Moses photo 2023
Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs • Professor • Founding Director
Educational Foundations, Policy & Practice • Master's in Higher Education

Michele S. Moses is Professor of Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice and Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the immediate past president of the Philosophy of Education Society. Her scholarship focuses broadly on issues of ethics, democracy, and higher education’s role in promoting the public good.

A philosopher by training, Professor Moses has particular expertise in policy disagreements that involve racial, ethnic, and gender diversity and equity; moral and political values; academic freedom and freedom of speech; and democratic theory. Her work has appeared in top journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Educational Theory, The Good Society, Journal of Higher Education, and Journal of Social Philosophy.

In addition, she has published three books: Living with Moral Disagreement: The Enduring Controversy about Affirmative Action (Chicago), Affirmative Action Matters: Creating Opportunities for Students around the World (with Laura D. Jenkins, Routledge) and Embracing Race: Why We Need Race-Conscious Education Policy (Teachers College). In three recent research projects, she has examined the complexities of political strategies to dismantle affirmative action in higher education admissions, what it means to opt out of public education, and the controversies and disagreements over truth, academic freedom, and free speech on college campuses.

Professor Moses’ honors include being named Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, Fulbright New Century Scholar and Specialist, AERA’s Early Career Awardee, and National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. In addition, she was awarded University of Colorado’s Hazel Barnes Prize.  Professor Moses’ editorial experience includes a term as Associate Editor for Educational Theory, a term as Associate Editor for the Section on Social and Institutional Analysis of the American Educational Research Journal, Reviews Editor for the Journal of Philosophy of Education, and Editorial Advisory Board Member of Education Policy Analysis Archives. She currently serves as Co-Editor of AERA Open. Her leadership in the field also has included serving on the Philosophy of Education Society’s Executive Board, AERA’s Executive Board, AERA Council, and as a fellow of the National Education Policy Center.