James Pawelski Ph.D.
Professor of Practice, Positive Psychology Center, University of PennsylvaniaDirector of Education, Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania
2025
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 has also been appointed 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, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab from 2020 to 2025. 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 editor of the Oxford University Press book series on the Humanities and Human Flourishing and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of the Positive Humanities. An award-winning teacher, Dr. Pawelski is the Founding Director of Penn’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program, the creator of the large-scale undergraduate course on “The Pursuit of Happiness” at Penn, the Founding Executive Director Emeritus and a current Member of the Board of the International Positive Psychology Association, a Member of the Board of the International Positive Education Network, and a past President of the William James Society. He is an international keynote speaker who has given talks—in English and Spanish—in more than 25 countries on six continents and is the recipient of a Practice Excellence Award from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and of 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), Perfil (Argentina), and The Daily Telegraph (Australia), and has appeared on The Today Show, Univision, Globo, TVOntario, and Radio Times.
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