David Blacker

Professor

David J. Blacker is a professor specializing in the philosophy of education in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. He previously held appointments at Illinois State University and Teachers College, Columbia University. His writings explore a wide range of issues in education policy and philosophy. He is the author of four books, including The Falling Rate of Learning and the Neoliberal Endgame (Zero), Democratic Education Stretched Thin: How Complexity Challenges a Liberal Ideal (SUNY) and Dying to Teach: The Educator’s Search for Immortality (Columbia/TC).

His most recent work, The Falling Rate of Learning has been widely reviewed in academic journals such as Radical Philosophy, The SAIS Europe Journal (Johns Hopkins University) and Educational Theory, where it featured as the object of a special issue, and also widely-read publications like Salon, inside Higher Education, Times Higher Education, South China Morning Post, and many others. He has authored over forty scholarly articles and book chapters in philosophy and education policy, his work appearing in such journals as the American Journal of Education, Teachers College Record, the Journal of Philosophy of Education, Educational Theory, and in collections with Basil Blackwell, Teachers College Press, Springer and Oxford University Press.

Blacker has given over sixty presentations at scholarly conferences and other academic venues. Among these are invited public lectures at the University of Cambridge, University of Wales, University of London, Westminster University, University of East London, University of Edinburgh, McGill University, Columbia University, University of Illinois, the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art (Rome), and Haus der Kulturen der Welte (Berlin). He was selected by the University of Illinois’s Center for Advanced Study for its prestigious campus-wide MillerComm Lecture Series. Additionally, his work provided an early resource for the Occupy movement and he has appeared on numerous podcasts and radio shows such as The C-Realm, The Extraenvironmentalist, and The Majority Report (selected by listeners as a “Best Interview of the Year”). Blacker has been quoted in The Guardian (UK), The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The New York Times.

Educational Background

• Ph.D., Philosophy of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, 1994
• M.A., Philosophy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, 1990
• B.A., Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin, TX, 1988

Professional Experience

• Professor, School of Education, University of Delaware, 2005–present
• Professor, Legal Studies, University of Delaware, 2006–present
• Director, Legal Studies Program, University of Delaware, 2013–2016
• Associate Professor, Legal Studies, University of Delaware, 2001–2005
• Assistant Professor, School of Education, University of Delaware, 1998–2000

Recent Professional Awards

• Winner, “Best of Interviews 2014,” The Majority Report with Sam Seder, 2014
• Winner, “Best of Interviews 2104,” Full Stop: Reviews, Interviews, Marginalia, 2014
• Invited speaker, University of Delaware Distinguished Scholars Dinner, 2011
• Kappa Delta Pi Outstanding Teacher, University of Delaware, 2001