This award recognizes excellence in advancing the American philosophical tradition toward the resolution of current personal, social and political problems. The Ila and John Mellow Prize of $250 is offered to the person whose paper is judged to be the best in:
- developing the treasure house of methods and ideas beyond the stage they are found in the classical works of American philosophy, or
- relating these ideas and methods to contemporary issues with a view to enhancing our understanding of current problems or our ability to resolve them.
The Prize is offered in the memory of Ila and John Mellow, parents of Shirley Mellow Lachs, whose sound common sense made them the embodiments of the practical philosophy of America, and is made possible through the generosity of John and Shirley Lachs.
Past Recipients
2024 Bjørn Ralf Kristensen, “Consequentialism in the Works of John Dewey and Peter Singer:Considering the Case of Effective Altruism”
2023 Amanda Dubrule, “Radical Democracy: John Dewey and Angela Y. Davis on Pluralism and Prisons”
2022 Tess Varner, “Jane Addams and the 21st Century Refugee Resettlement: Toward the Substitution of Nurture for Warfare”
2021 Amanda Dubrule, “Gender and Habit: Dewey and Young on Embodiment and Transformation”
2020 Philip Yaure “On Plantation Politics: Citizenship and Antislavery Resistance in Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom”
2019 Lauren Eichler and David Baumeister, “Rethinking Conservation for Inclusivity: An Indigenous Critique of The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation”
2018 Tadd Ruetenik, “Jane Addams, ‘Pragmatic’ Compromise, and Anti-War Pragmatism
2017 Celia Bardwell-Jones “Placental Ethics: Addressing Colonial Legacies and Imagining Culturally Safe and Pragmatic Response to Health Care in Hawai’I”
2016 Anna Cook, “Intra-American Philosophy in Practice: Indigenous Voice, Felt Knowledge, and Settler Denial”
2015 Gregory Pappas, “The Pragmatists’ Approach to Injustice”
2014 Susan Dieleman “Locating Rorty: Feminism & Poststructuralism, Experience, & Language”
2013 Joshua Skorburg, “Beyond Embodiment: John Dewey and the Integrated Mind”
2012 Shane Ralston, “A Deweyan Defense of Guerrilla Gardening”
2011 Felicia Kruse, “Temporality in Musical Meaning: A Peircean/Deweyan Semiotic Approach”
2010 Heath Atchley, “Attention, Affirmation, and the Spiritual Law of Gravity”
2009 Christopher Voparil, “Jonquils and Wild Orchids: James and Rorty on the Politics of Sentiment”
2008 Judy Whipps, “‘Learn to Earn’: A Pragmatist Response to Contemporary Dialogues About Industrial Education”
2007 Naoko Saito, “Philosophy as Translation: American Philosophy, Perfectionism and Cross-cultural Understanding”