News

Farewell 5 Ivy Lane
June 11, 2021

After more than two decades as home to various UCHV faculty, staff, visiting fellows and distinguished teachers, postdocs, sponsored courses and precepts, weekly Human Values Forums and special events like the famed presidential debate viewing parties, the University Center for Human Values is leaving 5 Ivy Lane.

Values and Public Life students earn top awards
May 25, 2021

The University Center for Human Values is pleased to celebrate the outstanding achievements of three members of the Class of 2021 Values and Public Life (VPL) certificate program.

Kelton Chastulik received the Allen Macy Dulles ’51 Award, the highest…

Philip Pettit gives Julius Stone Address 2021
May 24, 2021

Philip Pettit, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor in the University Center for Human Values, delivered the Julius Stone Address 2021earlier this month – and in person – at the University of Sydney Law School. The lecture was canceled last spring due to the pandemic.  

In “Can the People be…

Jan-Werner Mueller opines on decaying US ‘civic infrastructure’ and global threats to press freedom
May 21, 2021

Amid the Biden Administration’s push for an infrastructure bill that expands the traditional concept of infrastructure, Professor of Politics Jan-Werner Mueller writes in The Guardian that the Biden plan should go a step further and address the nation’s decaying ‘civic infrastructure.’ Read

Peter Singer in The New Yorker
May 20, 2021

Following the launch of his Journal of Controversial Ideas late last month, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values Peter Singer was the subject of The New Yorker Interview that week. The in-depth conversation covered…

Short Movie Prize Winner is Noa Wollstein ‘21
May 6, 2021

The University Center for Human Values is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2021 UCHV Short Movie Prize is Noa Wollstein for “Wednesday at Elizabeth."  View the film here and read an interview with Noa Wollstein here.


 

Kim Scheppele in The New York Times on Orbán government takeover of universities
May 3, 2021

Last week, the Hungarian Parliament voted to transfer the control and assets of 11 state universities to foundations run by allies of President Viktor Orbán.  

In reporting on that historic vote and what it may portend for the future of academic and research autonomy at those universities and the extended dominance of the Orbán regime…

The University Center for Human Values' Graduate Prize Fellows for 2021-22
April 29, 2021

Colin Bradley is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy. His research explores the role that private moral convictions should play in public institutions. His dissertation argues that public institutions, including but not limited to the state and the law, are necessary in order to develop the content of…

Peter Singer launches Journal of Controversial Ideas
April 28, 2021
No stranger to controversy, Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values, has just launched the Journal of Controversial Ideas with fellow philosophers Jeff McMahan and Francesca Minerva.
Renee Bolinger receives ACLS Fellowship
April 26, 2021

Assistant Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values Renee Bolinger has been awarded a 2021 American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)…

Peter Singer’s “The Golden Ass” edition published
April 23, 2021

Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values, is bringing a new version of one of the oldest known novels, Apuleius’ “The Golden Ass,” to a wider reading audience.

Published by Liveright, a subsidiary of W. W. Norton & Company, Singer’s edition of…

Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion receives John Templeton Foundation grant
April 22, 2021

The Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion (PPPR) has been awarded a $234,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation for the project: “Building Collaborative Research Networks Across the Islamic Scholarly Tradition and Western Philosophy.” The project will focus on developing connections across…

Kim Scheppele in conversation with Ambassador (ret.) Marie Yovanovitch '80
April 14, 2021

Former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch became a household name during the first impeachment and Senate trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump. In a frank, one-hour conversation with Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of…

Announcing our Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellows for 2021-22!
April 14, 2021
Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellows 2021-22

Elizabeth Cohen, Syracuse University (Spring 2022)
Elizabeth F. Cohen is Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University and Associate Editor of the American Journal of Political Science. She is the author of four books: Illegal: How America’s Lawless Immigration Regime…

UCHV brings PEA Soup to Princeton
April 12, 2021

The University Center for Human Values is pleased to announce that PEA Soup, a blog that has been providing a forum for discussing philosophy, ethics, and academia since 2004, has a new home.  The blog will now be hosted by Princeton University through our departmental cPanel service, a small-scale…

Peter Singer on expanding the right to die
April 12, 2021

As a growing number of countries pass legislation permitting or regulating physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics Peter Singer’s latest Project Syndicate op-ed shines a spotlight on Canada...

Jan-Werner Mueller gives annual Bismarck Foundation Lecture
April 8, 2021

Professor of Politics Jan-Werner Mueller presented the annual Otto von Bismarck Foundation lecture on March 31st.   In “Conflict and Cohesion in Contemporary Democracies,” Mueller reminded the audience that the term ‘culture war’ had originated in Bismarck’s time – as a result of the Iron Chancellor’s…

VPDT Christia Mercer pens NY Daily News op-ed
April 2, 2021

The New York Daily News recently published an op-ed by Christia Mercer, the Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and UCHV Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching (2020-2021).  The op-ed is about Mercer's

Elizabeth Harman on lying to get COVID-19 vaccine
March 15, 2021

GQ magazine asked Elizabeth Harman, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, if it’s okay for you to lie to get the vaccine. She said that lying to get the vaccine is not okay — and it’s an affront to all of us, not just to those prioritized ahead of…

Erika Kiss teaches timely new film course
March 12, 2021

The course "Cinema in Times of Pandemic" was created by Erika Kiss, founding director of the UCHV Film Forum and a lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program in European Cultural Studies, to analyze COVID’s impact on the film industry…

Peter Singer: “When Vaccination is a Crime”
March 11, 2021
In his recent Project Syndicate op-ed, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics Peter Singer reflects on the Harris County Texas COVID-19 response team medical director who lost his job and faces criminal charges because he chose to find eligible recipients for ten unused vaccine doses rather than allow them to expire. 
Melissa Lane delivers Old Dominion lecture
March 11, 2021

In the second of the Humanities Council’s 2020-2021 Old Dominion lecture series, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Director of the University Center for Human Values and Old Dominion Research Professor Melissa Lane presented a talk on her current research project “Lycurgus, Solon, Charondas…Figuring the Legislator in Platonic Political Thought and its Aftermath.”

UCHV welcomes new joint faculty member
Feb. 23, 2021

Edward Baring, associate professor of history and the University Center for Human Values, joined the faculty this winter from Drew University where he taught for ten years.  A historian of modern Europe, he is currently teaching the undergraduate course “European Intellectual History in the Twentieth…

Elizabeth Harman kicks off the 2020-2021 Old Dominion series
Feb. 19, 2021

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values and Old Dominion Research Professor Elizabeth Harman gave the first of the Humanities Council’s 2020-2021 Old Dominion Lectures on February 11, with the timely talk “Racist research: What does respect for researchers require? What should academic freedom allow?”

Melissa Lane: Why Donald Trump was the ultimate anarchist
Feb. 9, 2021

In a recently published article for the New Statesman, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics and Director of the University Center for Human Values Melissa Lane suggests that Trump not only incited violent anarchy at the Capitol Building on January 6, he personified what an ancient Greek observer would have called “anarchia” during his entire term.

Stephen Macedo co-writes blog post for The Constitutionalist
Feb. 3, 2021

Read the blog post co-written by Stephen Macedo, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values and Interim Director of the Program in Values and Public Life, 2020-2021, for the new website The Constitutionalist

Kim Scheppele on the aftermath of the election
Feb. 2, 2021

 

 

In the aftermath of the US election, Kim Lane Scheppele’s expertise on authoritarian regimes and failing democracies has been sought by news outlets and academic forums worldwide.

 

The Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and…

Eric Gregory on President Biden’s Augustine reference
Feb. 2, 2021

Professor of Religion and Chair of the Humanities Council Eric Gregory explains the use of Augustine in the inaugural address of the nation’s second Catholic president in The New York Times article “In Biden’s Catholic Faith, An…

In case you missed it: a look back at the 2020 Moffett Lecture
Feb. 1, 2021

Many of us – at least in the pre-pandemic era – spent a third of our daily lives, or half of our waking hours, in what we consider to be work.  If we were lucky, our work not only provided us with a source of income but was a source of many other things including relationships, significance, esteem, self-esteem, and even identity. Then the…

Ethical challenges of vaccine distribution
Jan. 13, 2021
Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values, was one of five...
Jan-Werner Mueller on last week’s violence at the U.S. Capitol
Jan. 13, 2021

In two separate op-eds, Professor of Politics Jan-Werner Mueller discusses the right to rowdy protests, the line crossed by Trump supporters last week and the need to punish the President for his role in inciting an insurrection.

While calling for Trump to be impeached, removed from office and banned from politics for life in his…

Melissa Lane at Festival del Classico
Jan. 13, 2021

Drawing on her award-winning book, Eco-Republic, in which she reflects on the ethics and politics of sustainability, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics and Director of the University Center for Human Values Melissa Lane addressed the question “Is an ecological republic possible today?” at the virtual…

The empowering influence of Peter Singer's book "The Life You Can Save"
Dec. 14, 2020

Kelsey Piper, a staff writer for the Vox, discusses reading Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can Save and how effective altruism has helped her during the pandemic in her article “The world’s problems overwhelmed me. This book…

Jan-Werner Mueller's Op-Ed "Merkel's Last Chance"
Dec. 10, 2020

Professor of Politics Jan-Werner Mueller's Op-Ed in Project Syndicate, "Merkel's Last Chance," discusses Europe's "rule-of-law" crisis and its effects on the EU.

"Giving with the Heart and the Head" A Project Syndicate Op-Ed by Peter Singer
Dec. 10, 2020

In his recent Op-Ed, Peter Singer explores the psychology of giving. To read the full piece, click here.

Interview with Melissa Lane on “Solitude and Social Distancing”
Nov. 24, 2020

Melissa Lane, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics and the Director of the University Center for Human Values, was interviewed for the Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry's podcast, "The Human Context" a series offering humanistic perspectives on the pandemic. The episode is titled “

Kian Mintz-Woo publishes piece in the journal "Climate Policy"
Nov. 16, 2020

Former Postdoctoral Research Associate Kian Mintz-Woo has published a piece in the journal "Climate Policy". Together with colleagues, he argues that during the COVID-19 pandemic is the best time to introduce or strengthen carbon pricing policies. This work is…

UCHV faculty and affiliated faculty weigh in on the outcome of the U.S. election
Nov. 9, 2020

Jan-Werner Mueller, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Politics of Politics, on accountability, truthful recording of history, and the Trump Administration in his op-ed in Project Syndicate, “

Peter Singer publishes book on eating ethically
Oct. 22, 2020

Peter Singer's book Why Vegan?  has now been published by Penguin in the UK and Norton in the US. 

A Q&A with Peter Singer about the book is available

Peter Singer's op-ed in Project Syndicate about COVID-19 lockdowns
Oct. 22, 2020

In his Project Syndicate op-ed, "To Lock Down or Not to Lock Down", Professor Peter Singer assesses the costs and benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Eric Gregory quoted in The New York Times article
Oct. 22, 2020

Eric Gregory, Professor of Religion, is quoted in the New York Times article, "Biden and Trump Say They're Fighting for America's 'Soul.'  What Does That Mean?"

Former UCHV postdoc Annette Zimmermann wins award for Boston Review Essay
Oct. 12, 2020

The essay, “Technology Alone Can’t Fix Algorithmic Injustice”, co-authored with Princeton doctoral students Elena Di Rosa (Philosophy) and Hochan “Sonny” Kim (Politics) won The Hastings Center's 2020 David…

Andrew Chignell elected President of the North American Kant Society
Oct. 9, 2020

Andrew Chignell, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Religion and the University Center for Human Values, has been elected as President of the North American Kant Society. He will serve for three years.

Elizabeth Harman answers pandemic ethics questions in Princeton Alumni Weekly
Oct. 7, 2020

Elizabeth Harman answers Princeton Alumni Weekly readers' questions about pandemic ethics in "Tiger Ethics: How to Pick a Schooling Option This Fall."

Jan-Werner Mueller to give the Barbara Harrell-Bond Lecture at Oxford University’s Center for Refugee Studies
Sept. 29, 2020

On November 18, Jan-Werner Mueller will give the Barbara Harrell-Bond Lecture at Oxford University’s Center for Refugee Studies. He will lecture on “Democracy versus Right-Wing Populism.”