Chris Ciocchetti

I am an Associate Professor of Philosophy, and I hold the Beaird Professorship of Philosophy at Centenary College of Louisiana. I teach a wide range of courses to undergraduates at Centenary over my career. I want my students to see the world clearly and have the practical and philosophical resources to live a meaningful life dedicated to improving it.

My work often extends into the community. I have taught a service-learning course on poverty and health in conjunction with the MLK Health Center and Pharmacy in Shreveport. I co-taught the first for-credit course at Partners in Health's campus in Cange, Haiti. On campus, I advise Beliefs and Values, a group designed to build understanding between people with different religious views on campus and off. Many problems in Shreveport stem from our specific experience with racism and discrimination, so I am involved in three anti-racist projects. The first two, Dinner & Dialogue and the Reconciliation Dinner, create opportunities for discussion between people who would rarely meet or talk about race. The third project aims to focus attention on institutional racism in Shreveport. We hosted a mayoral forum on institutional racism in October, and we plan to find other ways to raise institutional racism as a political issue. I am the long-time host of the Shreveport Philosophical Forum, a philosophy discussion group drawing 6-10 community members together monthly. Beyond these interests, my wife and I garden, cook, and foster dogs for the local shelter.

MLK Health Center: https://mlkhealth.org/

Partners in Health: https://www.pih.org/

Reconciliation Dinner: http://www.reconciliationshreveport.com/

Dinner & Dialogue: http://www.reconciliationshreveport.com/current-events-and-resources/dinner-and-dialogue/