sw Annual Review 2021-22
2 Annual Review 2021-22
Teaching and Learning
Letter from the Director
Human Values Forum
Postdoctoral Research Associates in Cognitive Science of Values
ExecutiveFaculty Committee Faculty AdministrationAdvisoryAssociatesCouncil
Postdoctoral Research Associates in Philosophy and Religion
UCHV Collaborative Projects Co-sponsored Events and Conferences Co-sponsored Series
Faculty DeepeningAccomplishmentsUnderstanding
Program in Values and Public Life Courses and Seminars
Film StudentForumPrizes and Grants
Laurance S. Rockefeller Graduate Prize Fellows
Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion Law Engaged Graduate Students
People
Postdoctoral Research Associates in Ethics and Climate Change
Postdoctoral Research Associates in Values and Public Policy
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Contents
Tanner Lectures on Human Values James A. Moffett ’29 Lectures in Ethics Program in Ethics and Public Affairs Ira W. DeCamp Bioethics Seminars Political Philosophy Colloquium History of Political Thought Project
Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished LauranceTeaching S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellows
Supporting Research
UCHV Special Events
In common with the whole of the University, not to say world, life at the UCHV in the 20212022 academic year was a disorienting mix of the familiar made strange and the strange made familiar, from the point of view of COVID-19 as well as other issues. Intensifying challenges to democratic politics worldwide, including within the United States, were the subject of many seminars and interventions by prominent Center faculty and visitors. So, too, were the threats of climate chaos caused by global heating, as I describe further below. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February galvanized further academic interventions in opposition to this violent and unprovoked attack and its profoundly traumatic human consequences. One way in which the UCHV is responding to global crises is by expanding our flexibility in hosting visiting scholars. The UCHV has committed to supporting a half-dozen out of a larger number of recently invited visiting scholars whom Princeton will host in 2022-2023, including an Afghan scholar at risk to whom we offered a visiting position in 2021, and who we hope will eventually succeed in reaching Princeton. Regin Davis, the UCHV’s assistant director, is now co-chairing a University task force on the many aspects of support to be provided to these visiting scholars across the campus.
Letter from the Director
The Center continues to pursue academic and organizational changes in the service of reck oning with the effects, and seeking to combat the causes, of systemic racism, in conjunction with similar efforts being made by the University as a whole. I am grateful to all who served on the Center’s subcommittee on equity, diversity, and inclusion in the past year, especially Ed Baring and Emily Greenwood, who took on the role of co-chairs in the spring with energy and vision. The subcommittee has been productive, meeting with Shawn Maxam of the Office of the Provost several times to pursue data collection and training in best search practices, and organizing a poetry reading and dialogue (conducted by Emily Greenwood) with poet Nicole Sealey on the theme of “The Creation of More Just Societies,” to celebrate Black History Month.
The subcommittee successfully proposed an expanded, more flexible and inclusive framework of LSR seminars to be piloted in 2022-2023. It also successfully proposed the advertising of a theme to inform the selection of roughly half of the cohort of fellows for 2023-2024: that theme is “Reckoning with Race,” an area in which a number of the incoming fellows and postdocs for 2022-2023 also have expertise. Valuable contributions to other areas of the Center’s governance were provided by a number of colleagues, including Anna Stilz, who led successful efforts to research and draft various policies for websites associated with the Center. Indeed, every member of the UCHV executive committee contributed actively and thoughtfully during the year to the operation and activities of the Center.
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This was also the first of three successive springs in which we are being joined by Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching Pratap Bhanu Mehta. The symposium that he hosted on “Global Political Theory and Practice: Expanding Canons, Engaging Politics” spoke to the ethical responsibility of each generation of scholars to rethink not only what they (we) teach, but also how and why we teach it, a responsibility intensified by the need to confront racism and its legacies as well as other distortions in the way that disciplines have understood themselves.
It was a pleasure to be able finally to invite the previous year’s remote fellows to come to campus to attend the thought-provoking and sobering Tanner Lectures on Human Values
In terms of ongoing Center operations and activities: in-person classes and seminars resumed, though for much of the year, we were masked and did not eat together indoors, and those with children too young to be vaccinated in the course of the academic year had especially to cope with the concomitant risks. Nevertheless, a critical mass of Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR)
The ranks of UCHV faculty were briefly graced by Emily Greenwood as the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Classics and the University Center for Human Values. The Center benefited from her expertise in historiography, literature (classical and modern), Black Studies, and classical reception, and likewise from her thoughtful contributions to many areas of Center governance; we wish her well now that she has moved on to Harvard University. Among many distinctions earned by Center faculty this year, it was a special privilege to celebrate Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, for being awarded the 2021 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture.
Visiting Faculty Fellows and other visitors assembled in person in the course of the year, including Elizabeth Cohen (Syracuse University), Melissa Ganz (Marquette University), Errol Lord (University of Pennsylvania), and Gavin Sullivan (a visiting scholar from the University of Edinburgh Law School), each of whom brought distinctive expertise and curiosity to Center conversa tions. In addition, while two LSR fellows — Luara Ferracioli and Alexander Lefebvre, both (coincidentally) of the University of Sydney — had to remain remote throughout the year due to COVID-related travel challenges at the time of potential transition, they joined activities virtually with alacrity and energy despite the time difference.
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Kolbert’s Tanner Lectures also afforded the occasion for a reunion of past postdocs and faculty members who have been associated with the Climate Futures Initiative, which is now jointly sponsored by the UCHV and the High Meadows Environmental Institute. This gathering showcased emerging research about climate change across disciplines and galvanized new collaborations. Climate change also featured in the immersive films of Lynette Wallworth, to whose work the spring 2022 season of the UCHV Film Forum, directed by Erika Kiss, was dedi cated. The Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion — or 3PR Project — which is directed by Andrew Chignell with associate director Lara Buchak and project faculty Mark Johnston, and energized further by a number of postdoctoral researchers — held its delayed inaugural conference together with several incubator workshops, colloquia, reading groups, and other events this year. Other collaborative research initiatives that emerged this year included a Climate Mobilities group organized by Simona Capisani and Simon Hickey (both postdocs jointly appointed in the UCHV and the High Meadows Environmental Institute) together with Anna Stilz. With the expansion of University-permitted international travel, the Center was finally able to sponsor a return visit of faculty and graduate students in political theory to the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, after CEU faculty and students had visited Princeton on Zoom in 2020. This exchange was organized by Jan-Werner Müller, under whose direction the History of Political Thought Project also organized a number of conferences and workshops. All these, and those mentioned in other paragraphs, were only a few of the rich program of events and research activities that the Center hosted and sponsored this year.
delivered in the spring by Elizabeth Kolbert on the topic of climate change, overseen by Chair of the Tanner Lectures Committee Stephen Macedo, who persevered throughout the COVID-19 period to bring this event to fruition. The flawless execution of this complicated event, planned in a period of rapidly changing University protocols, was due to the UCHV staff team and, in particular, to Tammy Hojeibane, who joined UCHV as event and communications specialist at the start of the year. I would like to thank all of the UCHV staff — Regin Davis (who supervised overall Center administration with tremendous care and forethought as assistant director), Dawn Disette (who organized many Center activities and helpfully assisted me as director), Kim Girman (who likewise organized many Center activities and helpfully assisted several faculty and researchers), Tammy Hojeibane (who organized the Moffett Lecture Series and UCHV newsletter, as well as the Tanner Lectures, as mentioned above), Kim Murray (who served as the linchpin for our key academic programs), and Andrew Perhac (who transformed the Russell B. Kerstetter Room into one of the best equipped rooms for hybrid seminars on campus) — for their perseverance, good humor, and dedication during what was an inevitably bumpy and complicated year.
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The year ended with two celebrations. The founding director of the UCHV, Amy Gutmann, U.S. ambassador to Germany and former president of the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded an honorary degree by Princeton University, an accolade that celebrates her decades of intel lectual leadership conjoined with her deep record of public service. And the University Board of Trustees announced their decision (effective July 1, 2022) to name what was formerly Louis Marx Hall, in which the Center has its headquarters, as Laura Wooten Hall. Laura Wooten, who died in March 2019 at the age of 98 and was a longtime resident of Princeton and employee of Campus Dining, was recognized as the longest serving election poll worker in the United States; the trustees made this decision in honor of her outstanding service to the nation and to humanity. Being based in Laura Wooten Hall will reinforce and underscore the Center’s dedication to human values and in particular to the values of democratic due process, which are nationally and globally at risk. It remains to thank once again all who have enriched and enlivened the overlapping communities that convened in the University Center in the course of the 2021-2022 academic year.
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The UCHV community this year included a larger group of postdoctoral researchers than in the pre-pandemic “before times,” as a way of investing in supporting younger scholars through this disruption, including (exceptionally) an additional year’s extension for those whose first or second year of appointment fell in 2019-2020 or 2020-2021. The postdocs were mentored individually by members of the UCHV executive committee. Their professional development as a group, together with that of a lively cohort of Graduate Prize Fellows, was enriched by the dedicated service of Elizabeth Harman as director of early career research in the Center. Meanwhile, the undergraduate Program in Values and Public Life benefited from the humanistic and interdisciplinary perspective of incoming director Sandra Bermann. Kim Lane Scheppele directed the Law Engaged Graduate Students program with energy and vision, galvanizing a wide range of law-related events on campus. During a planned hiatus of the Program in Law and Public Affairs, law at Princeton was further supported this year by grants offered by a joint committee of faculty and researchers from the UCHV and the School of Public and International Affairs, which also selected a cohort of fellows in law for 2022-2023.
Letter from the Director
Melissa Lane Director, University Center for Human Values; Class of 1943 Professor of Politics
Delivered endowed lectures at the University of Chicago (the George B. Walsh Lecture in Classics), St. John’s College Cambridge (the Newell Classical Event, via Zoom), Grinnell College (the McKibben Lecture), as well as invited talks and papers via Zoom at the University of Oxford, Brown University, and York University in Canada; served as the jury chair for ancient studies for the Rome Prize for 2022 and continued to serve on the external advi sory board for the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University, and as a senior fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C.; guest edited and contributed two articles to a special issue of the American Journal of
Selected as a Philosophy in the Media Fellow for 2021-2022 by the Marc Sanders Foundation, which supports her in writing for the public; published two op-eds in the New York Daily News, both about the ethics of abortion: “What Amy Coney Barrett doesn’t understand about abortion” and “Mourning my miscarriage while supporting abortion.”
Elizabeth Harman
Edward Baring
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Faculty
“Diversifying Classical Philology”; wrote public-facing essays for Aquila Theater’s “Warrior Chorus: American Democracy,” funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and for Park Avenue Armory’s “Oresteia.”
Emily Greenwood
Served as president of the North American Kant Society (NAKS); created and hosted a series of events called “Virtual NAKS”; interviewed by Kelly Corrigan on the PBS show “Tell Me More” (also on NPR) for a snippet on “Hope vs. Optimism”; published research in a variety of specialty and generalist journals; with the help of the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, updated his Massive Open Online Course on “Food Ethics,” which will go live on Coursera in fall 2022; gave the honorary German-Italian Kant Lectureship at the University of Turin.
Awarded a fellowship at The New Institute, Hamburg, Germany, complemented by a special grant for her environmental research film, “Angelus Novus”; awarded one of the Humanities Council’s 2022 Flash Grants to create with Chris Tully (Physics), Sigrid Adriaenssens (Civil and Environmental Engineering), and John Higgins (Geosciences) an immersive 360-degree film, a virtual reality rendering of the time-travel sequence from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” to share with students and members of the Princeton community; designed an innovative studio course “Environmental Film Studies” co-taught in the spring term with distin guished filmmaker Lynette Wallworth; held a fellows’ workshop on Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” (2019) at The New Institute, Hamburg, Germany; created Digital Chrestomathy for Cinematic Iconography.
Awarded the 2022 Stanley Kelley Award for Excellence in Teaching in Princeton University’s Department of Politics; served as a “professeure invitée” at the École Normale Supérieure; served as a member of the jury on two doctoral theses in philosophy at the Paris Sciences et Lettres
Andrew Chignell
AccomplishmentsPhilologytitled
Presented at the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, and at the UCHV’s Conference on Socialism and Democracy; published “Lost in the Post: (Post-)Structuralism Between France and the United States,” in Herman Paul and Adriaan van Veldhuizen’s edited volume “Post-everything: An Intellectual History of Post-Concepts”; interviewed for the philosophy podcast “Hermitix” on his most recent book, “Converts to the Real: Catholicism and the Making of Continental Philosophy.”
Erika Kiss
Melissa Lane
Kim Lane Scheppele
Stephen Macedo
As outgoing president of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, helped organize and run the 2021 conference “Civic Education in Polarized Times” at Harvard University; presented papers including “Classical Liberalism and Democratic Morality” for an Ethikon Institute conference and volume on democracy and morality; gave two presentations at Columbia University with former graduate student Dongxian Jiang at the Democracy’s Futures Law School series, and on “Meritocracy vs. Democracy: Where East Beats West?” at a Constellations conference in April; published “Lost in the Marketplace of Ideas: Toward a New Constitution for Free Speech After Trump and Twitter?” in Philosophy and Social Criticism, “Marriage, Monogamy, and Moral Psychology” for the “Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology” (forthcoming), and “Monogamy and the Law” for a Routledge handbook; attended confer ences and presented work in Venice and Budapest, Hungary, on free speech in the era of social media; and presented the draft paper, “Reconsidering Refugeehood in Light of the Central American Migration Crisis,” at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Philip Pettit
Plenary speaker at the European Sociological Association; co-authored a report on the rule of law in Hungary, which was adopted by a majority of the European Parliament; delivered distinguished lecture at Adolfo Ibáñez University, which was broadcast live on Chilean national television as part of the country’s constitutional drafting process.
Delivered three keynote lectures online, all on topics related to moral responsibility: one to the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, one to a graduate conference on moral agency and regulation at the University of Birmingham, and one at a Salzburg-Zurich work shop on moral responsibility; delivered confer ence papers at the International Conference on Naturalism and Its Challenges at the Iranian Research Institute of Philosophy via Zoom and in person at a conference on “The Political Role of Moral Emotions: Normative, Conceptual, and Practical Dimension” at the University of Geneva; participated in a radio discussion on moral emotions in public life on the Australian podcast “The Mindfield.”
Gave the annual Einstein Lectures, spon sored by the Albert Einstein Society and the University of Bern, the Wilson H. Elkins Lecture in Law and Politics at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and the annual Merlan Lecture in Philosophy at the Claremont Colleges Consortium; virtually delivered the opening address at a conference on “Theorizing Constitutional Duties” at Ono Academic College; participated in an interview with Barbara Bleisch on Swiss TV.
Université, as a member of the jury on an “habil itation” thesis in philosophy at the University Burgundy Franche-Comté, and as external examiner of a doctoral thesis in philosophy at King’s College London; delivered keynotes at the 2022 International Conference for the Study of Political Thought and the 2022 UK-IVR Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy Annual Conference; interviewed for “Future Hindsight” podcast on the “Social Contract”; served as a member of Princeton University Faculty Panel on Dissociation Metrics, Principles, and Standards; joined the editorial board of Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought.
7 Victoria McGeer
Peter Singer
Faculty Accomplishments
Anna Stilz
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Awarded the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture; completed a dialogue with Venerable Chao-Hwei, a leading Taiwanese Buddhist thinker forthcoming with Shambala Publications, as well as a new edition of “Ethics in the Real World,” forthcoming with Princeton University Press; began preparing a new edition of “Animal Liberation,” to be published by HarperCollins in 2023; co-authored “Students Eat Less Meat After Studying Meat Ethics” with Eric Schwitzgebel and Brad Cokelet, which built on an earlier study of the same issue and was published in the Review of Philosophy and Psychology; collaborated with Paula Casal to produce “Los Derechos de los Simios” (in Spanish, published by Trotta); co-edited and published John Stuart Mill’s “Utilitarianism” with Katarzyna de LazariRadek for the Norton Library and “Bioethics: An Anthology,” 4th edition, with Udo Schüklenk for Wiley-Blackwell. Singer’s 1974 article “All Animals Are Equal” has been translated into German and published as a slim volume in the Reclam series “Great Papers: Philosophie.” His popular writing included op-eds on topics ranging from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the intelligence of birds.
Named vice president of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy; published “Economic Migration: On What Terms,” in Perspectives on Politics; founded the Climate Mobilities Working Group with UCHV postdocs Simona Capisani and Colin Hickey; respondent for Cécile Fabre’s Tanner Lectures at Stanford University; gave invited presentations at the UCHV’s LSR seminar, Harvard Law School, Nuffield College at Oxford University, McGill University, KU Leuven, and York University.
9 Deepening Understanding
Deepening Understanding
lecture, Kolbert addressed ways in which humans can intentionally intervene
The Moffett Lecture Series aims to foster reflec tion about moral issues in public life, broadly construed, at either a theoretical or a practical level, and in the history of thought about these issues. The series is made possible by a gift from the Whitehall Foundation in honor of James A. Moffett ’29.
10 Annual Review 2021-22
The Tanner Lectures on Human Values are presented annually at a select list of universities around the world. The University Center serves as host to these lectures at Princeton, in which an eminent scholar from philosophy, religion, the humanities, sciences, creative arts or learned professions, or a person eminent in political or social life, is invited to present a series of lectures reflecting upon scholarly and scientific learning relating to “the entire range of values pertinent to the human condition.”
April Elizabeth28-29Kolbert
James A. Moffett ’29 Lectures in Ethics
HumanLecturesthequestiontoKolbertElizabethrespondsanaudienceduringTanneronValues
Marcia Bjornerud (Lawrence University), Arun Majumdar (Stanford University), Iain McCalman (University of Sydney), and Robert O. Keohane (Princeton University) gave responses.
November 17
that the politics of white griev ance nurtures an antidemocratic commitment to imposing democratic losses on nonwhite groups
Juliet Hooker, professor of political science at Brown University, delivered the fall Moffett Lecture on “Democracy and the Problem of Political Loss.” In her lecture, Hooker explained that political loss has been front and center in recent U.S. politics and that the distribution of losses is an especially good indicator for diag nosing the health of democracy in the United States. She investigated “the impact of different forms of loss on the political imaginations of citi zens, as well as the civic practices they develop in response to loss” in the context of racial injus tice and the refusal of many white Americans to accept the results of the 2020 presidential
Inbiosphere.hersecond
and alter the “natural world” in order to address some of the harmful consequences of the great “unsupervised experiment” of the Anthropocene. She focused on evaluating the ethical stakes involved in the possibilities of geochemical engineering to suit a rapidly changing world and re-engineering the atmosphere to offset global warming. Kolbert argued that intentional and corrective human action and experimentation countermeasures are fraught with their own moral, social, political, and economic challenges and that they raise their own set of questions regarding human beings’ planetary impact.
, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer and journalist known for her groundbreaking work on climate change and the environment, delivered the spring Tanner Lectures. In her two-part lecture series, “Welcome to the Anthropocene,” Kolbert wove together a series of stories from around the world to reflect on what we as human beings have done to the earth, as well as what we can — and might have to — do about it. Kolbert’s first lecture unfolded through tales of the ways in which humans are changing the world on a geological scale and the creative strategies scientists have used to understand the changes to the atmosphere, changes to the chemistry of the oceans, and the rearrangement of the
Tanner Lectures on Human Values
election.Hookerargued
11 Deepening Understanding
January 26
Juliet Hooker delivers the fall Moffett Lecture
Cordelia Fine, professor in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, gave a virtual presen tation of the spring Moffett Lecture “Fairly Criticized, or Politicized? Conflicts in the Neuroscience of Sex Differences in the Human Brain.” In her talk, she reflected on the ways that scientists and publics have framed questions such as “Do sex differences in brain structure explain why men outnumber women in STEM?” and “Are baby girls born more caring than baby boys?” She discussed three kinds of conflicts that can arise in debating the neuroscience of sex differences: those involving academic freedom versus gender equality; frameworks, backgrounds and assumptions, and dominant methodologies; and inductive risk and social values. She explored the boundaries between fair criticism and polit icization for each kind of conflict and pointed to ways in which the academic community can facilitate fair criticism while protecting against politicization. Fine proposed that science should nurture an openness to multiple perspectives, not suppress what is considered flawed and harmful research, but criticize it, make constructive recommendations for how to improve it, and offer alternative frameworks and methods.
while refusing to accept white democratic losses as legitimate. She emphasized that the ability to overcome “impoverished visions of democ racy and freedom” will depend upon an ability to move beyond the politics of white grievance, and that the future of American democracy requires (among other things) that white people come to respond differently to loss by reshaping their political imaginations to cope with it in fair and democratic ways.
Left to right: Arun Majumdar, Christopher L. Eisgruber, Melissa Lane, Elizabeth Kolbert, Iain McCalman, Marcia Bjornerud, Robert O. Keohane, and Stephen Macedo assemble for a photo at the 2022 Tanner Lectures
Ira W. BioethicsDeCampSeminars
“Pandemic Ethics and Status Quo Risks”
“The Genetic Lottery and Its Ethical Implications”
April 14
“Whitman’s Undemocratic Vistas: Mortal Anxiety, National Glory, White Supremacy”
March 30
October 7
November 2
March 24
November 17
“Lives, Limbs, and Liver Spots: The Threshold Approach to Limited Aggregation”
November 11
Program in Ethics and Public Affairs
October 6
“The Right to Parent and Moral Commitment”
November 30
Catherine Clune-Taylor, Princeton University
S. Matthew Liao, New York University
Jack Turner III, University of Washington
Karuna Mantena, Columbia University
Clockwise: Cordelia Fine, Melissa Lane, and Emily Foster-Hanson
DeCamp Seminars range across a wide variety of topics at the intersections of philosophy, ecology, biology, medicine, and public policy.
May 2
Philip Pettit, Princeton University
September 9
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Richard Yetter Chappell, University of Miami
“Assisting the Assisters: The Comparative Claims of Afghan Refugees”
“Rethinking Democratic Equality”
Luara Ferracioli, Princeton University (LSR Visiting Faculty Fellow)
Political Philosophy Colloquium
“Situating Empirical Evidence Within the Ethics of Pediatric Intersex Management”
Helen Frowe, Stockholm University
Jill Frank, Cornell University
The Program in Ethics and Public Affairs (PEPA) advances the study of the moral purposes and foundations of institutions and practices, both domestic and international. PEPA seminars seek to bring the perspectives of moral and political philosophy to bear on significant issues in public affairs.
Melissa Ganz, Princeton University (LSR Visiting Faculty Fellow)
“Compensation for Wrongful Life”
October 13
“Why Gandhi Civilized Disobedience”
Jeff McMahan, University of Oxford
“‘A Kind of Insanity in My Spirits’: Frankenstein, Childhood, and Criminal Intent”
The Political Philosophy Colloquium is co-spon sored by the Department of Politics. It presents talks by scholars from Princeton and elsewhere on a broad range of topics in the history of polit ical thought, contemporary political philosophy, and related subjects.
“Can the People Be Sovereign?”
The seminar series is made possible by a gift from the Ira W. DeCamp Foundation.
Kathryn Paige Harden, University of Texas at Austin
April 22
The History of Political Thought Project provides a venue for Princeton students and faculty from different disciplines to discuss both substan tive and methodological issues in the history of political thought and seeks to build bridges to comparative politics, comparative constitutional law, and area studies.
History of Political Thought Project
“A Norm-based Design Argument” Alexander Pruss, Baylor University
February 3
Speakers included: David Bell (Princeton University); Flora Champy (Princeton University); Stefanos Geroulanos (New York University); Hugo Drochon (University of Nottingham)
Jennifer Morton, University of Pennsylvania
“Democracy and Terror: On Marcel Gauchet’s ‘Robespierre’”ChairedbyGreg Conti (Princeton University)
April 15
Islamic Philosophy Reading Group: Ibn al-‘Arabi Kierkegaard Reading Group: Fear and Trembling Islamic Philosophy Reading Group: Mulla Sadra Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion and Rutgers Center for the Philosophy of Religion Joint Colloquium
April 8
“Optative Citizenship: Mary Church Terrell (18631954) and the Grammar of Black Women’s Suffrage”
February 17
“Social Scripts and Sexual Oppression”
Recurring Events
November 11
December 9
13 Deepening Understanding
Tom Dougherty, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“What, If Anything, Is the Iconography of ChairedDemocracy?”byJan-Werner Müller (Princeton University)
Aaron Segal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
March 25
“Monism and Monotheism”
Conference on Socialism and Democracy Chaired by Théophile Deslauriers and Peter Giraudo, both of Princeton University Participants included: Edward Baring (Princeton University); Michael Behrent (Appalachian State University); Warren Breckman (University of Pennsylvania); Kevin Duong (University of Virginia); Alex Gourevitch (Brown University); Karuna Mantena (Columbia University); Natasha Piano (University of Chicago); Max Ridge (Princeton University)
“How to Save Your City From Calamity: Hobbes’ Thucydides and the Melian Dialogue”
Rebecca Chan, San José State University
March 31
“The Nature of Poverty”
Simone Chambers, University of California-Irvine
February 4
3PR Working Group
Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion
October 21
“How We Could Have Libertarian Free Will Even If God Were a Total Know-It-All About the Future”
Emily Greenwood, Princeton University
“How Can the People Rule? Majority Rule and the Rise of Populism”
The Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion (3PR) is an initiative of the University Center, in cooperation with the Departments of Philosophy and Religion at Princeton. 3PR brings together an interdisciplinary group of students and scholars who share a research interest in the philosophy of religion, broadly construed.
Benjamin Straumann, New York University
Law Engaged Graduate Students
Conferences and Workshops
Left to right: 3PR members: Elizabeth Li, Alexander Englert, Andrew Chignell, Lara Buchak, Daniel Rubio, and Ryan Darr
Matthew Benton, Seattle Pacific University
May 4
Princeton Philosophy and Religion Conference Keynotes: Sarah Coakley (University of Cambridge), Mark Johnston (Princeton University), and Jennifer Lackey (Northwestern University)
October 4
“Heidegger and His Jewish Reception: A Conversation with Daniel Herskowitz and Edward Co-hostedBaring”by3PR and the Program for Judaic Studies
“An Empire for All: Law, Technology, and History in the 20th-century Administrative State” Haris Durrani, History
“Imagining Environmental Law: Politics and Legalism in the United States, From the New Deal to the Green New Deal”
Samuel Simon, Politics
Philosophy of Religion Incubator II Conference
“Faith and Interpersonal Knowledge”
Roundtable discussion featuring: Dorothy Roberts (University of Pennsylvania Law School); Mindy Jane Roseman (Yale Law School); Carol Sanger (Columbia Law School); Reva Siegel (Yale Law School); Stephen Vladeck (University of Texas at Austin School of Law)
“GodWorkshopandInfinity: Perspectives from Hegel and Kierkegaard”
April 27
Min Tae Cha, History
Law Engaged Graduate Students (LEGS) meets during the academic year to discuss a work in progress by a participating graduate student. At LEGS meetings, graduate associates present academic papers, dissertation proposals, and dissertation chapters to an audience of fellow graduate students.
SeminarsSeptember 13
October 13
May 25-26
October 17-19
“In Search of a Legislative Leviathan: Judicial Enforcement of Senate Nominations Rules”
“‘Republicanism Is of Divine Institution’”: Transatlantic Presbyterianism and Democracy, c.1800-1850”
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April 1-2
“Is Roe v. Wade Dead? The Supreme Court and Texas Abortion Law”
Gabriel Levine, Politics
“Legal Modernism — Next Steps” Katharina Schmidt, History
Moderated by Kim Lane Scheppele
November 17
November 10
Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion
November 1
Philosophy in the Islamic World Incubator Conference
May 25-27
“Modeling Democracy: The Global History of an Argentine Human Rights Experiment” Gabrielle Girard, History
Hendrik Hartog, History
“Delinquent Debtors, Deceitful Creditors, or Doubtful Judges? Discretionary Bars and the Changing Infrastructures of Contract Enforcement in French Canada”
“Women, Power, and the Legal News, 1830-1930” Siobhan Barco, History
May 4
April 11
“Revolutionaries of the Word: Sectarianism, Missionaries, and Church Constitutions, 17831840”
Marie-Lou Laprise, Sociology
February 28
September 21
“Raiders, Activists, and the Risk of Mistargeting”
Michael F. McGovern, History
The Climate Futures Initiative in Science, Values, and Policy (CFI) is an interdisciplinary research program at Princeton University, admin istered by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) and co-sponsored by the HMEI and the UCHV. The initiative explores norma tive and positive approaches to the future of humankind, especially as that future is affected by climate change. The initiative features a wideranging dialogue across disciplines and world regions, with considerable attention to ethics.
Book Talk With Kehinde Andrews: “The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World” (History)
April 25
Erin Islo, Philosophy
Understanding
SPIA-UCHV Joint Committee for Law at Princeton was established this year to adver tise and select fellows in Law, Ethics, and Social Policy for 2022-23, and to foster and offer grants to fund initiatives at Princeton advancing the study and understanding of law in different academic contexts.”
“Between Justice and Politics: The Imperial Transformation of Qadis in British India” Saumyashree Ghosh, History
March 14
Mishella Romo Rivas, Politics
Deepening
“Jack Robbins and the Conditions of Freedom in 20th-century America”
March 28
UCHV Collaborative Projects
Co-sponsored Events and Conferences
(Organizing department is given in parentheses)
Yutian An, Politics
February 21
January 31
Min Tae Cha, History
“Before and After ‘Roe v. Wade’ A Conversation with Reva Siegel and Linda Greenhouse,” both of Yale Law School. Moderated by Kim Lane Scheppele
“The Arbitration Supremacy Doctrine: New Frontiers in Arbitration Jurisprudence”
In the 2021-22 academic year, the UCHV fostered collaborations with these campus communities, expanding and deepening ties that extend beyond sponsorship of events.
“‘Masters of Reality’: Psychometrics, Black Psychologists, and the Fractious Origins of Disparate Impact Theory”
April 18
“Legal Authoritarianism: Law, Police, and Courts in China”
May 9
February 14
Reilly Steel, Politics
“The Politics of Executive Aggrandizement: Exploring Court Legitimacy as a Pathway to Constraining Executives in Polarized Democracies”
15
May 2
December 7
May 5
“The Future of ‘Meat’: Two Recent Alums Discuss Their Experience Working in the Alt-meat Space”
May 5-7
Co-sponsored Series
“Amazonian Leapfrogging: Tackling the Climate Crisis and Social Inequality with Nature-based (BrazilSolutions”LAB)
December 3
“The Creation of More Just Societies—A Poetry Reading and Dialogue With Poet Nicole Sealey”
Pratap Bhanu Mehta speaks to attendees of his event on Global Political Theory and Practice
“SickCuratedArchitecture”byBeatriz Colomina (Architecture)
“The Architecture of Confinement | Time, Site, Care, and the Individual” (History)
Princeton Workshop in Normative Philosophy (Philosophy)Interdepartmental Program in Classical Philosophy (Philosophy)
“The Automated Condition: Manifestations and Narratives in Literature, Art, and Media” (German)
CITP Seminar with Peter Singer and Yip Fai Tse: “AI Ethics: The Case for Including Animals” (Center for Information Technology Policy)
Annual Review 2021-22
April 14
“Wang Yangming and Ming Thought” (Philosophy)
Social Criticism and Political Thought (Politics)
“What Is Behind ‘the Crisis of Democracy’? Critics and Author discuss ‘Democracy Rules’”
“The ‘Byt’ of Literature: Literary Personalities, Scholarly Discourses, and the Modes of Their (Slavic)Production”
November 11
May 13-14
“Inside the Black Box: Institutional Failure and Resilience Across Borders” (Center for Migration and Development)
“Global Political Theory and Practice: Expanding Canons, Engaging Politics,” organized by the Spring 2022 LSR Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching, Pratap Bhanu Mehta
UCHV Special Events
Just Data Lab Inaugural Artist-inResidence, Mimi Onuoha ’11 (African American CompassStudies) (Philosophy)
“The State of Hispanic America” Part 3 of “The State of the Nation” (Sociology)
May 12-13
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Athena in Action Conference (Rutgers IdaUniversity)B.Wells
September 10
May 10
February 23
March 18-20
May 6-August 28
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Teaching and Learning
VPL Director Sandra Bermann delivers Class Day remarks VPL student Katya Kopach, a member of the Class of 2022, celebrates with family
Environmental Ethics and Modern Religious Thought REL 394 / CHV 394 Ryan Darr
The Ethics of Love and Sex CHV 390 / PHI 390 / GSS 391 Elizabeth Harman
Under the direction of Sandra Bermann, Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and professor of comparative literature, 14 seniors graduated with the certificate in Values and Public Life (VPL). The UCHV admitted 10 rising juniors and three returning juniors to join the 22 rising seniors in the program.
Class of 2022 celebrated Class Day in person with family and the UCHV community, where the graduates’ activities and accomplishments were acknowledged.
Courses and Seminars
During the summer and academic year, VPL students participated in a mentorship program with several Graduate Prize Fellows, who served as mentors to help guide them in their future
Free Speech in the Internet Age PHI 411 / CHV 411 / POL 407 Susan Brison
Architecture and Democracy
Values and Public Life Seminars
18 Annual Review 2021-22
Program in Values and Public Life
VPL seniors attended Senior Thesis Workshops led by three of the UCHV’s postdoctoral fellows: August Gorman, Kathryn Joyce, and David Kinney. In addition, UCHV postdoc Thalia Vrantsidis led two workshops for VPL certificate students, cognitive science certificate students, and other interested juniors and seniors: “From Idea to Research Question: Developing and Refining Your Thesis Topic” and “Writing Your Thesis: A Crash Course in Scientific Writing.”
POL 403 / CHV 403 / ARC 405 / URB 403 Jan-Werner Müller
Being Human: A Political History HIS 427 / CHV 427 Edward Baring
In addition to completing the certificate program’s curricular requirements, VPL students enjoyed discussions over lunch with the program director. In the fall, UCHV postdoc Simona Capisani led a climate ethics discussion with VPL students. In the spring, Bermann moderated a panel “Incorporating a Normative Component Into Your Thesis Prospectus—And Your Thesis” for VPL juniors and juniors from any discipline. The panelists included Anna Stilz and Stephen Macedo; Kathryn Joyce, UCHV postdoc and Senior Thesis Workshop leader; and VPL seniors Ethan Kahn and Fedjine Victor.
Thegoals.VPL
PHI 202 / CHV 202
A Political History
University Center for Human Values Freshman Seminar (Anonymous)
Susan Brison
PHI 380 / CHV 380
Kim Lane Scheppele
POL 477 / CHV 477 / JRN 477
Comparative Constitutional Law
Paul L. Miller ’41 Freshman Seminar in Human Values
POL 313 / CHV 313 Charles Beitz
Explaining Values
Imprisoned Minds: Religion and Philosophy From Jail
Adam Lerner
Adam Lerner
Stephen Macedo
What Makes for a Meaningful Life? A Search Ellen Chances
First-Year Seminars
Muslim America
Peter T. Joseph ’72 Freshman Seminar in Human Values
REL 393 / CHV 393 / AMS 391 Rebecca Faulkner
Daniel L. Hoffman-Schwartz
Edward Baring
Introduction to Moral Philosophy
Marx in the 21st Century
CoursesBeingHuman:
SPI 421 / POL 479 / CHV 470
PHI 411 / CHV 411 / POL 407
Free Speech in the Internet Age
Dean Eva Gossman Freshman Seminar in Human Values
Intellectual Foundations of Modern Conservatism
Environmental Film Studies: Research Film Studio
Tech/Ethics
European Intellectual History in the 20th Century
Joseph C. Moore
Teaching and Learning
The Hidden History of Hollywood—Research Film Studio
Steven Kelts
Environmental Ethics
Adam Lerner
POL 418 / CHV 418
What Are Human Rights?
God and Humanity in Catholic Thought REL 303 / CHV 305
PHI 351 / CHV 351
Kurt & Beatrice Gutmann Freshman Seminar in Human Values
Mark Edwards
Thomas Kelly
Rhodri Lewis
Charles Beitz
Stephen Macedo
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Tragedy and the Meaning of Life
CHV 385 / AAS 385 Staff
Global Justice
Global Political Thought POL 476 / CHV 476 Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Normative Ethics: Humans vs. Animals: Agriculture, Climate Change, and Justice PHI 519 / CHV 519
SPI 370 / POL 308 / CHV 301
ECS 389 / CHV 389 / HUM 389 / ENV 389 Erika Kiss
HIS 369 / CHV 369
Class of 1976 Freshman Seminar in Human Values
Daniel Rubio
HIS 427 / CHV 427 Edward Baring
Learning
Ethics and Public Policy
Expressive Rights and Wrongs: Speech, Offense, and Commemoration
Sociological Theory
CHV 247 / CLA 257 / AAS 246 / HLS 247
March 28
PHI 307 / CHV 311
Translation: Translating and Adapting Greek and Roman Classics in Theory and Practice CLA 532 / CHV 532 / COM 588
Film Forum
Emily Greenwood
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“Collisions” (2016)
SOC 302 / CHV 302
Emily Greenwood
Did Kubrick Invent the 21st Century?
“The Key” (2019) Céline Tricart
Ben Solomon
Practical Ethics
Systematic Ethics
February 23
Immersive: An Evening with Lynette Wallworth: “Awavena” (2016) and “Collisions” (2012) viewed through VR headsets
PHI 315 / CHV 315 / CGS 315
Annual Review 2021-22
Adriana Renero
Philosophy of Mind
CHV 310 / PHI 385
Rhetoric, A User’s Guide (From Ancient Greece to the American Present)
Shamus R. Khan
April 4
“The Fight for Falluja” (2016)
Peter Singer
The Film Forum convenes at various campus theaters under the direction of Erika Kiss.The screened films are followed by comments from faculty and a discussion. The series, which is open to the public, is supported by a gift from Bert Kerstetter ’66.
Sarah McGrath
March 21
April 11
April 18
Filmmaker Lynette Wallworth speaks with Film Forum audience members
“Goliath: Playing with Reality” (2021)
Lynette Wallworth
Barry Gene Murphy and May Abdalla
Short Movie Prize
Sponsored by the University Center, this award is given to the undergraduate who produces the best short film.
Ohad Zeltzer Zubida, Sociology
Thomas Graul, History
Nura Sophia Liepsner, Religion
“Defending Our Freedom: The U.S. Military, Environmental Contamination, and Ongoing Native Land Theft in the Choctaw Nation”
Bennett Nagtegaal, History
Abdullah Naveed, Religion
Meredith Gehrlich, Politics
Théophile Deslauriers, Politics
Lauren Konken, Politics
John Walker, Religion
Joy Shim, Philosophy
Each year, the Center awards prizes to the senior theses that make an outstanding contribution to the study of human values. Nominations for the prize are made by departments across the University.
Jessica Lambert, Anthropology
“Gender and the Problem of Misgendering Beliefs: Ethical Considerations in Developing a Metaphysical Account of Gender”
Gulin Ustabas, Politics
AG McGee, Philosophy
Vinicius Cardoso Reis, Anthropology
Honorable Mention: “Before You Were Born,” by Ethan Luk ’24
Casey Eilbert, History
Winner: “Son of Many,” by Collin Riggins ’24
Usman Khan, Religion
Dane Stocks, Philosophy
Political Philosophy Research and Travel Grants
Bridget Brasher, Philosophy
Cait Mongrain, Classics
Eric Medawar, History
Kritika Vohra, Politics
Qiaozhi Guo, Politics
Thomas Lambert, Philosophy
Senior Thesis Prize
The UCHV offers prizes to help attract graduate students to Princeton whose work explicitly focuses on ethics, political theory, and human values. In spring 2022, the following incoming students were awarded these grants:
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Foivos Geralis, Architecture
Sal Salamanca, Politics
Jiawen Zeng, East Asian Studies
Manqing Lin, Politics
Ladi’Sasha Jones, Architecture
Nicolas Diaz, Anthropology
Hannah Hartt, History
“Freudian Democracy: The Political Thought of Hans Kelsen”
Teaching and Learning
Sebastian Liu, Philosophy
Lauren Miano, Philosophy
Onsi Kamel, Religion
Graduate Student Merit Awards
Marcos Garcia Mouronte, Architecture
Student Prizes and Grants
Sarah Strugnell, East Asian Studies
The University Center for Human Values, along with the Program in Political Philosophy, offers Political Philosophy Research and Travel grants. The grants are supported by a fund established by Amy Gutmann, former provost of the University and founding director of the UCHV. The following students received grants:
Lok Lam Yim, Politics
April 18
Robert P. George
“Toward Climate Mobilities Justice” Simona FebruaryCapisani7
Annual Review 2021-22
“A New Equality Principle of Religious Liberty?” Alan MarchPatten28
“Democracy and the Problem of Trust” Stephanie Ahrens
Human Values Forum
“What Is Disinformation?” Melissa NovemberLane8
“Three Cases of Probable Lives” Daniel SeptemberHeller-Roazen27
January 24
“What Is Philosophy Supposed to Do? Spinoza’s Answer” Daniel FebruaryGarber14
“Truth-Seeking, Democracy, and Freedom of Thought and Expression”
“How to Give Away a Million Dollars” Peter SeptemberSinger20
“Valuing the Lives of People with Profound Intellectual Disabilities” Susan FebruaryBrison28
“Is Representative Government Failing?” Charles OctoberBeitz11
April 4
March 21
Chapman Sklar, Religion
“Liberalism, Liberal Internationalism, and Global Modernity Struggles” G. John Ikenberry
“The Lesser Evil? Tasers and ‘Less-Than-Lethal’ Policing” Naomi NovemberMurakawa1
Ophelia Vedder, Politics
“Contested Civility” Christopher L. Eisgruber
“Ethics: How Hard Can It Be?” Sarah NovemberMcGrath29
“Kierkegaard on the Value of Ambiguity” Elizabeth Li
“The Mind in Exile: Thomas Mann in Princeton” Stanley OctoberCorngold4
February 21
“The Value of Introspective Awareness” Adriana Renero
“Who Will We Americans Be?” Paul Starr
March 14
“Liberalism as a Way of Life” Alexandre Lefebvre
January 31
With support from Bert Kerstetter ’66, the Human Values Forum provides an opportunity for undergraduates, faculty members, graduate students, and faculty visitors to meet in an informal setting to discuss current and enduring questions concerning ethics and human values.
October 25
“Threats to Democracy” Kim Lane NovemberScheppele22
September 13
22
“Climate Migration and Territorial Justice” Anna Stilz
April 11
“Hannah Arendt on Plurality” Juliane Rebentisch
Supporting Research
Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching
My other life, engage ment with the state of Indian democracy, also continued through some public writing and a couple of journal articles, including “Hindu Nationalism: From Ethnic Majoritarianism to Authoritarian Repression.” I also participated in a Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) panel on India, China, and Ukraine, and benefited from a guest appearance in Kim Lane Scheppele’s class “The Rule of Law.” While at Princeton, I also received news of my election as an honorary fellow of St. John’s College, University of Oxford.
Supporting Research
also disseminated as a keynote conversation at Harvard University’s Global Political Thought Conference.
24 Annual Review 2021-22
A main feature of the visiting fellows program is a regular lunch seminar at which the Center’s visitors, together with its faculty members, present their work to an audience of peers. The graduate fellows meet regularly during their own research seminar and for other professional development opportunities, which are also provided to the postdoctoral research associates. As the research reports attest, the systematic criticism and discussion of work in progress is among the princi pal benefits of affiliation with the Center.
This professorship is part of the 250th Anniversary Visiting Professorships for Distinguished Teaching (VPDT) program. Each VPDT teaches an undergraduate course and engages in other activities aimed at improving teaching at Princeton.
The UCHV seeks to advance original scholarship relating to human values in a number of ways, including sponsoring visiting faculty fellowships, visiting pro fessorships for distinguished teaching, postdoctoral research appointments, and dissertation-stage fellowships for outstanding Princeton graduate students. The research reports presented in this section illustrate the reach and quality of the work carried out under the Center’s auspices.
Conversations with Princeton’s fabulous political theorists provided stimulus for my writing on political resent ment. A paper presented on that topic at the LSR seminar expanded into two lectures delivered as the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Law Lectures at Columbia Law School. They are now on their way to being a shortTeachingbook. a first-year seminar on the topic of demo cratic backsliding and a course on global political thought in the 20th century energized my intellectual life. The class on global political thought led to a wider series of conversations on teaching political theory in a global context. These resulted in a UCHV workshop, “Global Political Theory and Practice: Expanding Canons, Engaging Politics.” They were
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Elizabeth Cohen
These fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding scholars and teachers inter ested in devoting a year at Princeton to writing about ethics and human values, discussing their work in a fellows’ seminar, and partici pating in seminar activities.
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Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellows
I had a wonderful year during my LSR fellowship. I finished and submitted my book “Parenting and the Goods of Childhood” (under contract with Oxford University Press), where I developed a new theory of moral parenthood and explored the goods that make a childhood go well.
Apart from getting the time to write most of the book and revise work I had done in previous years, the LSR fellow ship allowed me to present two chapters to quite insightful audiences whose comments were incredibly helpful. In October 2021, I presented my moral parenthood chapter in a DeCamp Bioethics Seminar, with a stimulating response by Rivka Weinberg. In February 2022, I presented my chapter on justice and parenting in the LSR lunch seminar, where I received excellent comments from Elizabeth Harman.
Luara Ferracioli
During my fellowship, I also further established my media profile in Australia by writing a number of pieces for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Sydney Morning Herald, two widely read outlets in Australia. I also learned so much by attending many excellent talks from faculty members and visitors. I am very thankful to the whole UCHV community for providing me with an invaluable oppor tunity to grow as a researcher and to work on a topic I am so passionate about.
Melissa Ganz
Supporting Research
has benefited greatly from what I learned participating in the UCHV Climate Mobilities working group. The second is a paper on the wrongs of carrying out hazing in the public sphere under the guise of prerequisites and admin istrative burdens. I can say without qualification that the semester I spent in-person at the UCHV was among the most fertile of my academic career. The institutional culture of high-quality events, such as the LSR seminar and the Political Philosophy Colloquium, where everyone is expected to not only attend but engage with pre-read papers and thoughtful questions, elevates everyone who joins. I take away with me many sets of notes for follow-up reading that will no doubt influence my work for the foreseeable future.
Appropriately, perhaps, for a scholar of time and temporality, I split my two semesters at the UCHV across two academic years, allowing me one semester on Zoom and one in-person. In my first segment, I finished and presented my work on First-Come-FirstServed as a distributive prin ciple. The feedback I received on that paper encouraged me to begin work on a larger project about how liberals can start to include time in theories of social justice. In that book, I will be focused on the idea of temporal autonomy, life plans, and how states do or do not protect opportunities for citizens to freely use their time. I have also been working on two related projects. The first is a discussion of tempo rary refugee protections that
During my time at the UCHV,
grateful to Steve Macedo as commentator. It was also my pleasure and honor to serve as commentator for Annie Stilz’s paper. Finally, I progressed another book project during this fellowship, co-editing and co-translating Henri Bergson’s lectures on freedom at the Collège de France (for Bloomsbury Publishing). I may have missed some delightful dinners and conversations by being in Sydney, but it has been a tremendous year of work, fascinating Zoom talks, and connecting with new friends and colleagues. I hope to meet them all in person soon!
Ethics and Public Affairs; the talks by postdoctoral research associates; and the Law Engaged Graduate Students Seminar. I also enjoyed many stimulating and helpful conver sations with colleagues at the Center. I am thrilled to have had the chance to engage in such rich discussions on topics spanning moral and political philosophy, moral psychology, history, and law. I am extremely grateful for this extraordinary year!
Alexandre Lefebvre
I completed a number of projects that examine connec tions between literature, law, and ethics, including an essay on Sir Walter Scott’s “The Heart of Midlothian” (1818) and penal reform, which is forth coming in an edited volume from Edinburgh University Press and which forms the basis for a chapter in my current book project; an essay on Samuel Richardson’s “Sir Charles Grandison” (17531754) and the development of equity, which will appear in a volume I am editing on British law and literature in the long 18th century (under contract with Cambridge University Press); and an essay on Maria Edgeworth’s “Belinda” (1801) and debates about the role of reason and feeling in moral judgment, which I presented at the LSR fellows seminar. I also drafted an essay surveying secondary scholarship on 18th-century British law and literature for a forthcoming Routledge Companion, and I completed final revisions for an essay on promissory obligations in Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), which appeared in The Review of English Studies this past spring.In addition, I participated in a number of seminars and events sponsored by the Center, including the DeCamp Bioethics Seminar, at which I presented a forthcoming essay that reads Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” (1818) as a meditation on children’s crim inal responsibility; the Political Philosophy Colloquium and the seminars of the Program in
Errol Lord
My LSR fellowship was a little different than usual: due to COVID-19, I deferred by a year and then, with waves of Delta and Omicron, held it remotely from Sydney over the year. Melissa Lane and the UCHV team made me feel welcome and supported throughout. I had hoped to write a first full draft of my book, “Liberalism as a Way of Life” (for Princeton University Press). With two-thirds now complete, I still regard that as a win and impossible without the fellowship time and commu nity. The LSR seminar on my first three chapters was the best feedback I’ve received for a presentation. I am deeply
26 Annual Review 2021-22
I made serious progress on several projects during my fellowship year. My main project was continuing to write a book about how we learn about ethics and aesthetics. I wrote three chapters: one on epistemic issues of deferring about ethics and aesthetics, one on epistemic issues of inferring about ethics and aesthetics, and one about the nature of expertise about ethics and aesthetics. I presented a version of this last chapter to the LSR seminar and benefited from formal
August Gorman
This year I published four articles. “Holism, Particularity, and the Vividness of Life” in The Journal of Ethics and “Living Your Best Life” in Analysis address the role of overarching narrative in the ethics of choice making about life-extension. “Demystifying the Deep Self View” in the Journal of Moral Philosophy and “What Is the Difference Between Weakness of Will and Compulsion?” in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association address traditional topics in the philosophy of agency with an eye toward the ethical and political ramifications for neuro diverse people. I also continued work on my book on neurodi versity and moral responsibility and co-presented with a social scientist on ADHD and agency. As I turn toward the part of my book that explores the just distribution of burdens in terms of learning to better under stand neurodivergent behavior for the purposes of appraisal, I am venturing into new terri tory on the ethics of access. In this vein, I wrote a chapter for the “Bloomsbury Guide to the Philosophy of Disability” on adjudicating neurodiversity-re lated accessibility conflicts. I have the UCHV to thank for the past three years of generous support that have prepared me to begin my new position as an assistant professor of philos ophy at Oakland University, where I will be teaching courses like “Public Health Ethics” in the newly established bioethics minor and a seminar on the ethics of medicalization at the medical school.
Postdoctoral Research Associates in Values and Public Policy
Supporting Research comments from Sarah McGrath and discussion with the group.
Kathryn Joyce
This year, I made significant progress on my postdoc toral research project, which investigates normative issues associated with the evidencebased approach to educa tion policy and practice. This research informed the chapter I recently wrote with my colleague, Nancy Cartwright, for the forthcoming Routledge “Handbook of Philosophy of Education ” I’m in the process of finalizing two papers that evaluate the evidence-based approach as a strategy for advancing aims of educational justice in the United States (i.e., narrowing achievement gaps and creating fair accountability practices). I recently drafted a third paper on how values should inform fornewtheundercommitmentsianismreconcilingphilosophyworkedbySectionateducation,decision-makingevidence-basedprocessesinwhichIpresentedtheEducationResearchSeminarSeriesledJenniferJennings.Ialsoonmybroaderpoliticalproject.Myarticlerelationalegalitarwithimportantliberaliscurrentlyreview.Inthefall,Ihadopportunitytopresentapaperonwhatitmeansindividualstostandand
The Values and Public Policy Postdoctoral Research Associate program is a joint endeavor of the UCHV and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. The fellowship supports highly promising scholars trained in moral and political philosophy, political theory, normative economics, and related areas to develop a research agenda in the ethical dimensions of public policy.
In addition, I finally found the time to write a large new paper about the ethics of love, wherein I defend a new Kantian account of love. I also started a new project about the ontology of poetry and a paper about the ethical lessons we can learn from the TV show “The ItLeftovers.”wasgreat to be able to attend many (in-person!) events at Princeton. I also attended Tom Kelly and Ernie Sosa’s graduate seminar on epistemology, which was an incredible intellectual experience.
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28 Annual Review 2021-22
Emma Rodman
The Ethics and Climate Change Postdoctoral Research Associate program supports scholars focusing on the ethical dimensions of climate change, informed by knowl edge of climate science and policy. The fellowship is a joint endeavor with the High Meadows Environmental Institute.
relate to one another as equals at the UCHV postdoctoral research associate seminar.
Participating in the UCHV’s regular seminars and lecture series was particularly stim ulating, as was participating in Elizabeth Harman’s moral philosophy seminar. Finally, I had a wonderful experience leading a senior thesis work shop for the Program in Values and Public Life.
This year, I continued my research on developing a justice-based framework for climate-induced displacement,
My second year as a UCHV postdoctoral research asso ciate in values and public policy was stimulating and productive, even though I continued to work remotely. In the fall, I was grateful to get the chance to connect with the UCHV community by presenting a new paper on the politics of alienation in the work of Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen in the LSR seminar. I got wonderful and generative feedback from the audience as well as from Melissa Ganz, who offered insightful comments on the paper. I also returned to my interest in text-as-data methods, presenting and submitting a paper for review (co-authored with Nora Webb
Postdoctoral Research Associates in Ethics and Climate Change
Simona Capisani
Williams) on transfer learning methods for big data analysis. This spring and summer, I am working on a second related project on how text-as-data methods can be adapted and employed for nonempirical, humanistic work in political theory. I am excited to start my tenure track job in the political science department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell this fall but sad to be leaving the collegial and supportive community I have found at Princeton over the last two years.
migration, and immobility. In addition to developing parts of my book manuscript, I also published an article titled “Livability and a Framework for Climate Mobilities Justice” in Philosophy and Public Issues and completed a chapter for the forthcoming Springer “Handbook of the Philosophy of Climate Change,” which examines normative approaches to the challenges posed by climate change’s impacts on human mobility, sovereignty, and structural inequalities that arise in the context of HarvardGovernanceEssex,SeriesWomenMeeting,(APA)PhilosophicalwhichtalksmyandbenefiteddirectionSolutionsandCenterUniversity’sKeohaneCPPcollaboratorsconnectedCPPatpresentedPipelineparticipatingasupport,fromdisplacement.climate-relatedThisworkbenefitedthewonderfulfeedback,andadvisingfromgroupofpoliticaltheoristsintheClimateProject(CPP).IanacceptedpaperaconferencehostedbytheatBrownUniversityandwithanetworkofinthegroup.Theisco-sponsoredbyRobertaswellasHarvardWeatherheadforInternationalAffairsBrownUniversity’sClimateLabundertheofJeffColgan.Ialsofromthefeedbackexperienceofpresentingworkatseveralinvitedandconferencesthisyear,includedtheAmericanAssociation’sEasternDivisiontheSocietyforinPhilosophySpeakerattheUniversityoftheEarthSystemsConference,University’s
Supporting Research
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This year as a postdoctoral research associate has been both generative and rewarding. I’ve spent part of the year finishing my first book manu script, tentatively titled “From the Ground Up: Methodology and Non-ideal Political Philosophy.” I also published a co-authored piece on the agents of justice. Another piece on informal modes of climate representation was recently accepted, and another paper on individual climate duties has been condition ally accepted. The paper that I presented to the postdoc group on sufficiency, limits, and distributive justice has been invited for an edited volume. I was able to start a project on climate disobedience and present some of the ideas to various audiences at Princeton. I have the fortune to be doing a symposium on it at next year’s Eastern Division Meeting of the APA. I also started research for a project on climate adapta tion infrastructure and global public health and a paper on managed retreat that I’ll be presenting at the Human Development and Capability Association in September.
to continue to collaborate and develop the working group beyond this year. I was also fortunate to organize several interdisciplinary events with the generous support of the Climate Futures Initiative. In the fall, I collaborated with Marion Hourdequin and orga nized an event titled “Climate Ethics ‘in the Field’: Integrating Philosophy, Science, Law, and Policy.” The event supported collaborative engagement between experts Robert Hockett, Deborah McGregor, and Nancy Tuana and explored how environmental ethics and climate justice can comple ment other forms of knowl edge to inform climate and environmental policy. With Colin Hickey, I also organized an event titled “Taking Stock and Looking Forward: Climate and Policy Experts Reflect on COP26,” which brought together Michael Oppenheimer, Stephen Pacala, Denise Mauzerall, and Karen Florini to reflect on the outcomes of the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties, commonly referred to as “COP26.”This fall, I will be starting as an assistant professor in environmental philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
Migration and the Humanities Conference, and an authormeets-critic panel for Alex Sager’s “Against Borders” at the APA’s Central Division Meeting.Inthe fall, I served as the ethics lecturer in the interdisci plinary course “Environmental Nexus,” which I co-taught alongside Stephen Pacala, Rob Nixon, and Sara Constantino. I presented several lectures spanning ethics and political philosophy, including lectures on climate justice, the ethics of climate finance, divest ment ethics, and indigenous climate justice and collabo rated with Professor Pacala to dedicate a lecture session focused on divestment and the Divest Princeton move ment. In the spring semester, I had the opportunity to co-teach a cross-disciplinary course on “Climate Change and Environmental Justice” in the New Jersey prison system through the Princeton Teaching Initiative. I remain committed to developing educational resources beyond the university.Inaddition to teaching and research, along with the support of Annie Stilz and my colleague Colin Hickey, I helped co-organize an inter disciplinary working group on climate mobility, which is comprised of 25 scholars and includes normative theorists, policy experts, social scien tists, and modelers focusing on issues related to climate migration, displacement, and immobility. The group, which includes scholars from within and beyond Princeton, plans
Colin Hickey
Postdoctoral Research Associates in Cognitive Science of Values
In my second year as a
The Cognitive Science of Values Postdoctoral Associate program supports promising scholars with a background in cognitive science or a related discipline whose research focuses on understanding social and/or moral cognition and its implications for norma tive theories.
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Annual Review 2021-22
and cognitive science of belief. Through the fall and spring, I attended and participated in an innovative talk series called “The Nature of Belief,” orga nized by Tania Lombrozo and Neil Van Leeuwen. This series culminated in a two-day inter disciplinary workshop where I made a pitch for the future of research on belief. Also during this year, I submitted several manuscripts on motivated reasoning, metacognition, and people’s perception of autonomy. And in the spring, I audited Liz Harman’s moral philosophy seminar, “Heroes and Jerks,” which has inspired my next research agenda. I was pleased to attend the LSR seminar in person, and to see the UCHV’s culture reemerge from the shadow of COVID-19 as receptions, dinners, and annual lectures resumed in their old form. (A highlight was Elizabeth Kolbert’s Tanner Lectures.) It is an environ ment like no other, and I will miss it dearly. Next year, I will be starting as an assis tant professor of marketing at Yale University’s School of Management.
Emily Foster-Hanson
cognitive science of values postdoc, I completed a project started in my first year and made substantial progress on a second related project. The first project (Foster-Hanson and Lombrozo; currently under review at the peer-reviewed journal Cognitive Psychology) examined how people’s func tional explanations for patterns in nature (e.g., reasoning that having stripes functions as camouflage for zebras) can give rise to normative judg ments about how the natural world ought to be (e.g., judging that zebras ought to have stripes). I was fortunate to receive very helpful feedback from the UCHV community when I presented this paper at an LSR seminar in November 2021. Building on this project, I have more recently continued working on a related project examining how people’s beliefs about functions and natural order relate to “mommy shaming,” or normative judg ments of parents. In this work, we have found that people attribute functions to a wide range of gendered social categories, especially catego ries of parents. People tend to view these true functions as behaviors that are natural for members of the category, and they judge that category members ought to fulfill their true functions. A paper on this work has been accepted for publication by the peer-re viewed Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society and will be presented as a talk at the meeting of the society in Toronto in July 2022. I will also
Corey Cusimano
2021-2022 was the last year of my wonderful adventure at Princeton and the UCHV. In the fall, I taught my first course as sole instructor: a first-year seminar called “Belief and Ideology” that covered topics related to the ethics
Being involved in teaching the “Environmental Nexus” course was particularly valu able, as was co-organizing the Climate Mobilities working group with Simona and Annie. I learned so much from all of the events I attended, and as happy as I am to be starting as an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, it’s a shame to not have a second year at Princeton and the UCHV!
My primary research activity at Princeton this year has been to work in collaboration with Tania Lombrozo on an empir ical study of people’s attitudes toward compressed causal summaries of scientific data. To date, this has resulted in three successful preregistered exper iments, with a fourth and final experiment in its pilot stage. In the near future, we plan to write up the results of these experiments and submit the paper to a psychology journal.
David Kinney
My first year as a UCHV post doctoral research associate has been extremely positive and productive. This year, I primarily worked on developing a new line of research investigating the relationship of simplicity and probability in people’s explanations. One of my empir ical projects on this topic found that people use simplicity in multiple ways when evalu ating explanations: as a way to directly infer an explanation’s probability, and as a way to infer other values that help compute an explanation’s probability, while also treating it as an explanatory virtue that is independent of probability judgments. This research was accepted for publication in
present a poster on the project at the meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology in Milan in July 2022.
the journal Cognitive Science and will be presented at two international confer ences: the Cognitive Science Society, and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. I have also been working on publishing my graduate school research, which involved a series of empirical studies on stereotyping and groupbased inferences, grounded in theoretical frameworks drawn from morality and postdoctoralresearchreceivedforperspectives.toprovoked,ulatingUCHVImology/probabilisticepisteinference.haveenjoyedattendingtheseminarsforthestimdiscussionstheyhaveandtheexposurediverseinterdisciplinaryIamalsogratefultheinvaluablefeedbackIwhilepresentingmyaspartoftheUCHVseminarseries.
Postdoctoral Research Associates in Philosophy and Religion
Supporting Research
31
Thalia Vrantsidis
A conference paper based on the first two experiments in this study has been accepted for presentation at the annual Cognitive Science Society’s conference in Toronto, as well as publication in the proceed ings. I also completed drafts of philosophy papers on causal explanation (currently under review), and on the relevance of cognitive science models for the debate between access externalists and access internalists (in the rough draft stage). I also completed two rounds of revision and
resubmission at Biology & Philosophy for a paper written during my previous postdoc. In addition, I worked regularly on my online course funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, “Foundations and Applications of Humanities Analytics.” I was also a regular attendee of UCHV seminars and regularly attended a philosophy graduate seminar on heterodox approaches to decision theory.
The postdoctoral position in the Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion (3PR) supports highly promising scholars who are trained in the philosophy of religion, the religious thought of some historical period or culture, theories, and methods in the study of religion, or related areas, in developing a research agenda in philosophy of reli gion broadly construed. This position is a joint endeavor of the UCHV, the Department of Philosophy, and the Department of Religion.
I had a terrific second year at the UCHV and am, again, so thankful for the opportunity to be here. Actually experiencing the campus full of life in an in-person capacity has given my time here a completely new feel. While my first year was wonderful as well, there simply is a deficiency without being able to share the same physical space with others. Princeton and, particularly, the UCHV are such special and stimu lating environments. As for research, I’ve been developing new projects on Kant’s moral theory and Hegel’s theory of life as a metaphysical concept. Through talks at the American Philosophical Association, Florida State University, and Colgate University, I’ve further honed papers and ideas that are currently out for review.
Elizabeth Li
32 Annual Review 2021-22
Ryan Darr
Thought,” which focused on Christian and Jewish theolog ical and ethical responses to the environmental crisis. Next year, I will continue to pursue my research and teaching interests in religion and envi ronmentalism as a postdoctoral associate in religion, ecology, and expressive culture at Yale University.
I continue to work on a number of research projects, including revising my book manuscript on Kierkegaard’s account of the relation between philos ophy and religion. I published an article on Kierkegaard’s rival Hans Martensen as an unex pected source for existential thought and had a paper accepted that explores some epistemological aspects of dialogue. I am also making progress on my second project on difficulty, which I have been invited to speak about at the
Further, I had the pleasure of teaching a seminar in German idealism through the Department of Philosophy. Working with the undergrad uates to explore theories of consciousness, freedom, and God from Kant through Hegel was such a privilege and pleasure. One highlight was the conference that I co-organized with my colleague, Elizabeth Li, on “God and Infinity: Perspectives From Hegel and Kierkegaard.” This conference brought word-renowned Hegel and Kierkegaard scholars together for two days. I’m looking forward to yet another year with the UCHV!
I received reader reports on the manuscript in late fall, and I spent much of the spring revising. I will send the manu script back with revisions in June 2022. In addition, I began two new research projects this year. The first is several articles that address individual complicity for social evils. The second is a larger project on the topic of the extinction of species, which draws from theology, philosophy, and liter ature. Together with the other members of the Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion, I organized a weekly working group, a regular joint colloquium with the Rutgers Center for the Philosophy of Religion, and several confer ences. In the fall, I taught a new course, “Environmental Ethics and Modern Religious
I am very grateful for the opportunity to spend a third year at the UCHV. It has been wonderful to return to in-person events and classes and to resume a somewhat normal schedule. Much of my year has once again been devoted to my first book, “From the Final End to the Best Effect: God, Evil, and the Origin of Consequentialism.”
Alexander Englert
Supporting Research University of Copenhagen. The other papers I completed this year benefited enormously from feedback from 3PR’s weekly workshop and the UCHV postdoc seminar.
For 3PR, Alexander Englert and I organized a conference bringing together Hegel and Kierkegaard scholars to reflect on the themes “God and Infinity,” which was made possible by the UCHV’s support. Another highlight was Nicole Sealey’s beautiful poetry reading and conversation with Emily Greenwood. In short, I am tremendously grateful for this wonderful and enriching year in the UCHV.
This spring, I presented work, including at the APA’s Eastern Division and Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program. I was honored to speak at the Human Values Forum and continue to reflect on the students’ many challenging questions.Aspart of the Department of Religion, I attended the weekly workshops “Religion and Critical Thought” and “Religion and Public Life.” I also taught a course on Kierkegaard and the students’ creative applications of his thought on everything from student mental health to social media and the role of religious institu tions ensured lively discussions.
Daniel Rubio
This academic year, I completed drafts of two new papers. “In Defense of Qua-Christology” is an intervention in debates about the fundamental problem of Christology and aims to provide a structure for evaluating Christological theories. “Dying in the Light of Eternity” continues my research on death by asking what happens to the literature on the badness of death when we drop the assumption that no one survives dying. It is set to be published in a volume on conceptions of the afterlife in the Abrahamic religions. I also launched a new project in decision theory, arguing for the superiority of relative-difference formalism over weighted-av erage formalism. In addition, I spearheaded the organization of two conferences: 3PR’s first face-to-face conference, held in October with keynotes by Mark Johnston, Jennifer Lackey, and Sarah Coakley, and the second Philosophy of Religion Incubator, held in late May. Beyond the UCHV and 3PR’s seminars and working groups, I attended a seminar based in Haifa and Ibn Haldun Universities on the “Afterlife in Abrahamic
Laurance S. Rockefeller Graduate Prize Fellows
Colin Bradley
I am deeply grateful to
These fellowships, made possible by a gift from Laurance S. Rockefeller ’32, are awarded to Princeton graduate students with distinguished academic records who show great promise of contributing to scholarship and teaching about ethics and human values. Fellows participate in an interdisciplinary research seminar throughout the year. In the 2021-22 academic year, the seminar was convened by Elizabeth Harman, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values.
Thought” and served as an adviser to the working group for the Philosophy of Religion in the Portuguese Speaking World project. I also taught a seminar in Catholic thought for Princeton in spring 2022. This year marks the end of my time in the UCHV, but I am excited to spend a year teaching at Hope College before joining Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul in 2023.
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the UCHV for supporting my research this year as a Graduate Prize Fellow. This year, I made significant progress on my dissertation, which explores the relationship between moral normativity and legal normativity in contem porary political philosophy, legal theory, and in historical debates surrounding the work of Immanuel Kant. One chapter, “Blame in the State of Nature,” which I presented at the GPF seminar and several other venues this year, argues against the idea that the essence of a moral obligation is that there is another person who can hold you accountable for failing to live up to your obligation. I argue that the idea of “holding accountable” is ambiguous and, when spelled out, morally unattractive. A follow-up chapter, “Private Rights and Private Wrongs,” traces this debate into theories of private law—tort, contracts, property—and argues that the narrow focus on bipolarity is not only flawed but obscures the role of political and legal institutions in constituting the normativity of legal relations. I am presenting this work at a law and philosophy workshop at the University of Southern California this summer. I also wrote a chapter interpreting these themes in Kant’s texts, “Means, Context, and Property Rights,” which I presented at the North American Kant Society this spring.
Casey Eilbert
The UCHV Graduate Prize Fellowship allowed me to make significant progress on my dissertation, which considers how andfeedbackforwardbetterresearchmyprofessionalwasworkThefellowsfromsociology,philosophy,tionofframe.wasbroadlyand—includingbureaucracythetheciplinaryanprivateinstitutionsincenturycracyunderstandingsAmericans’ofbureauchangedoverthe20thandhowtheseideas,turn,influencedtheformofinthepublicandsectors.TheUCHVwasimmenselyhelpfulinterdiscommunity.Becausedissertationconsidersrelationshipbetweenandothervaluesdemocracy,merit,justice—thinkingmoreabouthumanvaluesanenrichingconceptualAndbecausemanytheactorsinthedissertaarescholarsinpoliticaleconomics,andIbenefitedgreatlythefeedbackofotherinthesedisciplines.opportunitytopresentmytomycohortinFebruaryanespeciallyvaluableexperience.Itwasfirsttimegivingthisstyleoftalk,andIfeelmuchpreparedtodosogoingthankstothehelpfulofProfessorHarmantheotherfellows.Ialso
Thalia Gigerenzer
My time as a Graduate Prize Fellow at the UCHV has been immensely rewarding and thought-provoking. I was able to make substantial progress on my dissertation, “Coming of Age in the End Times: An Ethnography of Muslim Women in Delhi, India,” which examines how young, Muslim women are navigating a new, extended period of experimentation before marriage. Thanks to the Rockefeller Prize Fellowship, I was able to complete a full draft of my dissertation. In addition to presenting my work in the UCHV seminar, I also presented my work in Princeton’s Center for Culture, Society, and Religion. I also had a paper accepted at the European encedwork,inLizandence.Association’sAnthropologicalannualconferIreceivedveryhelpfulgenerousfeedbackfromHarmanandmycolleaguestheUCHVseminaronmywhichhasreallyinflumydissertation.Ireally
34 Annual Review 2021-22
appreciated the community that Professor Harman and Kim Murray helped to create among the fellows, one I hope to continue to draw on during my time at Princeton.
During my time as a fellow, I made progress on three chapters of my dissertation, provisionally titled “Structural Injustice: A Conceptual and Normative Exploration.” One of these chapters—a critical
My year with the UCHV as a Graduate Prize Fellow was incredibly illuminating, as I learned a lot about the research of other fellows. I have spent this past year continuing to revise my dissertation on automation and the future of work and have nearly completed the book manuscript that analyzes the automation phenomenon from a sociological perspective. The next goal is to write a book proposal and find publishers.
Supporting Research
Sonny Kim
For their support over the past year, I am grateful to the UCHV and, in particular, to our wonderfully collegiate and interdisciplinary GPF community. I have learned something interesting and important from each of my peers, and getting to know them and their work was truly the highlight of the fellowship.
Eleanor Gordon-Smith
Larry Liu
I’m very lucky to have spent this academic year as part of the UCHV community. During the year, I made much progress on my dissertation, which asks what mental acts are involved in the moral demand to respect persons and whether morality can regulate our beliefs and doxastic states. The disserta tion contends that we are each subject to a moral demand to pay attention to other persons in a particular way and explores how this claim might challenge our existing epistemic norms governing enquiry and belief formation. During the academic year, I presented my chapter on the ethics of doubt and with holding belief to the UCHV dissertation seminar, submitted chapters of my dissertation to peer-reviewed ethics and epistemology journals, as well as finalizing a paper about the process of closing inquiry and considering a question
enjoyed being in conversation with students from such an array of disciplines. I am so grateful for the opportunity to participate in the UCHV seminar and make significant progress on my dissertation.
35
settled. I presented my work to peers and colleagues both at Princeton and at several philosophy conferences. It was invaluable to be a member of the UCHV dissertation seminar in preparation for these goals, especially after years of COVID-19 and distance learning; the opportunity to present in person to academic peers was a key opportunity for practice and feedback and a wonderful environment to discuss research and profes sional opportunities with other students from different disciplines.
examination of the social theo ries that underlie the concept of structural injustice—was presented to the GPF seminar, where I received helpful feed back. Another of these chap ters—on the different moral values that ground the concept of structural injustice versus the concept of oppression— will be presented at confer ences at the London School of Economics and the Central European University later this summer. The support also afforded me time to work on some other research projects, leading to two article-length papers that are currently undergoing review. Thanks again to the UCHV community.
36 Annual Review 2021-22
The past year as a Graduate Prize Fellow at the UCHV allowed me to make signifi cant progress on my disser tation, which studies how our capacity for acting rationally in an instrumental sense relates to our capacity for adopting and following social norms. Participating in the GPF seminar was particularly beneficial. First, it gave me a
I have continued to revise two research articles, which are forthcoming in Forum for Social Economics and SocioEconomic Review, where I focused on how destabilizing market reforms explain author itarianism in Hungary and how labor protests bring about automation in China. I have also presented a chapter of my dissertation on union and business discourses in automa tion at the Eastern Sociological Society, the Society for the Advancement of SocioEconomics, and the American Sociological Association. Lastly, I completed two chapters with Alejandro Portes on the history of Singapore and Hong Kong in a book on global cities to be published by Columbia University Press.
much needed opportunity to discuss my ideas about social norms with colleagues in the humanities and social sciences. Getting their perspective on my research allowed me to sharpen and develop my views. Second, presenting my work in the seminar gave me the chance to think hard about how best to convey my phil osophical views to an inter disciplinary audience. Finally, discussing other fellows’ projects was an invaluable source of ideas for improving my own research. Thanks to all this support, during the past year I was able to write three new papers: two new disserta tion chapters and an indepen dent, co-authored piece. I also made substantial revisions to a previously written dissertation chapter. I want to thank Liz Harman for her professional guidance, my colleagues in the GPF seminar for their feedback, and Kim Murray and Dawn Disette for their constant support throughout the year.
I’ve completed a new chapter focusing on the emergence of racial categories during colonial slavery and greatly expanded another chapter on ideologies surrounding race and inequality, both of which I’m presenting at domestic and international conferences this summer. Thanks to the feed back from the other Graduate Prize Fellows, I’ve articulated a new research agenda on the economics of ideology and have started several promising new projects in this vein. It’s been a delight to be a part of the Center for Human Values this year; attending both the graduate seminar and talks by the postdoctoral and faculty fellows exposed me to many new ideas that have influenced the direction of my ongoing research projects. I’m espe cially grateful to Elizabeth Harman, who organized both the graduate and postdoctoral seminars, for encouraging the graduate fellows to participate in the broader activities of the Center.
Dan McGee
Camilo Martinez
I spent this past academic year completing my disser tation titled “Barriers to Mobility in the Persistently
Ryan Parsons
During this year, I was able to make substantial progress on my dissertation project, “Towards a Theory of Race in Economics.” In this time,
Adele Watkins
Over the course of the year, I published two articles from my dissertation work. The first examines the legacy of “caste” as a tool for analyzing race relations in the Deep South and deploys frameworks from economic sociology to offer an expanded conception of caste. The second leverages ethnographic data to docu ment the upward mobility processes of a cohort of young Black students, many of whom wrestle with questions of ties to home alongside visions for their future. The dissertation was successfully defended in May, and I am currently working on a proposal for a book manuscript. In the fall, I will be joining the University of Mississippi as an assis tant professor of sociology and Southern studies. My
I contend that he offers two reasons against self-killing: one should not kill herself because of her duty to the gods, and one should not kill herself because of her duty to the “polis.” I further argue that the political argument against selfkilling is aimed at philosophers, invoking as evidence similar sentiments expressed in Plato’s other work (most strikingly, in Book VII of ‘Republic’).
37 Supporting Research
participation in the graduate seminar of the UCHV provided both key playedciativeofwithopportunitiesprofessionalizationandconnectionsanexcitingcommunitymypeers,andIamappreoftheroletheUCHVinmysuccessthisyear.
DinnerUCHVsocializeAssociatesResearchPostdoctoralattheWelcome
With the support of the UCHV, I have made signifi cant progress on my disser tation over the past year. In the project, titled “Socrates Died a Philosopher’s Death: Reconstructing a Platonic View of Death from ‘Phaedo,’” I explicate Plato’s prohibition against suicide in “Phaedo.” In service of this goal, I begin
the dissertation by articulating what death is for Plato. From two descriptions in “Phaedo,” I suggest that death gener ally is the separation of the soul and the body from one another. Next, I consider Plato’s argument against self-killing.
Poor Rural South.” The project is a community study of a Mississippi Delta community that has experienced decades of persistent poverty and population loss, compounded by legacies of white supremacy and entrenched racism.
In addition to my dissertation work, I have strengthened my professional skills significantly this year. My progress is due in large part to the guidance and feedback of Liz Harman, guests invited to our GPF seminar, and my fellow Graduate Prize Fellows.
38 Annual Review 2021-22 People
UCHV’s faculty and visitors gather at the start of the academic year
Erika Kiss
Melissa Lane Director, University Center for Human Values; Class of 1943 Professor of Politics
Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics; Professor of Politics; Director, Program in Political Philosophy
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values; Chair, Tanner Committee on Human Values
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Religion and the University Center for Human Values
Christopher L. Eisgruber
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values
Executive Committee
Sandra Bermann Cotsen Professor in the Humanities; Professor of Comparative Literature; Director, Program in Values and Public Life
Elizabeth Harman
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Classics and the University Center for Human Values
EdwardFaculty Baring
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values
Associate Professor of History and Human Values
Anna Stilz
Stephen Macedo
Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of the University Center for Human Values
39
Elizabeth Harman
Andrew Chignell
Charles Beitz
Lara Buchak Professor of Philosophy
President of the University; Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values
Emily Greenwood
Emily Greenwood Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Classics and the University Center for Human Values
Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching
Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values
Senior Research Scholar, University Center for Human Values; Lecturer, Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values
Eric Gregory Professor of Religion
Philip Pettit
Kim Lane Scheppele
Director, University Center for Human Values; Class of 1943 Professor of Politics
Melissa Lane
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values
Edward Baring Associate Professor of History and Human Values
Andrew Chignell Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Religion and the University Center for Human Values
Peter Singer
Director, University Center for Human Values Film Forum; Lecturer, Comparative Literature and the University Center for Human Values
Victoria McGeer
Jonathan D. Cohen
Anna Stilz
Mitchell Duneier Gerhard R. Andlinger ’52 Professor of Social Sciences; Professor of Sociology; Chair, Department of Sociology
Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Politics; Chair, Department of Politics
Tania Lombrozo
Peter Singer
Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies; Professor of Religion; Director, Program in Judaic Studies
Daniel Garber
Robert Bendheim and Lynn Bendheim Thoman Professor in Neuroscience; Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience; Co-Director, NeurosciencePrincetonInstitute
Alan Patten
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values
Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Psychology; Director, Program in Cognitive Science
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values; Chair, Tanner Committee on Human Values
Roger Williams Straus Professor of Politics
Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values
McCosh Professor of Philosophy
Karen Emmerich Associate Professor of Comparative Literature; Director, Program in Translation and CommunicationIntercultural Susan Fiske Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology; Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs
Sheldon Garon
Susan Dod Brown Professor of Anthropology
Robert P. George McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence; Professor of Politics; Parliamentarian; Director, James Madison Program
Michael Smith
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values Faculty
Professor of East Asian Studies
Victoria McGeer
Nissan Professor in Japanese Studies; Professor of History and East Asian Studies
Nathaniel Daw Huo Professor Computationalinand Theoretical Neuroscience; Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology
Senior Research Scholar, University Center for Human Values; Lecturer, Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values
Amy Borovoy
Michael A. Celia Theodora Shelton Pitney Professor of Environmental Studies; Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Sophie Gee
Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of the University Center for Human Values
40 Annual Review 2021-22
Leora Batnitzky
Associate Professor of English
Jan-Werner Müller
Kim Lane Scheppele
Stephen Macedo
Gregory Conti Assistant Professor of Politics
João Biehl
Philip Pettit
ElizabethAssociatesM.Armstrong
Paul Frymer Professor of Politics
A. Watson Armour, III, University Professor of Philosophy
Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; Head of Butler College
Alin Coman Associate Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs
Helen V. Milner
François Morel
Rob Nixon
Brooke Holmes
Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
Associate Professor of English
Benjamin Morison Professor of Philosophy; Director, Program in Classical Philosophy
Dan-el Padilla Peralta Associate Professor of Classics
Provost; Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Office of the Provost
B.C. Forbes Professor of Public Affairs; Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; Director, Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance
Gideon Rosen
Jonathan C. Gold
Stuart Professor of Philosophy; Chair, Department of Philosophy
A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies
Ilyana Kuziemko
Thomas C. Leonard Research Scholar, Council of the Humanities
Simon Levin
Stephen W. Pacala Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
James S. StudiesProgramAmericanChair,AfricanProfessor;DistinguishedMcDonnellUniversityProfessorofAmericanStudies;DepartmentofAfricanStudies;Director,inAfricanAmerican
Sarah-Jane Leslie Class of 1943 Professor of Philosophy
Harvey Lederman
Mark Johnston
Henry Putnam University Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Religion; Director, Center for Religion and Society
Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Jonathan Edwards Bicentennial Preceptor
James S. EvolutionaryProfessorDistinguishedMcDonnellUniversityinEcologyandBiology
Joanna and Greg Zeluck ’84 P13 P18 Professor in Asian Studies; Professor of East Asian Studies
Lars O. Hedin
Douglas Massey
Albert G. Blanke, Jr., Professor of Geosciences and the High Meadows Environmental Institute, Emeritus
Imani Perry
Sarah McGrath Professor of Philosophy
Poeple
Thomas A. and Currie C. Barron Family Professor in Humanities and the ProfessorEnvironment;ofEnglishand the High Meadows Environmental Institute
Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies
Guy Nordenson Professor of Architecture
Jeff Nunokawa Professor of English Serguei Oushakine Professor of Anthropology and Slavic Languages and Literatures
41
Professor of Economics
Naomi Murakawa Associate Professor of African American Studies
Deborah Prentice
Martha A. Sandweiss Professor of History
George M. Moffett Professor of Biology; Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the High Meadows Environmental Institute; Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Susan Dod Brown Professor of Classics
Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
Thomas Kelly Professor of Philosophy
Grace Helton Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Joshua Kotin
Martin Kern
Anne McClintock
Tawana Lewis-Harrison Assistant Manager, Shared Services, Financial Support Services
Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences; Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society; Professor of Philosophy; Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science, Stanford University
Wayne Bivens-Tatum Philosophy and Religion Librarian
Dawn Disette Administrative Assistant, University Center for Human Values
Henry S. Richardson
Frederick Wherry Townsend Martin, Class of 1917 Professor of Sociology
David S. Wilcove
Eric Beerbohm *08 Professor of Government, Harvard University
Esther Schor
Harold T. Shapiro
Advisory Council
Erika Kiss Director, University Center for Human Values Film Forum; Lecturer, Comparative Literature and the University Center for Human Values
Andrew Perhac Technical Support Specialist, University Center for Human Values
Elizabeth Harman Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values; Director, EarlyCareer Research
Kimberly Girman Faculty Assistant/Program Event Coordinator, University Center for Human Values
Stephen Macedo Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values; Chair, Tanner Committee on Human Values
42
Bert Kerstetter ’66 President, Everfast, Inc.
Tammy Hojeibane Event and Communications Specialist, University Center for Human Values
President of the University, Emeritus; Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
Caroline McHugh Sitren Shared Grants Manager, Research and AdministrationProject
Paul Starr
Annual Review 2021-22
Founder and Chairman of Legacy Connect/ThatHelps
MelissaAdministrationLane
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute
Stuart Professor Communicationsofand Public Affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs; Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs
Mark Rockefeller ’89
Sandra Bermann Cotsen Professor in the Humanities; Professor of Comparative Literature; Director, Program in Values and Public Life
Director, University Center for Human Values; Class of 1943 Professor of Politics
Regin Davis Assistant Director, University Center for Human Values
Professor of Philosophy; Senior Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University
Sara Ogger *00 Executive Director, Humanities New York
Debra Satz
Kimberly Murray Program ValuesUniversityCoordinator,CenterforHuman
Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor of American Jewish Studies; Professor of English; Chair, Council of the Humanities
Felix
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