Rate My Professor Kevin Krein

Kevin Krein is Professor of Philosophy and Outdoor Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) in Juneau, Alaska, a position he has held since 2017 following promotion from Associate Professor (2005–2017) and Assistant Professor (1998–2005). He has served as Co-Director of the UAS Outdoor Studies Program since 1999 and participated in its founding. Krein earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto in 2001, with a thesis titled "Thoughts Animals Can Think: Attributing Beliefs and Describing Content," supervised by Professor Ronald de Sousa, and a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Willamette University in 1988. His academic career at UAS centers on the Humanities Department and Environmental Studies and Outdoor Studies programs, where he teaches philosophy courses integrated with outdoor pursuits such as alpine skiing and ski mountaineering, drawing from over two decades of experience in backcountry skiing, ski mountaineering, and professional guiding.

Krein's primary philosophical work lies in the philosophy of sport and philosophy of mind, with a focus on nature sports involving human-nature interactions, including skiing, climbing, and surfing. His monograph, Philosophy and Nature Sports (Routledge, 2019), examines these themes. Notable publications include "Nature Sports" (Journal of Philosophy of Sport, 2014), "Reflections on Competition and Nature Sports" (Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 2015), "High-level Enactive and Embodied Cognition in Expert Sport Performance" with Jesus Ilundáin-Agurruza (Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 2017), "COVID-19, Risk, and Nature Sports: Pandemic Dilemmas" (in Philosophy, Sport, and the Pandemic, Routledge, 2022), and "Excellence without mental representation: High performance in risk sports and Japanese swordsmanship" with Ilundáin-Agurruza and Karl Erickson (in Handbook on Embodied Cognition and Sport Psychology, MIT Press, 2019). He has presented extensively at International Association for the Philosophy of Sport meetings, such as "The Glide Experience: A Phenomenological Account" (2022), "Aesthetic Experience in Nature Sports" (2019), and keynote "Nature Sport and Wilderness Experience" (2011).