Awards

Titled Professor - 2022

Nelson Professor

Titled Professor - 2020 - 2022

Mahlon Powell Professor of Philosophy

About Timothy W. O'Connor

Timothy W. O’Connor earned his B.A. and M.A. in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1987 and 1989, respectively. Upon graduation, he continued his education at Cornell University where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy in 1991 and 1992, respectively. He completed a fellowship at the University of Notre Dame in 1992 and served as a Gifford Research Fellow at the University of St. Andrews from 1996 to 1997.

O’Connor began his teaching career at Indiana University (IU) as an assistant professor in 1993. He was promoted to associate professor in 2000 and full professor in 2005. He served as the chair of the Philosophy Department from 2006 to 2012. In 2020, O’Connor received the additional, honorary title of Mahlon Powell Professor of Philosophy, and, in 2022, he received the title of Nelson Professor.

O’Connor’s primary research interests include metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion. He has secondary interests in epistemology and in select topics in medieval and 17th Century philosophy. At IU, he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses related to metaphysics, philosophy of mind, free will/action theory, and occasionally epistemology and philosophy of religion. O’Connor also teaches undergraduate courses in medieval and early modern philosophy.

Throughout his robust teaching and research career, O’Connor has been honored with numerous awards and research fellowships from prestigious organizations, including Oxford University, the Templeton Foundation, the BioLogos Foundation, and more. He has also received multiple teaching awards from IU, including a summer teaching development grant in 1998 and the Teaching Excellence Recognition Award in both 1999 and 2000. He was also selected as an IU Faculty Learning Project Fellow in 2004.