Leo Bannister
Assistant Director of Medical Humanities, Assistant Professor of Practice, Interdisciplinary School for Engagement
Contact
- MH 4.05.30B
- leo.bannister@utsa.edu
Bio
Leo Bannister is the Assistant Director of Medical Humanities and an Assistant Professor of Practice at UTSA in the Interdisciplinary School for Engagement. He is a husband, father, retired OEF and OIF combat veteran, who was born and raised in San Antonio Texas. While he did not know it at the time he was brought up in a home that set the foundation for what would later become one of his greatest passions, philosophy and ethics. This groundwork festered with not much direction for years during his service in the Army questioning everything, all the while seeking greater purpose and meaning. It wasn’t until he met his wife, his guiding light, that the quest seemed to take shape. She helped him though his combat injuries after his return from Iraq and gave him the confidence and support to move forward after retirement to be a first-generation student who received his graduate degree in Applied Philosophy and Ethics from Texas State University.
Since 2014 he has served as a judge for the Annual Texas Regional Ethics Bowl at St. Mary’s University. He has been teaching various humanities and philosophy courses in the San Antonio area since 2015. Leo has been a part of and taught several classes in the Medical Humanities program at UTSA since the Fall of 2016.
Teaching
- Intro to Medical Humanities
- Seminar Medical Huminites
- Ethics
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Honors College Wellbeing Tutorial I
- Multiple Independent studies in Medical Humanities
- Intro to Philosophy and Ethics
Honors and Awards
- Awards Spring 2023 Recipient of UIW Denise J. Doyle Excellence in Teaching and Service Award
- Fall 2020 Nominated for the UTSA President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Core Curriculum Teaching
- Fall 2019 Nominated for the UTSA Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award (NTT)
Presentations
- 2015 “Feminism & Foucault: Why Rape is Beyond Physical Violence”
- April 14, 2015, Texas State University “A Disability Perspective on Medicine”
- February 25, 2015, Texas State University 2014 “James Joyce: The Moral Significance of the Commonplace”
- October 23, 2014, Texas State University “What is the Democratic Ideal”
- October 15, 2014, San Marcos Public Library Dialogue 2013 “Making Amends: The Case for and Against Reparations”
- November 4, 2013, Texas State University “My Brain Made Me Do It”
- October 3, 2013, Texas State University “Bioethics and the Fate of the Responsible Self”
- October 2, 2013, San Marcos Public Library Dialogue
