Claudia Mills

Prof. Claudia Mills was a beloved philosophy professor here at CU-Boulder from 1991 to 2014, when she retired as Emeritus Associate Professor of Philosophy. She received her B.A. degree from Wellesley College in 1976, her M.A. degree from Princeton University in 1979, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1991. She also received an M.L.S. degree from the University of Maryland in 1988, with a concentration in children's literature. She worked as an editorial assistant in children's book publishing at Four Winds Press (Scholastic) in NYC from 1979-1980 and as an editor and director of publications at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland 1980 to 1989. From 1992 to 2013 she taught philosophy, first as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, then as an assistant professor and then associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was the Robert and Carolyn Frederick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Ethics and visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePauw University from 2011-2013. Prof. Mills has published numerous papers on ethics, applied ethics, and political philosophy. She also publishes widely on moral and philosophical questions in children's literature.

In addition to her many scholarly articles, Prof. Mills is the author of over 60 books for children, including Calliope Callisto Clark and the Search for Wisdom, The Last Apple Tree, and The Lost Language. (see her author page for more information).

Prof. Mills was an outstanding teacher and mentor during her career here at CU-Boulder. She regularly taught PHIL 3100 'Ethical Theory' as well as PHIL 1100 'Ethics', a renowned introduction to ethics which included readings from Tolstoy, Aristotle, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Sartre, Trungpa, children's author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and above all her beloved Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher. She also mentored countless graduate students as TAs and GPTIs and served as Teaching Mentor for the department for many years, observing and advising many graduate students, and helping them to develop and grow as teachers of philosophy. Prof. Mills won numerous teaching awards including the SOAR (Student Organization for Alumni Relations) Teaching Recognition Award (1995), the Phi Sigma Tau (Undergraduate Philosophy Club) Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (1999), the Best Should Teach Gold Award (2010), and the Boulder Faculty Assembly Teaching Excellence Award (2009). The Claudia Mills Teaching Prize awarded each year to an outstanding Teaching Assistant is intended both to recognize outstanding teaching of undergraduates in the philosophy department, as well as to acknowledge Prof. Mills's own outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching during her own career.

For more information you can read her CV here.