Pfeifer to Become Director of the Institute for American Thought

Philosophy Professor David Pfeifer View print-quality image

Philosophy Professor David Pfeifer will become director of the Institute for American Thought at IUPUI on July 1, 2009.

The IAT is a research facility within the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. The institute unites related academic programs with the faculty, editing specialists and research holdings of four centers: the Peirce Edition Project, the Santayana Edition, the Frederick Douglass Papers Project and the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies.

Professor Pfeifer, who holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois, has been an IUPUI faculty member since 2005. He came to IUPUI because of the Peirce Edition Project, considered the premier place to study the writings of Charles Sanders Peirce.

“As a student of Max Fisch, an early director of the Peirce Edition Project, I have spent much of my philosophic career working on Peirce’s religious thinking,” said Pfeifer. “The opportunity for me to do in depth research at the institute was wonderful. What started as a one-year visiting appointment has extended into this fifth year with this great opportunity to be of service to the Institute for American Thought and IUPUI.”

Since 1998, Pfeifer has served as managing editor of The Press of Arisbe Associates, editing the last three volumes in the monograph series “Peirce Studies” including “Charles Peirce’s System of Science.”

“It really is an extraordinary stroke of good fortune for us to have David Pfeifer here at this moment,” said Bill Blomquist, dean of the School of Liberal Arts. “We could hardly have hoped to find someone with his combination of academic expertise and administrative experience for this position. I’m very pleased that he is taking this leadership role with the institute.”

Pfeifer will succeed Professor Jonathan Eller, who assumed the directorship in July 2008. Pfeifer teaches logic, introduction to philosophy, and American philosophy. He will continue to offer courses while he directs the institute.

Before coming to IUPUI, Pfeifer was on the faculty and an administrator at Principia College in Elsah, Ill. His 31-year career at Principia included service as acting dean of the faculty and a seven-year term (1989-1996) as the institution’s president.