UMW Professor of Philosophy Craig Vasey, chair of the Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion, received the J. Christopher Bill Outstanding Faculty Service Award in August.
The award, named for a late psychology professor who served UMW for nearly three decades, recognizes a longtime member of the teaching faculty who has been heavily and consistently involved in a variety of service roles, including to a department, the University, and the community.
An expert on race theory, contemporary French philosophy, and feminist philosophy, Vasey played a key role in establishing UMW’s women and gender curriculum. He has led the commemoration of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom and served on the James Farmer Visiting Professorship Committee and the Steering Committee for the UMW Strategic Plan.
In the community, Vasey helped found the Maury Neighborhoods Association and is the Fredericksburg Sister City Association’s director of cultural events. He represents Virginia on the the American Association of University Professors National Council and has been a member of the Virginia Humanities Conference, Virginia Women’s Studies Association, and American Philosophical Association.
Vasey holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Towson State College, a doctorate from the Université de Paris-Nanterre, and a Ph.D. from Brown. He joined UMW in 1986 as assistant professor of philosophy, becoming professor in 1999 and teaching such subjects as advanced logic, phenomenology, and Freud.
Vasey edited the post-trilogy fragments of French philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre into a fourth volume of Roads of Freedom. The book, The Last Chance – Roads of Freedom IV, published in 2009, is the first English translation of the Sartre work.
A champion of education, Vasey also is the Virginia representative for the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education.
Speaking for the campaign, he was quoted in The Bullet in February, “The change we want in the conversation is to return to a vision of education as a public good, available and accessible to anyone who wants it.”