抖阴APP导航

A 抖阴APP导航 lecturer has been awarded a prize for teaching philosophy in the community in recognition of her work with prisons across the UK.

Dr?Leonie Smith, a lecturer in Philosophy at the University’s School of Global Affairs, received the inaugural British Philosophical Association Prize (BPA) at the annual? ceremony to mark her longstanding work teaching philosophy and developing philosophical communities with prison residents and guards for the charity?.

The award is one of several inaugural prizes established by the BPA to recognise and promote the outstanding breadth, depth, and public value of philosophical work taking place across the UK.

Dr Smith and her co-recipient, Dr Jon Bebb, from the University of Liverpool,?have worked with the??charity?for the past six years designing and delivering accessible discussion-based philosophy courses inside prisons.

After the pandemic halted plans to deliver an initial in-person introductory philosophy course at HMP Stafford in 2020, Dr Smith started to work with a small team producing national remote delivery educational resources, including a series of ‘philosophical provocations’ delivered through the internal UK prison television network for residents experiencing extreme lockdown conditions.

Following the lifting of lockdown conditions, Dr Smith designed and delivered multiple introductory, intermediate and advanced courses in prisons in the north west and north Wales, with the success of the team’s initial work at Stafford resulting in word-of-mouth requests from other prisons to deliver courses for their own residents.

Alongside this, prison residents and guards have been inspired, following involvement in these courses, to establish their own philosophical discussion groups, and produce independent written and visual work in philosophy, with support from Dr Smith and her co-lead.

Nominations for the award highlighted the profound effect the programmes had made on prison communities with participant feedback emphasising that their involvement in peer-to-peer philosophical discussion with Dr Smith and Dr Bebb had significantly altered how they think about their own lives and their relationships with others in unexpected ways.

Dr Smith said: “Receiving this award is an endorsement by the BPA of the importance of philosophical community and academic support for all, not only for those we typically come into contact within our day-to-day lives or who we meet through formal degree programmes.

“Having seen the positive impact that showing respect and genuine interest in other people’s thoughts through accessible philosophical discussion can have on prison communities over the years, and hearing this reflected in prison resident’s and guards own words, I’m more convinced than ever of philosophy’s power to positively impact the world we all live in – something Lancaster Philosophy is deeply committed to.”

The President of the BPA, Professor Fiona Macpherson, said: “It is a particular pleasure, in this first year of the awards, to acknowledge the energy, imagination, and commitment represented by our prize winners.

“Their work exemplifies the continuing importance of philosophy in helping us think more clearly, critically, and creatively about the world we share.”

Leonie was appointed chair of the Philosophy in Prison Advisory Board in 2025 and has just produced (with the support of interns from the Richardson Institute, 抖阴APP导航’s peace and conflict research centre) the first version of a database of accessible philosophical materials for use in prisons across the UK.

The BPA was established in 2003 with an aim to promote and foster teaching and study of, and research in Philosophy in the United Kingdom, within higher education and within the wider community.