Brian Glenney

Brian Glenney is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Norwich University. He teaches courses in ethics, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of science and mind. His research focus is sensory perception and how well various kinds of perception lead to various kinds of knowing. He is the co-editor of two books: Molyneux’s Question and the History of Philosophy and The Senses and the History of Philosophy, with numerous peer-review publications in this area. He has won grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Institutes of Health. He also works in the field of spatial justice, with several essays on how skateboarding makes cities better. His recent focus concerns environmental issues in skateboarding, co-founding the research initiative “Skating, Sustainability, Health, Research, Environmental Design (SSHRED).

His academic scholarship appears in the History of Philosophy Quarterly, Adam Smith Review, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, and Journal for the Study of the New Testament, among other peer-reviewed journals. He has also written popular essays on skateboarding and graffiti subculture for the Huffington Post, Clout, and Thrasher Magazine. He has also won grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. His passions for defamiliarizing art and extreme mobility and advocacy coalesced into co-founding the Accessible Icon Project, a movement to transform the International Symbol of Access (the wheelchair symbol) into an active, engaged image. The Accessible Icon is now adopted by numerous states like New York and Connecticut, and cities worldwide and is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Smithsonian Institute. He holds a PhD from the University of Southern California, an M.Litt. from St. Andrews University in Scotland, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Washington. He lives and skateboards with his partner and four children in Burlington, Vermont. 

Ph.D.School of Philosophy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

M.Litt. Joint Program in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews/Stirling, Scotland 

B.A. Department of Philosophy, University of Washington, Seattle 

PH 299 AI Ethics
PH 218 Global History of Philosophy
PH 322 Money, Meaning, and Morality

The Sonic Spectrums of Skateboarding: From Polarity to Plurality (2023), Brian Glenney, Max Boutin, & Paul O'Connor, in The Senses and Society, DOI: 10.1080/17458927.2023.2245232

Polluted Leisure Enskilment: Skateboarding as Ecosophy (2023), Brian Glenney, in Leisure Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2023.2281568

Molyneux’s Question and the History of Philosophy (2020), co-edited by Brian Glenney and Gabrielle Ferretti, Routledge.