Nils Rauhut of the Department of Philosophy at Coastal Carolina University, has been elected vice president of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT). The AAPT, one of the largest national organizations of professional philosophers, is dedicated to the advancement of teaching philosophy.

Rauhut has been a board member of the AAPT for several years and will become president of the association in 2011 for a two-year term.

Rauhut, former chair of the philosophy and religion department and associate professor of philosophy, joined the University faculty in 1998. He earned bachelor's degrees in history and philosophy from the University of Regensburg in Germany in 1987, a master's degree from the University of Colorado in 1990 and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1997. He has taught as a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He is the author of two textbooks, "Ultimate Questions: Thinking about Philosophy" and "Readings about the Ultimate Questions."

For more information on the organization, go to www.philosophyteachers.org/index.shtml.