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Initiated in 1961 as the "Co-operative Research on Dewey Publications,"
the Center for Dewey Studies began with the mission of publishing
a concordance of John Dewey’s works. Coinciding with a renewed national
interest in American philosophy, the climate at Southern Illinois
University in the early 1960s brought together education professor George
E. Axtelle, university press director Vernon Sternberg, and university
president Delyte W. Morris who were interested in the project. Only three staff members
(director George Axtelle, Jo Ann Boydston, and a student worker) worked
on the project. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Axtelle left the
project and Jo Ann Boydston became the director. |
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With the completion of the thirty-seven
volumes of the
Collected
Works and its index in 1991,
the first mission of the Center for Dewey Studies ended and the staff
began work on its next project: the
Correspondence of John Dewey.
Under its new director, Larry Hickman, the Center has published over
22,000 pieces of Dewey’s correspondence in four electronic volumes
between 1991 and 2008. The
Correspondence richly adds to
the Dewey source materials, providing an understanding of Dewey’s life
and the conversations which took place between Dewey and his colleagues
as he researched and wrote his many works. The Center is currently in
the midst of its third publication project, the Dewey Class Lecture Notes,
which illustrate the development of Dewey’s ideas as they were
presented in the classroom during his teaching career and culminating in
his published works. |
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Over the years
the Center for Dewey
Studies has increased
its standing as the premier research center for Dewey studies. In
addition to the vast array of primary sources the Center accumulated, it
also houses a unique and exclusive collection of secondary sources in
the Works About Dewey collection, numbering over 10,000 individual
items. Scholars from all over the globe travel to the Center to take
advantage of these resources collected from over 200 archives and untold
publications. Throughout its life the Center has worked to further the
interest and understanding of Dewey’s ideas by cosponsoring many
international conferences and has assisted in the establishment of six
international Centers of Dewey Studies. |
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Our Reading List contains further
information related to the establishment of the Center. |
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