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Dr. Alessandro Moscarítolo Palacio

Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies; Assistant Director of the Honors Program; Internship Coordinator of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Bio

Professor Moscarítolo Palacio is a seasoned and passionate teacher who is convinced that pursuing excellence as an educator is a prerequisite for achieving excellence as a scholar. As someone born and raised in a collectivistic Global South society, moreover, Professor Moscarítolo views a successful class as a joint endeavor in which the leading voice is the collective voice of everyone in the room. Relatedly, as someone educated in a pluralistic and multicultural milieu, Professor Moscarítolo is unflaggingly committed to intellectual pluralism: he is eager to show his students, in practice, that we can make sense of difficult topics by approaching them from multiple perspectives—including perspectives that some of us may find unfamiliar.

Professor Moscarítolo specializes in global philosophies, with an emphasis on Latin American and Latine philosophy, Indigenous philosophies of the Americas, Africana philosophy, and contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. In these fields, he is particularly interested in topics pertaining to environmental ethics, meta-philosophy (the philosophy of philosophy), race and ethnicity, and the philosophy of education. He also has interests in the philosophy of science, applied ethics, the philosophy of gender and sexuality, the philosophy of law, and the philosophy of art. As a first-generation college student who can attest to the transformative value of higher education, Professor Moscarítolo aims to empower all his students to view their college education as a unique opportunity to become the best versions of themselves through critical thinking and exposure to multiple perspectives.

As a scholar and teacher eager to foreground the relevance of philosophy (and the humanities more generally), Professor Moscarítolo has spearheaded multiple public philosophy endeavors. In this capacity, he has aimed to build bridges across seemingly intractable political, religious, and ideological differences. As a reviewer and member of the advisory board of multiple academic publishers, Professor Moscarítolo is equally interested in bringing academic traditions of the Global South into dialogue with American and European academic traditions.

Professor Moscarítolo and his husband are the devoted servants of Mona Estefanía, a regal yet uniquely affectionate Russian Blue cat. While Professor Moscarítolo and his husband are unflinching vegans, Her Majesty is—and will always be—an unflinching carnivore. They live in harmony despite their ideological differences!
 

Education

PhD, Philosophy, University of Illinois, 2021
MA, Philosophy, University of Illinois, 2016
MA, Logic and Philosophy of Science, Universidad Central de Venezuela, 2011
BA, Philosophy, Universidad Central de Venezuela, 2008

Research Interests / Areas of Focus

Global Philosophies, with an emphasis on Latin American and Latine Philosophy, Indigenous Philosophies of the Americas, and Africana Philosophy; Environmental Philosophy; Philosophy of Education; Public Philosophy; History of Contemporary Philosophy.

Selected Publications

BOOK

Philosophy and Ordinary Life (forthcoming).

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

"Some Notes for a Historically Situated Reinterpretation of Ordinary Language Philosophy". Universitas Philosophica, Volume 43, No. 86. July 2026

"Gangster Philosophers and Actual Philosophers. Some Introductory Notes on the Function of Academic Philosophy in Everyday Life". Everyday Lifestyles, American Philosophical Association, November 2025.

"A Constructive Engagement between Oxford Ordinary Language Philosophy and Latin American and Latine Liberatory Philosophy". Comparative Philosophy, Volume 16 No. 2, August 2025.

"When Conversation Goes Wrong: Managing Student Errors" in Brynn Welch (editor), The Art of Teaching Philosophy: Reflective Values and Concrete Practices. Bloomsbury Academic Publishing, 2024. (Co-authored with Russell Marcus.)

"Forging a New Relationship with Nature: Lessons from the Indigenous Philosophies of Abya Yala (the Americas)". Public Philosophy Journal, Vol. 5, no. 2, September 2023
 

Selected Presentations

"A Dialogue between Latin American Philosophy and Latin American Literature." 2026 Latinx Philosophy Conference. Texas A&M University, November 2026.

"Applying Active Team-Based Learning Methods". Third Workshop on Innovative Pedagogy. Spanish Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Madrid (Spain), June 2026.

"Conflict, Mestizaje, And Cosmopolitics". Microsymposium on Environmental Philosophy: Ethics, Technology & Ways of Living. 21st Annual International Conference on Philosophy. Athens Institute, Athens (Greece), May 2026.

"Environmental Philosophies of Some Main Indigeneous Peoples of South America". 2026 American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting. Baltimore (MA), January 2026.

"Dare to Think. Some Remarks on the Public Function of Philosophy". Public Philosophy Initiative. Lynchburg (VA), February 2025.

"Pedagogical Hierarchies and Global South Philosophies of Liberation." Power 2025 Conference: Hierarchy, Action, and Power in Question. University of Virginia (Charlottesville), January 2025.

"Resilience and Flourishing: Native American Philosophy and Global South Lived Experience." Life More Abundant Conference, Randolph College. Lynchburg (VA), September 2024.

"The Ontological Roots of Nahuatl Environmental Philosophy." Association of Nahuatl Scholars Meeting. Brown University, Providence (RI), April 2023

"Some Effective Strategies for Teaching a TBL (Team-Based Learning) Course on Indigenous Philosophies of the Americas". American Association of Philosophy Teachers’ Panel on Teaching Innovation at the 2023 American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting. San Francisco (CA), April 2023

"New Resources for Teaching Philosophy." Panel of the Association for the Philosophy of Education at the 2023 American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting. San Francisco (CA), April 2023.

"Managing Student Errors in Student-Centered Classes". 2022 International Workshop-Conference on Teaching Philosophy, American Association of Philosophy Teachers. Otterbein University (Westerville, OH), July 2022.

"Forging a New Relationship with Nature: Lessons from the Indigenous Philosophy of Abya Yala-the Americas". Philosophy in the Wild: Second Annual Conference on Environmental Philosophy. Penn State University, June 2022.

"A Tale from the Oxford of Yore". 2021 Conference of the Society for the Study of the History of Analytic Philosophy. Shanxi University (Shanxi, China), July 2022.
 

Awards and Honors

  1. Teaching Award, Department of Philosophy University of Illinois Chicago
  2. President’s Research in Diversity Award, University of Illinois System
  3. Teaching Interfaith Understanding Grant, Interfaith America
  4. Provost Graduate Research Award, University of Illinois Chicago
  5. Civic Pluralism Development Grant, Interfaith America
  6. A.W. Mellon Technology-Enhanced Learning Fellowship, Carnegie-Mellon University
  7. Strengthening the Campus Community Grant, Interfaith America
  8. Chicago Consular Corps Award
  9. American Association of Philosophy Teachers Scholarship
  10. A-1 Researcher in the Humanities. Observatorio Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Ministry of Science and Technology, Venezuela.
  11. Federico Riu International Award for Philosophy (honorable mention). Agencia Española para la Cooperación al Desarollo, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain
  12. Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, Universidad Central de Venezuela
Image of Dr. Alessandro Moscarítolo Palacio.

Contact Information

Academic School

School of Liberal Arts

Office

Fontaine 227

Email

alessandro.moscaritolopalacio@Marist.edu

Phone

(845) 575-3000 ext. 2166