Russell Marcus, the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Professor of Philosophy, discussed the Hamilton College Summer Program in Philosophy (HCSPiP) in an episode of the Tea for Teaching podcast titled “A Summer to Learn.” Tea for Teaching is based at the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at the State University of New York at Oswego. The show’s hosts learned of Marcus’ innovative program when it was the subject of a July article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The conversation focused on how Marcus developed his ideas for HCSPiP not long after becoming involved with the American Association of Philosophy Teachers. Realizing that for various reasons, many philosophy professors didn’t feel comfortable trying their interesting and creative ideas for teaching in a college classroom, he decided to look for a way to “encourage more creativity, and also to just bring folks to me.”
He said that when he brought his idea to Hamilton’s Philosophy Department, it was well-received.
Marcus explained how the program works – from recruiting the philosophy teachers who will participate, to choosing the three courses that will be included in the upcoming session and designing the program around those courses, and finally, reviewing student applications and selecting 20 students to participate. For each of the classes, a graduate student serves as a tutor.
With three classes that can be up to two hours long, five days a week, for two weeks, Marcus said the program can be “exhausting.” There are no grades and students get no credit for their participation. The classes are “just for the love of philosophy,” he said, and the students “come here because they love philosophy, they love trying to do it here.”
Marcus concluded, “We want to change the world of philosophy instruction, and we’re hoping that people are going back to their home institutions and working, not only teaching their classes, but talking to other people about the work that they’ve done here.”
HCSPiP is funded by Hamilton’s Chauncey R. Truax Fund for Philosophy.
Posted September 23, 2025
