Craig Hanson

Professor of Philosophy | Director, Global Development Department

School: School of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Department: Philosophy
Sub-department(s): Global Development (GR) | Philosophy (UG) | Humanities (UG)
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joined: 2006

Biography

Dr. Craig Hanson holds an M.A. in foreign languages from Illinois State University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Syracuse University.

His work in foreign languages has proved both a useful tool as well as a substantive research program – first as a translator for several NGO’s in Sénégal in the year, and continuing through an extensive list of international presentations and appearances across Europe, Africa, and Asia. Dr. Hanson continues to do a significant portion of his work in the French language. He is proficient in both the English and French languages.

His work in philosophy focuses on the intersection of philosophical and economic inquiry. He has written, lectured, and consulted on the intersection of ethics and human behavior theory, culminating in his work Thinking About Addiction: Hyperbolic Discounting and Responsible Agency (2006). In that work and elsewhere, Dr. Hanson uses the tools of economics together with the insights of philosophers to shed light on the nature of self-defeating choice, especially within non-standard models.

More recently he has turned to the issue of global development in an effort to understand why, despite the weighty efforts of the Western world, global development initiatives fail to yield promised results. This has led Dr. Hanson to create a new graduate program in global development, providing students an intensive yet practical graduate-level training in global development. The focus of this program is the intersection of several key areas often unaddressed in the global development community: entrepreneurship, social enterprise, microenterprise, and applied theology. These, together with the comparatively traditional policy studies, work to create a dynamic results-based graduate environment. In service to this program, Dr. Hanson serves as a point-of-contact for both internal and external persons involved with the program, ranging from fieldwork providers to graduate students and interested community members.

Degrees

PHD in Philosophy, Syracuse University | MA in Foreign Language, Illinois State University | BA in French, Illinois State University