Director

CCEP Director Alex Madva is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cal Poly Pomona, where he has taught since 2015. He received his BA in Philosophy and English at Tufts University and his MA and PhD from Columbia University, and previously held positions as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at UC-Berkeley (2012-2014) and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Vassar College (2014-2015). His research and teaching explore how developments in social psychology inform philosophy of mind, philosophy of race and feminism, and applied ethics, especially prejudice and discrimination.

Alex has written or co-written articles on these topics for journals including Noûs, Ethics, The Journal of Applied Philosophy, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs): Cognitive Science, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Ergo, Synthese, and Mind and Language. He has co-edited the volume, An Introduction to Implicit Bias: Knowledge, Justice, and the Social Mind (Routledge 2020), and The Movement for Black Lives: Philosophical Perspectives (Oxford 2021). 

Alex has taught courses including Race and Racism, Social and Political Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Feminist Philosophy of Science, Contemporary Moral Problems, Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, and upper-division undergraduate and graduate seminars on social psychology and philosophy, including a new course he developed at CPP, The Philosophy & Science of Implicit Bias. Click for a recent syllabus (PDF). 

He is also actively engaged in collaborative empirical research. One ongoing project, funded by the NSF, is testing interventions to reduce achievement gaps and increase belonging for members of underrepresented groups at Cal Poly Pomona, in disciplines such as physics, economics, mathematics, biology, and philosophy. His published empirical research has appeared in journals including Ratio and the International Journal of STEM Education. He is also collaborating with computer scientists, engineers, and social scientists to study the spread of misinformation and prejudice across social media, ultimately with the aim of counteracting these trends.

Alex has also run numerous workshops and training sessions on intergroup bias, stereotype threat, and impostor syndrome for schools, courts, and wider audiences. More information about his approach to these trainings, including sample video presentations, can be found here. 

Advisory Board

John Balla, J.D. (Cal Poly Pomona '08; Assistant United States Attorney, Riverside, Calif.)

Dr. Sidney Blumner, Ph.D. (Professor Emeritus of Economics)

Dr. Sharon Hilles, Ph.D. (Professor of English and Modern Languages; former Dean, College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences)