May 29, 2024
Philosophy professor Peter Costello earns Providence College’s highest teaching award
By Martha Young
Peter Costello, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, is the 2023-24 Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award recipient. The award is presented annually to the Providence College faculty member “who best exhibits excellence in teaching, passion and enthusiasm for learning, and genuine concern for students’ academic and personal growth.”
Costello, who received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Penn State University, joined the PC faculty in 2004 after teaching at Saint Peter’s University in New Jersey. At PC, he has taught courses in philosophy, public and community service studies, global studies, women’s and gender studies, and the Development of Western Civilization Program. These include Phenomenology, Philosophy and Globalization, Contemporary Women in Philosophy, and Introduction to Public Service.
Costello said his teaching philosophy is rooted in his early educational experiences. Before attending graduate school, he traveled to Ethiopia to participate in a teaching program sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers. There, his first students were postulant priests and sisters from various religious orders who were non-English speakers. In an unconventional attempt to help them learn the language that the tests would be in, Costello — playing the guitar — taught the postulants to sing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver, a song often sung by Ethiopian freedom fighters.
“One of the reasons I believe I’m effective in the classroom is that I bracket my expectations and assumptions about where the students are,” Costello said.
For instance, when reading a book in class, he removes his relationship with the book and lets the students share their own experiences.
“I want to get out of their way and discover new things along with the students, which increases energy in the room. I learn from the students,” Costello said.
One of his nominators for the Accinno Award said Costello’s belief that a student’s education should be a shared experience “inspired me and my plans for the future in ways I cannot even put into words.”
“It’s my education … not anyone else’s,” the student wrote. “He demonstrated this moral principle every day in class, giving us the chance to discuss what compelled us about the reading — not what Professor Costello decided we should find compelling. I have never had a professor who cares so much about his students and their rights. Providence College calls for their students to ‘seek more,’ and no professor calls for their students to seek more than Peter Costello.”
While pursuing a master’s degree in education, Costello taught at a public high school in Rockford, Illinois. When his cooperating teacher was absent for several months, Costello was left to lead the classroom. After realizing his students needed to learn how to read effectively before he could teach them to write papers, he developed strategies, including assuming students often have not done the work.
Based on that assumption, he would “tease out” what they were experiencing in that moment. And thus began his interest in qualitative research focused on the study of lived experiences, or phenomenology, which along with 19th and 20th century continental philosophy, existentialism, and philosophy of religion, are his areas of academic expertise.
Celebrating his 20th year at Providence College, Costello enjoys having the academic freedom to teach in the way he finds most effective. He reflected on his earliest days teaching in the Development of Western Civilization program with Paul O’Malley, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and former director of the graduate history program.
“Rather than having me lecture on the history of philosophy, Paul, as DWC team captain, supported me in teaching whole texts over a number of class sessions,” Costello said. “I appreciated Paul’s gift of the opportunity to teach DWC using my teaching philosophy rather than conforming to its more prevalent, lecture-oriented structure.”
Costello credits other faculty colleagues for influencing his teaching approach. He mentioned Rev. Joseph Guido, O.P., assistant professor of psychology; Joseph Cammarano, Ph.D., associate professor of political science and of public and community service studies, Licia Carlson, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, and Christopher Arroyo, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, for their focus on the importance of helping students find their voices.
Costello said the late Donna McCaffrey, Ph.D., ’73G, ’83Ph.D., ’87G, assistant professor of history, and the late Frank Ford, assistant professor of computer science, served as his early role models for what it means to teach at PC, and called Sister Gail Himrod, O.P., retired associate professor of music, and Sister Carolyn Sullivan, O.P., ’02G, retired assistant director of tutorial services, stellar examples of what service to students means.
Costello said he leverages what he has learned from his colleagues — past and present — to help foster the love of philosophy in his students.
“Above all, the material has to matter to students,” he said. “Teaching and learning must be fun. There must be joy. It is important that students have a voice and meaning in their college experience.”
