News

Andrew Chignell to join Princeton Faculty on January 1, 2018
Nov. 20, 2017
Princeton University is proud to announce that Andrew Chignell will join the faculty on January 1, 2018, as a Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor, teaching in Religion and Philosophy, and directing a Project in Philosophy and Religion in the University Center for Human Values.
Princeton and Humboldt Faculty and Graduate Students Convene To Discuss The Rise of Authoritarian Constitutionalism
Nov. 8, 2017
A recent two-day workshop convened by Jan-Werner Mueller, professor of politics at Princeton University, and Silvia von Steinsdorff, professor of social sciences at Humboldt University, offered faculty and graduate students the opportunity to develop a clearer conceptual understanding of authoritarian constitutionalism.
UCHV Director Melissa Lane To Give Three Named Lectures in Coming Weeks
Oct. 23, 2017

This week Professor Lane is giving Wesleyan’s annual Philip Hallie Lecture (previously given by Pulitzer Prize winner Saul Friedlander and others).

Next week Lane is giving two other named lectures:

Jan-Werner Mueller Will Deliver Tanner Lectures on Human Values in Cambridge This Fall
Oct. 16, 2017
His two lectures, “Designing for Democracy: Architecture, Public Space, and the Ideal of Collective Self-Determination,” will take place November 15th and 16th.
A Conversation with John A. Hall, Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching
Oct. 16, 2017

John A. Hall is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching. Hall comes to the University Center for Human Values (UCHV) from McGill University in Montreal, where he is the James McGill Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology.

As a comparative historical sociologist, Hall has always worked on social…

In Conversation With LSR Visiting Faculty Fellow Stephanie Beardman
Sept. 29, 2017
Stephanie Beardman is a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow who specializes in metaethics and moral psychology. She sat down with UCHV to share more about her work and experiences as a scholar.
Climate Change Panel takes on tipping points
Sept. 28, 2017

The September 25 Climate Futures Initiative panel discussion, Theorizing Tipping Points in the Context of Climate Change, was featured in The Daily Princetonian.

University Center for Human Values Annual Report 2016-17
Sept. 15, 2017
Just released: highlights of our past year at the Center.
Einstein Ethics Group to Hold Workshop on Johann Frick's Work: "Contractualism, Risk, and Population Ethics"
Sept. 7, 2017

The Einstein Ethics Group in Berlin, led by Professor R. Jay Wallace (Berkeley) will be holding a two-day workshop on Professor Johann Frick's work in Berlin, October 6-7. The title of the workshop is "Contractualism, Risk, and Population Ethics". View the announcement

On Migration: Stephen Macedo and Sandra Bermann Discuss Its Interdisciplinary Nature
Aug. 23, 2017

University Center for Human Values Faculty member Stephen Macedo and UCHV Executive Committee member Sandra Bermann held a coffee conversation on migration issues. Having met with colleagues from across campus, Bermann noted how…

In BBC Radio’s “Decoding the News,” Aditya Chakrabortty Investigates Populism
July 28, 2017

Chakrabortty speaks with experts, including Princeton's Jan-Werner Mueller, on the origin and impact of populism; Mueller wrote "What is Populism?" - Princeton's Pre-Read for 2017-18.

Click here for the show.

"How Populists Win When They Lose" by Mueller in Project Syndicate
June 15, 2017

Read Professor Mueller's latest opinion piece on populism in Project Syndicate here .

Philip Pettit Awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)
June 12, 2017
Professor Philip Pettit has been made a Companion to the Order of Australia for eminent service to philosophy through contributions to moral and political theory, as a distinguished academic, and as a leader of public debate on social, economic, and environmental issues.
Mueller Writes on Theresa May and "Denationalization" in Project Syndicate
June 9, 2017

In his Project Syndicate Opinion piece titled "Theresa May's Other Citizens of Nowhere," Mueller explores British Prime Minister Theresa May's actions in "stripping British citizens" of political and economic…

Peter Singer on Trump's Withdrawal from Paris Accord
June 5, 2017

Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics and the University Center of Human Values, weighs in on Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement in an opinion piece titled: "Is the Paris Accord Unfair to America?"

Mueller reviews Guy Verhofstadt's book in "The London Review of Books"
May 24, 2017
In "Constitutional Fantasy" Jan-Werner Mueller reviews "Europe's Last Chance: Why the European States Must Form a More Perfect Union" by Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister and one-time candidate for president of the European Commission.
Mueller on Implications of Potential Closure of the Central European University in the New York Review of Books
May 22, 2017
Professor of Politics, Jan-Werner Mueller discusses the implications to liberal democracy resulting from the new law that has the potential to close the Central European University (CEU), founded and endowed by George Soros in the article: "Hungary: The War on Education."
UCHV Publication Just Released: "Private Government" by Elizabeth Anderson
May 12, 2017

"Private Government" is published by the Princeton University Press and based on the 2015 Tanner Lectures on Human Values held at Princeton.

Elizabeth Anderson's Tanner Lectures on Human Values were on: "Liberty, Equality, and Private Government."

Three UCHV Graduate Prize Fellows Awarded the Kateb Preceptor Award
May 11, 2017

John Dilulio, Gabrielle Girgis, and David Zuluaga Martinez were among the five winners of the Kateb Preceptor Award. The other two winners were Sharan Grewal and Asya Magazinnik.

John is a fifth year graduate student in Politics and a UCHV 2016-17 Graduate Prize Fellow (GPF).

UCHV Announces 2017-18 Graduate Prize Fellows
May 1, 2017
The University Center for Human Values is pleased to announce the award of the Laurance S. Rockefeller 2017-18 Graduate Prize Fellowships to ten advanced graduate students who are working on interdisciplinary dissertations in the area of ethics and human values.
Comparative Literature Graduate Students Earn UCHV-Related Teaching Awards
April 27, 2017

Comparative Literature Graduate Students Matthew Spellberg and Elise Wang celebrated for innovation and excellence in teaching CHV 375: "Clues, Evidence, Detection: Law Stories" led by Professor Peter Brooks, Comparative Literature and UCHV
 

Spellberg, a sixth-year Ph.D. student in comparative literature,…

President Eisgruber Selects Jan-Werner Müller's Book for Pre-Read
April 27, 2017

Last November, UCHV held a book talk on What is Populism, Professor Jan-Werner Müller's timely book released in September 2016. 

Princeton recently announced that President Eisgruber selected it for the Class of 2021 pre-read.

Jan-Werner Müller is Professor of Politics and he sits on…

VPL Senior Nabil Shaikh Integrates his Departmental and Certificate Program Studies to Examine Ethical and Political Dimensions of End-of-Life Care.
April 27, 2017
Shaikh senior thesis was advised by UCHV Director and Class of 1943 Professor of Politics Melissa Lane.
Two Former VPL Students Awarded Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
April 19, 2017

The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships For New Americans announced the class of 2017 recipients , with two members of the first and third VPL class respectively, Shivani Radhakrishnan and Mariana Olaizola, among them.

About the Fellowship
The 30 new Fellows are…

Jan-Werner Mueller and Former Italian Prime Minister To Discuss Populism at Milan Book Fair
April 18, 2017

Former Italian prime minister Mario Monti and Jan-Werner Mueller will debate populism on Friday, April 21 at the Milan Book fair.

Viktor Orban is Europe's enemy within: Jan-Werner Mueller in the Financial Times, April 11, 2017
April 11, 2017

There is more speculation than ever about a possible “end of the EU”. It might come with a bang — think of the sudden implosion that many feared at the height of the crisis in the eurozone — or with a whimper, as countries follow Britain in leaving voluntarily. But the EU could also be hollowed out from within. This scenario has nothing to do…

Princeton's Singer and Rutgers' McMahan React in NY Times on Anna Stubblefield Case
April 7, 2017

Peter Singer and Jeff McMahan comment on the case of Anna Stubblefield, a former Rutgers ethics professor, convicted of aggravated sexual assault for relations with a cognitively impaired man with cerebral palsy.  

"We have met Stubblefield only once, nearly a decade ago, at a conference on cognitive disability and moral philosophy…

UCHV Announces 2017-18 Visiting Fellows
April 6, 2017
The University Center for Human Values is excited to announce our Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professors for Distinguished Teaching and Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellows for the 2017-18 academic year.
NY Times' Kristof Cites Peter Singer in "Hail to the Humanities" Op-Ed
April 3, 2017

In March 30th editorial, Nicholas Kristof discusses the importance of the humanities, in light of the President's plan to eliminate all funding for the National Endowment of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

He specifically cites Peter Singer's influence on the humanities…

Pettit publishes OpEd in "The Irish Times" on Ireland's Border Problem Resulting from Brexit
March 27, 2017

Philip Pettit proposes a "shared-space" model to address the problem of Brexit on both sides of the Irish border in this opinion piece.

Philip Pettit is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and…

Values and Public Life Alumni Spotlight: Eleanor Roberts ‘15
March 27, 2017

With a politics degree and Values and Public Life (VPL) certificate in hand, Eleanor Roberts graduated from Princeton in 2015 and headed to Cambridge, Massachusetts to develop a local branch of the Petey Greene Program. Founded in New…

Former UCHV Graduate Prize Fellow, Adam Lerner, Awarded Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship
March 20, 2017

Adam Lerner, a philosophy graduate student and former Graduate Prize Fellow (2015-16), is one of four recipients of the Jacobus Fellowship, which is Princeton University's top honor for graduate students.

Read University homepage story here

Melissa Lane Publishes Essay in "Aeon" on the Role of Bureaucracy
March 17, 2017

Lane on "Why bureaucrats matter in the fight to preserve the rule of law" in Aeon, "a unique digital magazine, publishing some of the most profound and provocative thinking on the web."

 

Mueller and Kiss Will Participate in Important Danish Film Festival, CPH:DOX
March 16, 2017

UCHV Film Forum Founding Director Erika A. Kiss and UCHV History of Political Thought Project Founding Director and Professor of Politics Jan-Werner Mueller will speak at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, one of the world's biggest documentary film festivals. CPH:DOX distinguished itself as an industry event, as well as a "Central meeting place and an…

Conversation Between Melissa Lane and Victoria Preston of the Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (Riga, Latvia)
March 13, 2017

Lane and Preston discuss the challenges to strategic communications following Brexit; the conversation can be found here.

UCHV Co-sponsored "Community Organizing" Values and Praxis Lab During Princeton's Day of Action
March 9, 2017

The University Center for Human Values co-sponsored an event as part of a Campus Wide “Day of Action” – organized by the Princeton Advocates For Justice and Princeton Citizen Scientists – which brought together hundreds of members of the Princeton University campus community to discuss and reaffirm the responsibilities of a community devoted to…

Monique Wonderly: "Attached" to Questions at the Intersection of Philosophy and Psychology
Feb. 27, 2017
Up close with the Center's sixth Harold T. Shapiro Postdoctoral Research Associate in Bioethics on her interests, her Values and Public Life seminar, and a public event addressing the moral responsibility of psychopaths.
Wertheim Publishes "Washington Post" Story on Trump and Isolationism
Feb. 20, 2017

Stephen Wertheim's published article invokes research done while at UCHV as a postdoctoral research associate in 2015-2016; some of his research during his time at the Center traced the origins of the concepts of "Internationalism" and "isolationism" in American political discourse.  

Read the Washington Post story

Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics Peter Singer in conversation about his most recent book, philosophy, and teaching at Princeton
Feb. 16, 2017
"If you can contribute to showing people how it's possible to have reasoned discussion of ethical issues, I think it's a valuable thing to do. A lot of people think ethics is all just subjective, a matter of taste. They think you can't really say anything, therefore you might as well just abuse your opponents. I think there are other possibilities."
Values and Public Life Certificate Program - Applications Now Open for Class of 2019
Feb. 10, 2017

Are you interested in Ethics? Equality? Would you like to incorporate a critical perspective into your studies?

Three VPL Students Selected to WWS' Scholars in the Nations's Service Initiative
Feb. 8, 2017

Nabil Shaikh ('17), John 'Newby' Parton ('18), and Sarah Sakha ('18) have been selected for the 2017 Cohort of the Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative (SINSI) in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Shaikh was one of four…

Seeking Submissions for UCHV's 5th Annual Short Movie Prize: 2016-17 Theme is "Fanaticism"
Jan. 31, 2017
Interested in film? Consider submitting a digital video by February 24 for the Center's Short Movie Prize. Each year, the Center accepts videos that bear on a specific theme, which this year is "Fanatacism."