First Recipient of the Annual Leo Ribuffo Dissertation Prize

The Society for U. S. Intellectual History (S-USIH) is pleased to announce its first recipient of the annual Leo Ribuffo Dissertation Prize.

This first prize goes to Jonathan Strassfeld for his dissertation titled, “Phenomenology and American Philosophy.” Strassfeld completed his work at the University of Rochester under the supervision of Robert Westbrook. The Prize Committee’s vote was unanimous.

Here is the Committee’s statement on Strassfeld’s accomplishment:

“Conventional wisdom has it that analytical philosophy emerged as hegemonic in postwar America because its highly technical language and positivist methodologies meshed well with a Cold War political culture committed to the notion that ideology was a vestige of the Old World. Jonathan Strassfeld’s fantastic dissertation, “Phenomenology and American Philosophy,” demonstrates that this just-so story about the divide between continental and Anglo-American philosophy is more complicated. Strassfeld argues rather that phenomenology, a brand of European philosophy founded by Edmund Husserl and further developed by Martin Heidegger which emphasized the intentionality of consciousness and experience, actually had a vibrant life in American universities up until World War II. Such vibrancy might have persisted in postwar America had it not been for elite academic philosophers who worked hard to bolster analytical philosophy and marginalize phenomenology, as Strassfeld convincingly shows with his painstaking archival digging and his creative use of quantitative analysis. In this first history of phenomenology in the United States, Jonathan Strassfeld gives us a compelling intellectual and institutional history of the profession, warts and all. This is a fascinating and sometimes surprising exploration, beautifully written and meticulously crafted. Ultimately, “Phenomenology and American Philosophy” makes the case for contemplating the meaning of human existence, consciousness, and experience beyond a confining philosophical paradigm that doesn’t ask questions beyond known facts. For the selection committee this was the clear winner and an exemplary way to inaugurate the Leo Ribuffo Prize.”

The Selection Committee:

Ben Alpers, University of Oklahoma
Angela Dillard, University of Michigan
Andrew Hartman, Illinois State University