James O. Pawelski

James O. Pawelski, Ph.D., is professor of practice and director of education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as adjunct professor of Religious Studies. Having won a Fulbright Scholarship and earned a doctorate in philosophy, he is the founding director of the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project, which has been designated a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab.

He is the author of The Dynamic Individualism of William James, editor of the philosophy section of the Oxford Handbook of Happiness, co-editor of The Eudaimonic Turn: Well-Being in Literary Studies, and co-editor of On Human Flourishing: A Poetry Anthology. Additionally, he is the series editor of the Oxford University Press book series on the Humanities and Human Flourishing and co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Positive Humanities.

Dr. Pawelski is an award-winning teacher, the founding director of Penn’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program, a past president of the William James Society, the founding executive director of the International Positive Psychology Association, and a member of the executive committee of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies.

An international keynote speaker who has given talks in more than 20 countries on six continents, he is the recipient of a Practice Excellence Award from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Humanitarian Innovation Award for the Humanities, Arts, and Culture from the Humanities Innovation Forum at the United Nations.

He is co-author (with his wife Suzann Pileggi Pawelski) of Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts, is frequently featured in major U.S. and international media, including the New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Time, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chronicle of Higher Education, People’s Daily (China), El Norte (Mexico), and Perfil (Argentina), and has appeared on The Today Show, Univision, Globo, TVOntario, and Radio Times.