News

Wojciech Sadurski awarded Poland's Badge of Honor for Merits to the Administration of Justice
March 18, 2024

UCHV's Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching Wojciech Sadurski received a Medal of Honor for his service to justice from the Polish government. He received the award in Warsaw last week from Poland's Minister of Justice/Attorney General Adam Bodnar.

 

Recent recognition of Melissa Lane’s new book, "Of Rule and Office: Plato's Ideas of the Political"
Feb. 29, 2024

Melissa Lane’s 2023 monograph, published by Princeton University Press, has been feted this autumn with multiple book symposia and book launch events. Most recently, Lane was interviewed on the podcast Keeping Democracy Alive on the topic of "Plato: The…

Recap: Bonnie Honig's Moffett Lecture "Fatal Forgiveness: Euripides, Austin, Cavell, Arendt"
Feb. 28, 2024

What could J. L. Austin’s theory of performativity, Hannah Arendt’s account of political action, and Euripides’ Hippolytus ever have in common? That is precisely the question that Professor Bonnie Honig, Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Political Science at Brown University, sought to explore in her riveting…

Applications for Faculty Sabbatical Fellows are open
Feb. 19, 2024

The University Center for Human Values (UCHV) fosters ongoing inquiry into important ethical issues in private and public life and supports teaching, research, and discussion of ethics and human values throughout the curriculum and across the disciplines at Princeton University. The Center strives to provide the larger community with the space…

Recap: Adam Tooze's Tanner Lecture "Polycrisis"
Feb. 6, 2024

The intellect, Hegel alleged in The Philosophy of Right, usually apprehends its surroundings only as they fade. Our ability to reflect on the world, he thought, depends on that world’s passing away in the face of something new. In his second Tanner Lecture, Adam Tooze alighted on a recent example of this Hegelian tragedy…

Recap: Adam Tooze's Tanner Lecture "Beyond the Unipolar Moment"
Jan. 31, 2024

Last November, Adam Tooze, the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Chair of History at Columbia University and director of the European Institute, delivered the 2023 Tanner Lectures on "The Last Dystopia: Historicizing the Anthropocene Debate in a Multipolar Age."

Applications for Graduate Prize Fellowships are now open
Jan. 23, 2024

The GPF program recognizes and supports post-generals graduate students with distinguished academic records (in any discipline) whose dissertation research centrally involves the critical study of human values. In addition to providing tangible support, a main purpose is to enable scholars working on topics in human values to engage with each…

Wojciech Sadurski awarded annual prize for promoting democracy and the rule of law by Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America
Jan. 22, 2024

UCHV's Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching Wojciech Sadurski received the Karol Pilarczyk Award from the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America for "promoting democracy and the rule…

Jane Manners selected as inaugural member of Brennan Center's Historians Council on the Constitution
Jan. 18, 2024

UCHV Fellow in Law, Ethics, and Public Policy Jane Manners was selected as an inaugural member of the Brennan Center's Historians Council on the Constitution.

According to…

Applications for Fellows in Law and Normative Thinking are open
Jan. 18, 2024

UCHV invites practitioners, faculty members of any discipline, independent scholars, and lawyers to apply for visiting residential fellowships for 2024-25. 

Fellows will devote the full academic year to research, discussion, and scholarly collaboration on topics related to…

Call for submissions: The Philosophical Environment Conference, July 26-28
Jan. 10, 2024

Philosophy in the Wild invites abstract submissions for presentations at its fourth annual conference, “The Philosophical Environment,” happening July 26-28, 2024, at Colton Point State Park in Pennsylvania. The conference is being organized by UCHV postdoc…

Kim Lane Scheppele featured in numerous news outlets
Dec. 19, 2023

Kim Lane Scheppele, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values, has recently been featured in numerous news outlets, including:

The Washington Post Read:
Pratap Bhanu Mehta featured on The New York Times' "The Ezra Klein Show"
Dec. 12, 2023

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, the Laurence S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching, was Ezra Klein's featured guest on today's episode of the popular podcast, "The Ezra Klein Show."

In the episode,…

Visiting Research Scholar Evgeny Roshchin quoted in Daily Princetonian article
Dec. 5, 2023

Evgeny Roshchin, a visiting research scholar at UCHV, was quoted in a recent Daily Princetonian article, "Princeton provides Ukrainian and Russian scholars two years of protection." UCHV took a…

Angelus Novus Project wins Innovation Award at the Venice Biennale
Dec. 4, 2023

The Angelus Novus Project, a collaboration of Princeton’s Form Finding Lab, UCHV’s Research Film Studio and the architecture firm SOM, won the European Cultural Centre’s University Innovation Award.  

"Poland after PiS" Jan-Werner Mueller book review published in the London Review of Books
Nov. 16, 2023

In The London Review of Books article "Poland after PiS," Jan-Werner Mueller reviews Jarosław Kuisz's book "The New Politics of Poland: A Case of Post-Traumatic Sovereignty." 

Alan Patten and Shuk Ying Chan publish article in the American Political Science Review
Nov. 16, 2023

An article by Shuk Ying Chan *21, a Graduate Prize Fellow at UCHV in the 2018-19 academic year, and Alan Patten, chair of the Department of Politics and a member of the UCHV Executive Committee, has just been published in the American Political Science Review. 

Philip Pettit elected to an honorary fellowship at Cambridge University's Trinity Hall
Nov. 9, 2023

Last month, Philip Pettit, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of University Center for Human Values, was elected as an honorary fellow at  Cambridge University's Trinity Hall. Pettit was a research fellow at Trinity Hall in the 1970s.

Visit…

Jan-Werner Mueller pens articles in Foreign Policy and Project Syndicate
Oct. 30, 2023

Recent articles by Jan-Werner Mueller have been published in Foreign Policy on October 29 and Project Syndicate on October 20. The Foreign Policy article “How the European Project Fell Apart” is a review of Timothy Garton Ash’s latest book…

Peter Singer discusses the line between life and death in the Washington Post
Oct. 18, 2023

Use of the cessation of all brain function as a criterion of death has long seemed a settled issue, but the Uniform Law Commission recently started discussing changes to the laws that were adopted, more than 40 years ago, following a recommendation it had then issued. After opening the discussion, however, the Commission soon slammed the lid…

Jan-Werner Mueller reviews the book "Against the World" in Foreign Policy
Oct. 6, 2023

A review of Tara Zahra's latest book "Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars" was written by Jan- Werner Mueller, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Politics. The article "The…

Eisgruber and von Blumenthal to speak at Academic Freedom event
Sept. 27, 2023

UCHV’s Academic Freedom Initiative will have its first event this coming Monday, October 2.  The gathering will pursue two tasks: scholars will revisit the normative and legal bases of academic freedom; and a number of colleagues from different universities from around the world will investigate why and  how academic freedom is being…

UCHV launches Future Values Initiative
Sept. 25, 2023

Advances in science and technology have outpaced careful inquiry into their ethical implications. New tools like CRISPR and large language models may hold tremendous potential for our collective benefit, but also exacerbate already existing social disparities. The Future Values Initiative recognizes that meeting these challenges is just as much…

Jan-Werner Mueller on Climate Authoritarianism in Project Syndicate
Sept. 18, 2023

In the Project Syndicate article, “The Silent Song of Climate Authoritarianism” Jan-Werner Mueller, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Politics, discusses the escalating climate crisis and “the notion that ecologically minded authoritarians will outperform democratic leaders on…

UCHV launches Academic Freedom Initiative
Sept. 11, 2023

Academic freedom is under threat in many parts of the world – including in at least parts of the United States.  Against this background, UCHV is launching an Academic Freedom Initiative which sets itself two tasks: first, it will revisit and critically probe the normative and legal bases of academic freedom.  Arguably, theoretical…

Peter Singer and Andrew Chignell to participate in Farm Days Festival 2023
Sept. 6, 2023

Plant-based nutrition, environmental health, animal advocacy, and related topics will be discussed at the Farm Days Festival 2023 which will take place on September 9 and 10 in Long Valley, New Jersey.  The theme “The Ethics of Eating” will be explored by keynote speaker, Peter…

Jan-Werner Müller appointed to German Education Ministry’s advisory council on freedom
Sept. 5, 2023

The German Ministry for Education and Research is inaugurating a special academic year dedicated to the topic of freedom. 

Political theory podcasts series spotlights latest publications by Melissa Lane and Philip Pettit
Aug. 31, 2023

Conversations with Professors Melissa Lane and Philip Pettit were recently featured in podcasts on The Political Theory Review. The interviews were conducted by…

Sally A. Nuamah Receives the 2023 Ralph J. Bunche Award
Aug. 10, 2023

Sally A. Nuamah, former UCHV postdoc in Values and Public Policy jointly appointed with the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics has been awarded the the 

Jane Manners on NPR's Morning Edition
Aug. 10, 2023

Jane Manners, incoming UCHV Fellow in Law, Ethics, and Public Policy and Assistant Professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law speaks to NPR's Steve Inskeep on how a second Trump presidency could reshape the federal government. Listen…

Melissa Lane on Plato and the Supreme Court
Aug. 10, 2023

Read Melissa Lane's timely article, Plato the constitutionalist—and the Supreme Court published on the Ideas blog of Princeton University Press. Melissa Lane is…

Remembering Harry Frankfurt
July 20, 2023

It is with fond remembrance that members of the UCHV community mourn the passing of Harry Frankfurt, Department of Philosophy Professor Emeritus whose distinguished tenure at Princeton University spanned 12 years until his retirement in 2002. He died at the age of 94 in Santa…

Acceptance speech by Peter Singer for the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Humanities
June 26, 2023

Peter Singer's acceptance speech at the BBVA Foundation's Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in  Bilbao, Spain on June 20.

Professor Melissa Lane to deliver a public lecture series at Gresham College
June 26, 2023

Melissa Lane will deliver a public lectures series at Gresham College with the overall title "Reimagining Politics: Ideas, Selves, Futures."

Announcing UCHV's Visiting Professors for Distinguished Teaching and Fellows in Law, Ethics, and Public Policy for 2023-2024
June 9, 2023

It is a delight to introduce UCHV’s Visiting Professors for Distinguished Teaching and Fellows in Law, Ethics, and Public Policy who have been appointed for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Visiting Professors for Distinguished Teaching

Marion Fourcade, University of California, Berkeley

Sandra Bermann and Princeton students study the poetry and life of René Char
June 8, 2023

In the spring semester, Sandra Bermann, Cotsen Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Comparative Literature, and Director of the Program in Values and Public Life, led the course "Poetry and War: Translating the Untranslatable" which focused on poet and French Resistance leader,…

Erika Kiss presents a film installation at the Venice Biennale
June 8, 2023

Erika Kiss, Director of the University Center for Human Values Research Film  Studio and Lecturer of Comparative Literature and European Cultural Studies, is presenting a film installation at the Time, Space,…

Evgeny Roshchin on Voices podcast
June 6, 2023

UCHV research scholar, Evgeny Roshchin, was interviewed on the podcast series Voices hosted by the European International Studies Association. Episode 17 "What is...Friendship in International Politics?" features Roshchin in conversation with

Kwame Anthony Appiah delivers Baccalaureate remarks to Princeton's Class of 2023
May 31, 2023

On May 28, Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York University Professor of Philosophy and Law, and Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Emeritus, addressed Princeton University's Class of 2023 at their Baccalaureate service. &nbsp…

UCHV Short Movie Prize winner is Ethan Luk ’24 and honorable mention to Lola Constantino’23 and Azi Jones ‘25
May 25, 2023

The University Center for Human Values is pleased to share the exciting news that the winner of the 2023 UCHV Short Movie Prize is Ethan Luk for his film "Gathering". Honorable mentions were awarded to Lola Constantino for “wish for a good life” and Azi Jones for “Lessons in Exile".  Follow the links below to watch their movies.

New book by Melissa Lane featured on the Humanities Council Faculty Bookshelf
May 25, 2023

The book, “Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political” written by Melissa Lane, Director of the University Center for Human Values and Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, is the focus…

Peter Singer publishes "Animal Liberation Now" and tours 4 U.S. cities
May 25, 2023

"Animal Liberation Now," a new book by Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values was published on May 23. The…

Harvard announces Eric Beerbohm as next director of Ethics Center
May 16, 2023

Eric Beerbohm*08, professor of government and faculty affiliate in the Department of Philosophy, Harvard University, and UCHV Advisory Council member, has been appointed as Director of Harvard’s…

Sandra Bermann receives an Old Dominion Professorship
May 11, 2023

UCHV is delighted to share that Sandra Bermann has been named an Old Dominion Professor for 2023-24.