Associate Professor of Philosophy Jesse Butler was selected as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar.
I am very excited, Butler said. This is a tremendous opportunity for positive cross-cultural exchange, and Im looking forward to making the most of it.
The Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries, and it is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government.
Butler will spend 10 months teaching an American philosophy course at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, and he will lecture at other Chinese universities. The curriculum for the class, titled Self-knowledge in American philosophy and literature, was developed through a National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions grant.
I hope to conduct some interesting discussions based on how Americans understand themselves and how that relates to the Chinese people, Butler said. While there are differences between us, it is crucial to recognize our shared humanity in the increasingly global world in which we live.
Butler earned a bachelors and doctorate degree at the University of Oklahoma. He began teaching at the University of Central Arkansas in 2007 and earned tenure in 2013. He teaches philosophy, critical thinking, logic and theories of knowledge courses in the College of Liberal Arts.