In Kendall 415, there are photos of the new philosophy professor’s family, including his three sons, his wife — and Immanuel Kant.
Ian Church, Hillsdale College’s new visiting assistant professor of philosophy, has faces of his philosopher “family,” he said, lining his office wall, starting with his current supervisor at the University of Edinburgh to the greats like Kant, Bertrand Russell, and Gottfried Leibniz. Church said he enjoys the ever-present nod to his intellectual roots.
“My wife thinks it’s just dorky, but I think it’s really cool,” Church said. “This is a reminder to me that there’s no guarantee that philosophy is going to make you happy because none of these people look terribly happy.”
But Church said he is happy to be at Hillsdale. With the mandate that students enrolling in the fall of 2016 and after take Philosophy 105 as a part of the new core curriculum, the philosophy department expanded its faculty by two. Assistant Professor of Philosophy Blake McAllister filled the other position.
“We figured we needed more than the four professors we had before,” said Tom Burke, dean of humanities and philosophy and religion department chairman. “We just wanted a couple of good, young philosophers, and both are, I think, phenomenal.”
As a philosophy professor to the “STEM generation” — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — Church said people have told him time and time again to lower his expectations for students and realize that many won’t do the reading or show up to class.
“It’s been the exact opposite coming here,” he said.
Church specializes in the philosophy of psychology and epistemology, the theory of knowledge and investigation of justification.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and rhetoric and composition at Ball State University in Indiana, his Master of Letters from the Universities of St Andrews and Stirling Graduate Programme in Philosophy in the U.K., and finished his doctorate in the same program.
Church has worked as a research fellow for two Templeton Foundation grant projects and is now the principal investigator for a third. This project, which he proposed, is a massive open, online course on intellectual humility from the University of Edinburgh in the U.K.
While Church has entered some prestigious circles in the philosophical world, it is the circles of philosophical discussion he said he most enjoys.
“I never lived in the dorms as a college student, but I lived with several of my friends, and just having constant philosophical conversations around the breakfast table or dinner table, that’s probably my fondest college memory,” Church said.
Those discussions are what he hopes his classes will foster at Hillsdale, too.
It has for freshman Reagan Cool, she said. Cool said Church’s teaching of philosophy helps her understand the other disciplines more fully.
“Dr. Church’s teaching style is different than any teaching style I’ve learned from in the past,” she said. “The way he leads class is incredibly thought-provoking, and philosophy forces me to apply my intellect in a way I never have.”
Church said he is just as impressed with his students.
“Everyone says if you raise your expectations, Hillsdale students will meet it,” Church said. “And I’ve been so very very impressed with the quality of the students, their intelligence, but also their character.”