News

Philip Pettit delivers Einstein Lectures
Nov. 4, 2021

The Einstein Lectures 2021 held at the University of Bern in October were given by Philip Pettit, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor in the University Center for Human Values.“The Social Nature of Our Mental Life” was the theme…

Visiting Fellow Gavin Sullivan co-authors Just Security op-ed on Security Watchlisting
Nov. 2, 2021

Gavin Sullivan, visiting fellow at the University Center for Human Values, 2021-2022, and Reader in International Human Rights Law at Edinburgh Law School co-authored the op-ed, “Watchlisting the World: Digital Security Infrastructures, Informal Law, and the ‘Global War on Terror’” in…

Melissa Lane and social contract theory on Future Hindsight podcast
Oct. 27, 2021

Melissa Lane, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics and Director of the University Center for Human Values is featured in the October 21 Future Hindsight podcast episode, “The Social Contract-History of a Big Idea: Melissa Lane.”

Philip Pettit delivers address on Republican Democracy
Oct. 27, 2021
Philip Pettit, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor in the University Center for Human Values delivered the Wilson H. Elkins Lecture at the University of Baltimore School of Law in early October.
Elizabeth Cohen published in the Washington Post
Oct. 14, 2021

The work of Elizabeth Cohen, Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow (Spring 2022), and Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University, is featured in the September 30 edition of the Washington Post. Her article is…

The UCHV community mourns the loss of Albert Raboteau
Sept. 23, 2021

The University Center for Human Values joins the wider university community in mourning the death, and celebrating the life, of Albert Raboteau, the Henry W. Putnam…

Jan-Werner Mueller in The Guardian
Sept. 22, 2021

Jan-Werner Mueller, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Politics, writes about the emerging authoritarian-populist art of governance in the September issue of The Guardian.

Victoria McGeer delivers keynote lecture on moral responsibility
Sept. 15, 2021

Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer at the University Center for Human Values Victoria McGeer addressed an entirely online audience when she gave a keynote talk at the…

Peter Singer awarded Berggruen Prize
Sept. 9, 2021

Peter Singer, Ira W. De Camp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values, is the recipient of the 2021 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. He received this award for his “widely influential and intellectually rigorous work in reinvigorating utilitarianism as part of academic philosophy and as a force for change in the world.”

Peter Singer co-edits new edition of Mill’s “Utilitarianism”
Aug. 19, 2021

In a new critical edition of John Stuart Mill's "Utilitarianism" to be published by Norton & Company as part of its Library Collection,  co-editors  Peter Singer , the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values, and utilitarian philosopher Katarzyna de…

Kim Scheppele on Viktor Orbán in The New Yorker
Aug. 17, 2021

Following Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s recent visit to Hungary, where he praised Viktor Orbán as “someone the West could learn from,” The New Yorker turned to Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values Kim Scheppele for her…

Former LSR Fellow Jennifer Morton’s book is this summer’s Princeton Pre-read
July 30, 2021

Members of the incoming Class of 2025 have received a copy of “Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility” by Jennifer Morton, a book Morton says she worked on while serving as a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow in University Center for Human Values (2015–2016).

UCHV welcomes Emily Greenwood
July 21, 2021

This month the University Center for Human Values welcomes our newest joint faculty member, Emily Greenwood.  Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Classics and the University Center for Human Values, Greenwood comes to Princeton from Yale University where she was the John M. Musser Professor of Classics and…

Jan-Werner Mueller in The New Yorker and The New York Times
July 14, 2021

Following the release of his latest book, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Politics Jan-Werner Mueller was interviewed by The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner about his conception of populism and his take on threats to democracy today, and “Democracy…

CEU’s Democracy Institute to hold roundtable on Jan-Werner Mueller’s new book
July 7, 2021

On Thursday, July 8th, The Democracy Institute of Central European University will host a book discussion on Jan-Werner Mueller’s new book "Democracy Rules."

Joining Mueller in the roundtable discussion, which will be moderated by Zsolt…

Andrew Chignell and the meaning of hope on “Naked Reflections” podcast
June 30, 2021

Andrew Chignell, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Religion and the University Center for Human Values, and social psychologist Kitty O’Lone, currently a research fellow at the Woolf Institute (Cambridge), explore the concepts of hope and optimism with Dr. Edward Kessler MBE, Founder…

Philip Pettit answers "Five Questions"
June 30, 2021

Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of the University Center for Human Values Philip Pettit describes himself as a philosophical generalist as he answers five questions about himself (and more) posed by M.I.T. Philosophy Professor and Princeton graduate Kieran Setiya (*02) in the second season of…

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…