Dr. David Stern assumed the position of provost at The University of Tampa in April 2013. Prior to joining UT, he was vice president for academic and student affairs at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. from 2006-2012. Dr. Stern’s academic background is in philosophy. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1985 from the University of California, San Diego, and served as a faculty member at Louisiana State University, UCSD, the University of Toledo, as well as at Hamline and UT. Dr. Stern earned his B.A. in political science from Louisiana State University, where he graduated with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He served as dean of Arts & Sciences at the University of Toledo from 1999-2005.
Dr. Stern’s academic training focused on modern European philosophy and political philosophy. Thanks to his interest and expertise in European philosophy, he lived and studied for two years in Germany. He has published numerous papers in both of these areas, and in 2013 published a volume of essays he edited on the German philosopher Hegel. He has taught courses in philosophy including ethics, logic, social and political philosophy among many others, and he also contributed regularly to interdisciplinary courses on an extraordinarily wide range of topics, from ancient middle eastern civilizations to a study abroad course in Poland and Germany on memory and reconciliation after the Holocaust.
Dr. Stern was born in Oakland, CA, but grew up in Natchez, MS during the civil rights era and the struggles that finally brought an end to Jim Crow. Though he was too young to be an active participant, his experience of those times as a Jewish boy and hence a member of a very small minority group in Mississippi made a formative impression on him, and produced a lifelong commitment to social justice. Reflecting this commitment, Dr. Stern was named Co-Chief Diversity Officer for The University of Tampa in 2020.