Beyond the Classroom

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.”

In his teaching statement, Dr. Costello said a fundamental tenet in his classrooms is his assumption that he can learn from each of his students. “Teaching is really not very effective, I don’t think, if the only thing that gets communicated is that I am the master of the material,” he wrote. “I have to be prepared to play the call and response of jazz — not just to assert myself as soloist.”

It’s this core principle that was cited by one of his student nominators who said Dr. Costello “taught me that my education should not be left up to the sole jurisdiction of my professors.”

“It’s my education … not anyone else’s. 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,” the student wrote. “I have never had a professor who cares so much about his students and their rights. He has inspired me and my plans for the future in ways I cannot even put into words. Providence College calls for their students to “seek more,” and no professor calls for their students to “seek more” than Peter Costello.”

More about Dr. Peter Costello:

• Author of two books: Philosophical Children in Literary Situations: Toward of Phenomenology of Childhood (2020) and Layers in Husserl’s Phenomenology (2012)
• Former director of the New England Undergraduate Conference in Philosophy at Providence College
• Member of the American Philosophical Association and the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience (SOPHERE)
• Areas of academic specialty include 19^th and 20^th century continental philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism, and philosophy of religion. Other academic interests include ethics, feminism, philosophy and literature, and Catholic intellectual tradition.

More about the Accinno Award

The Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award was created in 2002. John J. Accinno, C.P.A. ’46 & ’93Hon. established the award with a gift of $150,000 in memory of his brother Joseph. John Accinno served as a member of the Providence President’s Council for 13 years. A loyal alumnus, he established more than a dozen scholarships at the college and served in virtually every volunteer fundraising leadership position. He was a three-term secretary of the National Alumni Association (NAA) Board of Governors and earned awards for his generosity and service from the NAA and the Greater Providence Chapter of the NAA, the Mal Brown Club. Mr. Accinno, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and lived in Barrington, R.I., died in 2012.

The award program is administered by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Teaching Award Selection Committee. The recipient receives a cash stipend, is formally acknowledged at Academic Convocation, and has his or her name inscribed on a plaque that is permanently displayed in the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Peter Costello on this well-earned honor!

Dr. Edmund Dain, professor of philosophy, has been named the 2021-22 Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award recipient. The honor 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.”  Dr. Dain joined the PC faculty in 2011 following his time as a Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. He has more than 20 years of experience teaching in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway, and has taught in more than a dozen areas of philosophy. At PC, Dr. Dain regularly teaches courses in “Philosophy of Mind” and other areas of contemporary philosophy, introductory courses in philosophy and ethics, and both the first and third semesters of the Development of Western Civilization (DWC) Program – focusing on the ancient and modern world, respectively. 

A student who nominated Dr. Dain for the award called his DWC lectures and seminars “fascinating” and the reason why they were taking a third course – Introduction to Philosophy – taught by him in the fall.

“He is extremely open, and he doesn’t urge students to conform to one narrow lane of thought.” the student wrote. “He often presents an overarching argument that a text expresses, talks about the common interpretations of the argument, and then challenges the common interpretation. He then gets the class engaged in relating the argument and our interpretations to the present in trying to understand ourselves.”

As impressive as the way Dr. Dain leads his seminars is how he sets an example of lifelong learning, his nominator said. “My biggest takeaway from having Professor Dain is that he’s shown he’s just as much a student as he is a professor,” the student said. “When other professors on the DWC team are lecturing, he pays attention and takes notes. From a student perspective, seeing him delve deeper into the presented material and seek to get as much out of the material as possible is admirable and encouraging.”

In addition to the work in the classroom for which he is being honored, Dr. Dain is an active scholar – authoring numerous academic journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries, and regularly presenting his research at international conferences and workshops. His research focuses especially on the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein – applying the insights and methods of Wittgenstein’s philosophy to contemporary problems in ethics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind, among other areas.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Dain on this well-deserved honor.

More about the Accinno Award 

The Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award was established in 2002 as an outcome of the College’s strategic plan. John J. Accinno, C.P.A. ’46 & ’93Hon. established the award with a gift of $150,000 in memory of his brother Joseph. John Accinno served as a member of the Providence President’s Council for 13 years.

A loyal alumnus, he established more than a dozen scholarships at the College and served in virtually every volunteer fundraising leadership position. He was a three-term secretary of the National Alumni Association (NAA) Board of Governors and earned awards for his generosity and service from the NAA and the Greater Providence Chapter of the NAA, the Mal Brown Club. Mr. Accinno earned a B.S. degree in business administration and lived in Barrington, R.I. He died in 2012. 

The award program is administered by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Teaching Award Selection Committee. The recipient receives a cash stipend, is formally acknowledged at Academic Convocation, and has his or her name inscribed on a plaque that is permanently displayed in Phillips Memorial Library. 

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