USM Distinguished Professor

The title "USM Distinguished Professor" is among the highest honors accorded Tenured full professors at the University of Southern Maine.

Philosophy Professor Robert Louden has been appointed the newest Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern Maine.  Professor Louden joins Dr. Mark Lapping, Dr. Joseph Conforti, Dr. Kathleen Ashley, and Rose Marasco, M.F.A. in receiving this great honor.

Professor Louden has taught as USM since 1982 when he was hired at the rank of Assistant Professor.  Prior to his arrival at USM, Professor Louden received his Ph.D. at the Univeristy of Chicago, and he taught as a lecturer at Barat College and Indiana Northwest.  In 1988, Professor Louden was tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.  In 1996, he was promoted to Professor.  He has been department chair four times, and has taught as a Visiting Professor at Gottingen and Emory Universities.

Professor Louden's scholarly record is remarkable.  He has published four books, all issued by the prestigious Oxford University Press.  Furthermore, he is the author of more than one hundred journal articles and more than thirty book reviews.  Professor Louden has also completed translations of philosophical texts and his own works have been translated into German, Polish, Russian, and Portuguese and have been reprinted in anthologies for classroom use. 

The major focus of Professor Louden's career is ethics, the moral imagination, and the work of Immanual Kant.  His work has far-reaching influence.  Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago describes him as "one of the most under-placed and under-valued figures in the American moral philosophy, despite having produced two books of major importance."

Professor Louden's scholarly record places him at the top of his field, and he is in the company of philosophers working at major research universities throughout the country.  Congratulations to Professor Louden, USM's newest Distinguished Professor.