About Us
About the Center
In a time of rising polarization, rapid technological change, and renewed threats to democratic institutions, ethical questions are more pressing, and more complex, than ever.
Leaders across government, business, and other fields continue to face profound moral challenges. Yet today’s ethical dilemmas are shaped not only by personal character, but by the accelerating complexity of public life, the widening scope of professional responsibility, and the need to navigate disagreement in increasingly diverse societies.
The Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics responds to these challenges by preparing teachers, scholars, and public leaders to confront moral questions in real-world contexts. We are committed to bridging theory and practice, linking academic research with urgent problems in public life—from the design of just institutions to the ethical impact of emerging technologies, and the norms of civil discourse that sustain democratic communities.
Our work spans disciplines and professions, and we pay particular attention to the structures—social, political, legal, economic—that shape ethical choices. We also seek to foster the habits of open inquiry and reasoned disagreement that are essential to democratic life, and to help citizens and institutions alike make decisions with integrity in a deeply interconnected world.
Ethics at Harvard
Since our founding in 1986, the Center's accomplishments have multiplied exponentially, but so have the complexities of modern life. As the need for leaders who can make sound moral judgments in public and professional life increases, the wisdom of establishing a Center with the mission of promoting ethics teaching and research is more apparent today than ever.
In 1986, when President Derek Bok persuaded Dennis F. Thompson to come to Harvard, the serious study of practical ethics at colleges and universities was rare. In his much-cited 1976 article "Can Ethics Be Taught?" Bok had argued for the urgent need for “problem-oriented courses in ethics” that would prepare students for the moral dilemmas and ethical decisions they would face throughout their careers. He asked Thompson to create a program at Harvard that would address this gap by developing teachers and scholars who could design such courses and become leaders in the study of practical and professional ethics.
Under Thompson’s leadership, the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics—originally established as the Program for Ethics and the Professions—pioneered efforts to bridge the gap between philosophical ethics and the practical demands of professional life. At the time, Harvard, like many institutions, had few courses and even fewer faculty devoted to ethics across disciplines. Moral philosophers often lacked real-world experience, while professionals in medicine, law, business, and government had little formal training in ethics. Thompson worked to overcome both intellectual and institutional barriers, building a robust interfaculty initiative with early support from respected faculty such as Michael Sandel, Martha Minow, and Amartya Sen, and with guidance from senior fellows including John Rawls and Judith Shklar.
By the end of its second year, the Program had gained recognition as Harvard’s first major interfaculty initiative, secured substantial support for curriculum development, and welcomed its inaugural class of Faculty Fellows: Arthur I. Applbaum, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Robert Kinloch Massie, Jr., and Robert Eli Rosen. With continuing support from Harvard presidents Derek Bok, Neil Rudenstine, and Lawrence Summers, the Program grew into a Center, now permanently endowed as a result of gifts from the Edmond J. Safra Foundation and the estate of Lester Kissel. Over more than two decades, the Center offered fellowships, public lectures, workshops, and conferences that brought together scholars and practitioners to examine the moral foundations of public life. As Derek Bok later noted, the Center played a central role in the growing commitment across the professions to address ethical challenges—ultimately exceeding even his "optimistic expectations."
In 2009, with a mandate to broaden the Center’s scope and impact, Director Lawrence Lessig launched the Edmond J. Safra Research Lab, a major initiative focused on addressing the ethical challenges posed by institutional corruption. The Lab was conceived as a five-year project aimed at generating practical insights and tools that could strengthen the integrity of institutions across government, industry, and civil society. To realize this vision, the Center welcomed scholars and researchers from a wide range of disciplines and professional backgrounds, deepening its commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration.
Through a robust fellowship program, the Lab supported a diverse community of scholars whose work combined theoretical inquiry with empirical research. Together, they studied a wide array of institutions with the goal of identifying patterns of corruption and developing concrete strategies for reform. A hallmark of the Lab’s work was its emphasis on collaborative research that bridged academic disciplines and practical domains.
The project concluded in 2014–15 with a two-day Ending Institutional Corruption conference held on May 1 and 2, 2015. In the lead-up to the event, the Center also hosted a hackathon on March 28 and 29, 2015, designed to catalyze innovative responses to institutional integrity challenges.
In 2015, Danielle Allen assumed the role of Director with a focus on advancing conversations around the most pressing and complex ethical issues of the time—ranging from personal and professional ethics to civic life and public policy. Under her leadership, the Center deepened its commitment to fostering dialogue about the fundamental question of how we should live, both individually and collectively.
A defining feature of this period was the development of the Center’s Strategic Impact Initiatives—interdisciplinary collaborations designed to generate integrated, high-impact policy solutions. These included long-term efforts such as the Democratic Knowledge Project, which delivered civic education curricular resources to public schools across Massachusetts, as well as short-term Rapid Response Impact Initiatives, like the Center’s four-month COVID-19 Response Initiative, which helped inform national strategies on testing, contact tracing, and isolation. This work eventually evolved into the Justice, Health, and Democracy Impact Initiative, a broader project focused on advancing health equity, democratic governance, and pandemic preparedness through integrated policy frameworks that connected public health with the foundations of civic trust.
The Center continued to play a central role in the broader ethics movement at Harvard and beyond, elevating the place of ethics within research and curricula across the University. Particularly through its Design Studio, it served as a forum for cross-faculty communication and collaboration, helping professional schools develop their own ethics courses, centers, and scholarly communities. More than twenty Center fellows secured teaching appointments at Harvard, further extending the Center’s influence within the institution.
Throughout Allen’s tenure, the Center remained committed not only to producing groundbreaking research but also to disseminating it widely, engaging public audiences, and translating academic insights into real-world impact. Faculty affiliates and fellows were encouraged to launch their own initiatives, supported by Center-hosted one-day workshops, multi-stage gatherings, and university-wide conferences that brought ethics into conversation with emerging challenges across disciplines.
The Center also sustained its long-standing role as a catalyst for the ethics movement in higher education more broadly. It provided guidance to emerging ethics centers across the country and helped found the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics—the first national organization for ethics educators and scholars across fields. Fellows of the Center went on to teach ethics at more than 80 colleges and universities in the United States and internationally. These accomplishments were made possible by the generous support of individuals and institutions committed to advancing the Center’s mission.
Learn more about the Design Studio for Civics & Ethics Pedagogy.
In 2023, Eric Beerbohm became the fourth Director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, marking a new chapter in the Center’s evolution. His leadership has reaffirmed the Center’s core commitments—supporting rigorous ethical scholarship, cultivating democratic citizenship, and engaging the public—while extending its reach into pressing contemporary challenges.
The Center’s fellowship programs continue to anchor its intellectual community, bringing together undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty from across disciplines to pursue research on urgent ethical questions. In 2024, the Center introduced the Fellows in Values Engagement program, an initiative that partners with proctors and tutors in Harvard College’s residential Houses. Working in the heart of the undergraduate community, these fellows help integrate ethics into daily life, encourage discussion across differences, and promote reflection on how personal values shape civic and interpersonal relationships.
During this period, the Center deepened its long-standing commitment to civil discourse, energized by new institutional support through the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Dean’s Civil Discourse Initiative. In his concurrent role as FAS Special Adviser for Civil Discourse, Beerbohm has helped lead a university-wide strategy to foster open inquiry and respectful dialogue. The Center now supports a broad range of efforts in this area, including research into the conditions that shape public discourse; training and resources for teaching fellows and faculty; and a robust calendar of public events and student-focused programming that model constructive engagement with difficult topics.
The Center also continues to advance inquiry across a broad spectrum of ethical concerns, maintaining its dedication to both theoretical depth and real-world relevance. Areas of focus include business ethics and the responsibilities of corporate leadership; the ethics of emerging technologies—particularly artificial intelligence and its implications for governance and human agency; and the evolving demands of democratic life, including polarization, trust, and civic renewal. Through fellowships, public events, and collaborative research, the Center remains a forum for addressing the moral questions that shape society.
Under Beerbohm’s direction, the Center continues to be where ethics meets the world—supporting scholars and practitioners committed to navigating the complexities of public life with integrity, imagination, and democratic purpose.