Jon Torgerson has taught a wide variety of courses during his 27 years at Drake. Besides his travel/study courses, he teaches Logic, the History of Philosophy, the Philosophy of Socrates, and Social Justice.

He received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to develop the mini-course concept at Drake. He received the Award for Curricular Innovation because of the success of the mini-courses. He has also been active in the development of courses for General Education, Honors and the First Year Seminars.

Torgerson was a member of National Endowment for the Humanities six week Summer Seminar on the Philosophy of Time from June 10 to July 18, 1991. As a result, he founded and was president of the Philosophy of Time Society.

He was the organizer and director of the philosophy conference: "A Bouwsma Retrospective: The Teacher as Philosopher" held October 4 to 6, 1990 at Drake, as well as organizing the first ever National Conference of the Radical Philosophy Association in 1994.

Among his publications are
 "Socrates: Outwardly a Monster, All Beauty Within," Metaphilosophy, Vol. 13, July 1991.
 "Taking Economic Rights Seriously" Contemporary Philosophy, Vol.XIII September, October 1990, pp. 20-24.
 "Rethinking Rights," a paper presented at the Conference of Cuban and North American Philosophers in Havana, Cuba, May 1990.
 "Why I Teach Philosophy," Teaching Philosophy, Vol. 13:1, March 1990, pp. 3-11.
 "Reichenbach and Smart on Temporal Discourse," Philosophy Research Archives, Vol. XIV, 1988-89, pp. 381-94.

Torgerson has been to Cuba several times. During his 1993 visit, he visited with Fidel Castro about the time Jesse Jackson took Fidel to church. After embellishing the story and recounting other church visits, Fidel gave Torgerson a hug! In 1996, Torgerson took the first group of American Undergraduate students to Cuba. They had dinner with Fidel's brother Ramon.

The Chronicle of Education reporter who accompanied the class, wrote the following about the trip:
"Students' impressions are forming -- and shifting -- rapidly. "Everybody just seems to be equally poor," one student says. Another is struck by the absence of grinding poverty here compared to other Latin-American countries. Eventually, the group would leave Havana -- to lie on Varadero's silky beaches; to meet artists in Santiago de Cuba; to visit a village that welcomed them warmly; and to hear schoolchildren sing of the need to crush imperialism."

Torgerson also has taken students on outdoor courses in the Colorado Mountains and the Utah Canyonlands

In his spare time, Torgerson loves to listen to jazz as he tools around in his convertible with the personalized FILOSO4 license plates. He and his wife Betty go to many events at Drake and at the Des Moines Civic Center. They are also both avid runners and travelers. His son Erik is a Drake grad who is a regional manager for a golf company. He and his wife Angela are about to have a baby. His daughter Christine is a Luther grad who just received her M.A. from Notre Dame. She and her husband Denis live in Des Moines.