Sunday, January 30, 2011

Jo Ann Boyston: In Memoriam

We received word today that Jo Ann Boydston, a person whose contribution to the thinking captured here cannot be overstated, died this week. You can read her obituary at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thesouthern/obituary.aspx?n=jo-ann-boydston&pid=148158468.

Jo Ann Boydston edited The Collected Works of John Dewey, making it infinitely easier to document not only what John Dewey thought but also who John Dewey was. And it is who John Dewey was -- an American thinker in the tradition of Emerson for whom acting and thinking cannot be divorced -- that motivates the work of those who contribute to Social Issues.

So today I acknowledge Jo Ann's life and the work that lives on and continues to enrich us.

1 comment:

David Granger said...

Education and Culture, the official journal of the John Dewey Society, will be publishing a special piece on Jo Ann in its next issue. The article, written by Jo Ann's longtime friend and colleague, Larry Hickman, will focus on Jo Ann's signal contribution to Dewey studies. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine Dewey studies today, both in its scope and quality, without Jo Ann's precedent-setting work as editor of Dewey's Collected Work.