Awards
- Honorary Degree - 1993
- L.H.D.
- Doctor of Humane Letters
- Wendell W. Wright Education Building Dedication
- Bloomington, Indiana
- Presenter: Thomas Ehrlich
American educational philosopher, author, social activist and teacher who values experiential learning in its "entirety", Maxine Greene has influenced thousands of educators to bring the vitality of the arts to teachers and children. For Greene, art provided a conduit to mean-making, a way of making sense of the world. For more than 30 years she has been Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) philosopher-in-residence.
Greene earned her PhD. (1955) and M.A. (1949) from New York University and a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University (1938). She taught at New York University, Montclair State College and Brooklyn College. In 1965, she joined the faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University.
As Philosopher-in-Residence of Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education since 1976, Greene conducts workshops (especially in literature as art) and lectures at LCI's summer sessions.
In 2003, she founded the Maxine Greene Foundation for Social Imagination, the Arts, and Education. The foundation supports the creation and appreciation of works that embody fresh social visions. Its goal is "to generate inquiry, imagination and the creation of art works by diverse people." Grants of up to $10,000 are awarded to educators and artists.
In 2005, she inspired the creation for the High School of Arts, Imagination and Inquiry in association with LCI and New Visions for Public Schools. The school encourages students to expand their imaginative capacities in the arts and other subject areas.
Greene is past President of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Philosophy of Education Society, American Educational Studies Association (AESA), and the Middle Atlantic States Philosophy of Education Society.