History

The University Center for Human Values was established in 1990 by an interdisciplinary faculty group led by founding director Amy Gutmann, at the time professor of politics at Princeton and now president of the University of Pennsylvania. The aim was to deepen and enhance collaboration at Princeton among scholars across the disciplines with a shared commitment to research and teaching about values in public and private life. The founding committee shared the thought that inquiry into values required more breadth, more spirit, and less embarrassment than it had then been getting, and that drawing various disciplines together in frequent seminars and other gatherings and on all academic levels might prove helpful in strengthening those qualities.

A generous gift from Laurance S. Rockefeller ’32 enabled the center to launch what have become its signature activities: a visiting scholars' program, a fellowship program for outstanding Princeton graduate students, an interdisciplinary colloquium on ethics and public affairs, and a lecture series on ethics and political philosophy. The Rockefeller gift also supports several joint faculty positions in politics, philosophy and the Woodrow Wilson School. Beginning in 2010, the gift has also made possible the center’s undergraduate certificate program in Values and Public Life.
           
The center acquired physical space with the completion of Marx Hall in 1993, in a location adjacent to the philosophy department and a short walk from the politics department. Many of the seminars and colloquia sponsored by the center take place in the Russell B. Kerstetter Seminar Room (301 Marx Hall), the gift of Mr. Kerstetter’s son, Bert G. Kerstetter '66. As the center’s activities grew it acquired more office and seminar space at 5 Ivy Lane.

Since its inception, the center has been directed by Amy Gutmann, George Kateb and Stephen Macedo. Charles Beitz is the current director.