcos Public Library
September 2012-Present
Organizer
Philosophy Dialogue Series
1995-Present
Coach
Texas State Ethics Bowl Team
November 1995-Present
Participant
Jim Stoner on "The Positive Liberty of Speech" in the Alkek Teaching Theater
September 19, 2017