IAPC Oral Histories

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  Berman, Matthew L. Interview 14 April 2025

  Matthew L. Berman, Maughn Rollins Gregory, and Megan Jane Laverty

  In this IAPC Oral History Interview, Mathew "Matt" L. Berman describes his experience as a student in the Masters of Arts in Teaching Philosophy for Children program at Montclair State College in the 1980s, his use of philosophy as a teacher at the Metairie Park Country Day School in Metairie, Louisiana, and the database of Philosophy and Children’s Literature he created during his 1989 sabbatical funded by the “Teacher-Scholar Program for Elementary and Secondary School Teachers,” awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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  Dianuzzo, Nicholas Interview 17 April 2025

  Nicholas Dianuzzo

  In this interview Professor Nicholas Dianuzzo describes his recovery from drug dependency, his undergraduate study of philosophy and his experience in the Master of Arts in Teaching Middle School Philosophy at Montclair State College. At the time, he was counseling drug-dependent teenagers and was the first person to use philosophy to do so--an approach he developed in consultation with Colin Clayton, whom he met at the IAPC Summer Course at Mendham, New Jersey, and who became one of the first practitioners of philosophical counseling in the UK. In October 1992 Dianuzzo and Clayton presented their work at the 5th International Conference on Philosophy for Children at the University of Graz. In 1996 Dianuzzo and Matthew Lipman were interviewed about this approach on the public television program Ethics in the 90s (see that episode here).

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  Gazzard, Ann Interview 8 August 2018

  Ann Gazzard

  In this IAPC Oral History Interview, Dr. Ann Gazzard describes studying with Gareth B. Matthews at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and later working for eight years at the Institute the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, where she conducted research, wrote curriculum, and traveled around the United States conducting teacher workshops, before joining the philosophy faculty at Wagner College. She describes the different roles of Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp at the Institute. She later gave workshops on emotional intelligence for parents using philosophical discussion at an early childhood center. She discusses relationships among yoga, meditation, and philosophy for children.

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  Lipman, Karen Interview 22 August 2023

  Karen Lipman

  Karen Lipman is the daughter of Matthew Lipman, co-founder of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children at Montclair State University, and Wynona Moore Lipman, the first African-American female Senator of the State of New Jersey. In this interview by Peter Shea, Maughn Rollins Gregory, and Walter O. Kohan, Karen shares memories of her parents and talks about what she learned from each of them. This interview was conducted on 22 August 2023 in preparation for the international celebration of Matthew Lipman's Centenary two days later.

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  Pritchard, Michael Interview 13 September 2023

  Michael Pritchard, Maughn Gregory, and Peter Shea

  In this IAPC Oral History Interview, Michael Pritchard discusses his career as a philosopher specializing in ethics, moral psychology, and precollege philosophy. He describes using children's books to teach university philosophy classes and his involvement with the first doctoral program in philosophy for children at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He shares his views on children's moral education. Pritchard's books include Philosophical Adventures with Children (University Press of America, 1985), Reasonable Children (University Press of Kansas, 1996), and On Becoming Reasonable (University Press of Kansas, 1991).