New: Bhimrao Ambedkar Prize in Global Pragmatism

The Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP) has established the Bhimrao Ambedkar Prize in Global Pragmatism. It is the first prize from an American scholarly organization named in honor of Bhimrao (B.R.) Ambedkar. Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956) was a well-known and highly respected political figure, philosopher, and civil rights leader in India. He studied economics at Columbia (from 1913-16) and while there studied under John Dewey. Dewey was apparently very influential on Ambedkar’s thinking, according to the SAAP, and “upon returning to India, Ambedkar would lead a lifelong movement against caste discrimination, take an important role in the drafting of India’s democratic constitution in the 1940s, and orchestrate a mass conversion movement to Buddhism in the 1950s. He also developed his own theory of democracy, thereby adding to the global evolution of pragmatist thought beyond its American context.” The aim of the prize is “to reward high-quality scholarship…