Kirsten Welch, Ph.D.

Education

• Ph.D., Philosophy and Education, Columbia University, 2024
• M.A., Philosophy, Western Michigan University, 2018
• B.A., University Scholars, Baylor University, 2014

Research Interests

Classical and liberal arts education, virtue ethics, moral formation, intellectual humility, and the ethics of education.

Selected Publications

• “Ancient Greek and Roman Ethics and Education,” in The Cambridge Handbook of Ethics and Education (Cambridge University Press, 2024)

• “On the Value of Achievement in Education,” Philosophy and Education 78, no. 4 (2023): 74–81

• “A Character-Based Perspective on Sex Education and Sexual Ethics,” in Moral Education in the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press, 2023)

• “Misplaced Tolerance and Educating for Intellectual Humility,” Educational Theory 71, no. 6 (2021): 681–702

• “(Don’t) Just Be Nice: Broadening the Moral Vocabulary of Students,” Philosophy and Education 76 (2020): 76–89

• “Epistemic Dimensions of the Ethics of De-platforming in Higher Education,” forthcoming in Philosophy and Education

• “Reading Literature to Cultivate Love,” in Improving Character: Moral Virtues, Strategies, and Questions (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming)

• “Sexting or Same-Sex Marriage?: Shifting the Center of Controversy in School Sex Education,” in Teaching Controversy (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

Awards & Fellowships

• Lilly Graduate Fellow (2019–2022)

• Teachers College Doctoral Fellowship (2018–2021)

• Baylor Young Scholars Program Fellow (2018–2020)

• Doctoral Student Workshop in Educational Ethics Award (2020)

• McPherson Fellowship, Center for Ethics and Education, Wisconsin Center (2018–2019)

• Heraclitean Society Essay Prize in Ethics, WMU (Spring 2017)

• CAMWS Manson A. Stewart Scholarship (2013–2014)

• Baylor Classics Outstanding Student (2012–2013)

• Henry L. Robinson Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship (2012–2013)

Presentations & Invited Talks

• “Education and Social Reform in Sophie de Grouchy’s Letters on Sympathy,” North Eastern Philosophy of Education Society (October 2023)

• Panel: “Classical and Liberal Arts Education: Moving the Canon Forward,” North American Association for Philosophy & Education (October 2024)

• Additional talks on intellectual humility, virtue ethics, and sex education at national and regional conferences between 2017–2022