News & Events
Upcoming Events
Ethics In Real Life: Disagreement in the Age of AI
September 24, 2026
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5:00PM - 6:30PM EDT
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Smith Campus Center Commons
Inspired by the Ethics in America series aired on PBS in the 1980s, this event will convene a number of scholars, practitioners, and thought leaders in a Socratic-style conversation designed to foster thoughtful, spontaneous exchange rather than prepared...
Innovating Civil Discourse: An Instructional Design Hackathon
Oct. 2 - Oct 5, 2026
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1:00PM - 5:00PM EDT
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Dennis F. Thompson Seminar Room, Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics
How do we motivate people to use civil discourse skills in everyday life? How can we help people overcome the tendency to abandon civil discourse practices in a heated conversation, or to abandon the conversation altogether? This hackathon invites...
Mala and Solomon Kamm Lecture in Ethics with C. Thi Nguyen
October 22, 2026
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5:00PM - 6:30PM EDT
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Thompson Room, Barker Center
The Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics invites you to join us for our annual Mala & Solomon Kamm Lecture in Ethics with C. Thi Nguyen, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. The lecture is open to all. Registration is required for...
Sean Ono Lennon talks human empathy, AI with Center Fellow-in-Residence
As AI systems increasingly appear to demonstrate characteristics like friendship and empathy, how do human beings articulate what is valuable about our own, often flawed and limited, companionship? Two Harvard-affiliated researchers, including former...
Frances Kamm Elected President of American Philosophical Association Eastern Division
Longtime Edmond & Lily Safra Center affiliate Professor Frances Kamm has been elected President of the American Philosophical Association (APA), Eastern Division. We congratulate Professor Kamm on this well-deserved honor and are proud to celebrate her...
The Ethics of Extreme Wealth
The recent arrival of the world's first trillionaire has brought along a wide spectrum of ethical opinions on wealth. The Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics hosted an event in anticipation of this moment, inviting participants to wrestle with issues of...
Why It Matters That Some Are Worse Off Than Those Who Could Have Existed
Former Fellow-in-Residence Dr. David O'Brien has a new article in Utilitas titled " Why it Matters That Some are Worse Off Than Those Who Could Have Existed." The article examines egalitarianism and prioritarianism as they relate to a case raised by...
Gaming for Good: A One Day Instructional Design Hackathon
The pedagogy team at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics is always working to develop new tools, resources, activities, and lesson plans that apply active learning to teach ethics-related topics in an immersive and engaging way. This Spring, they...
Ethically Focused Summer Research
Each summer, a select group of Harvard College undergraduates are awarded Kissel Grants to support research and writing that contributes to the understanding of practical ethics. Their projects may involve research for senior theses, case studies for use...
Interloper or Interlocutor? Debating AI’s Impact on Social Interactions
Artificial intelligence has the potential to make us better people, providing expert-sourced guidance to help us through difficult conversations. But the technology can also generate suspicion, leading people to question the authenticity of these...
Announcing 2026 Fellows-in-Residence & Civil Discourse Fellows!
We are delighted to welcome our 2026-2027 Fellows-in-Residence and Civil Discourse Fellows! This group brings together exemplary scholars across philosophy, law, political science, and public policy to examine how communication, institutions, and...
Gina Schouten named 2026 Guggenheim Fellow
Congratulations to Gina Schouten, member of the Faculty Committee at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University, for being awarded a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship! A leading scholar in social and political...
Trusting AI with Ethical Questions? Not so Fast
Rule number one of Isaac Asimov’s “Three Rules of Robotics” states: A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm. A new study by Sarah Hubbard, David Kidd (our Chief Assessment Scientist), and Andrei Stupu...
Announcing 2026 Graduate Fellows!
Our six new graduate fellows come from as many academic backgrounds to pursue their PhDs – and one SJD! – here at Harvard. This new cohort brings expertise in philosophy and religion, political theory and law, and history and religion. Having an...
Harvard Ethics Bowl Team Finishes Top 8 Nationally
A relatively new team, formed at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a group of seven Harvard undergraduate students advanced to the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (APPE IEB) quarterfinals this...
Guarding Democracy in the Age of AI: When Everyone Has to Do Their Part
By Vija Kalniņa, PhD, Business AI Ethics Initiative Lead Researcher and Lily Noyes, Business AI Ethics Initiative Research Assistant Introduction As the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies continues to create seemingly endless...
New Article from Our Research Team on U.S. AI Policy and Law
We are pleased to announce that the article “The Tangled Path to Success: The U.S. AI Policy and Legal Frameworks,” authored by members of the Business AI Ethics Initiative team, was published on December 2, 2025, in Latvia’s largest legal journal Jurista...
Martha Minow Awarded 2025 Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Social Sciences and Technology
Congratulations to Harvard Law School's Martha Minow on her 2025 Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Social Sciences and Technology, a prize she shares with Professor Ulrike Felt of University of Vienna. Professor Minow is a Faculty Associate at the Edmond &...
Announcing 2026 Undergraduate Fellows!
We are extremely pleased to introduce our new cohort of Undergraduate Fellows ! This year brings an incredibly talented—and surprisingly musical—group to the Center. With a percussionist, members of the Harvard Glee Club and the Harvard Bach Society...
Faculty Associate Joshua Greene Named Inaugural Civil Discourse Professor
Joshua D. Greene, Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics Faculty Associate since 2015, has been named Harvard's first Alfred and Rebecca Lin Professor of Civil Discourse. We are thrilled about Professor Greene's new appointment, and look forward to...
Regulating AI in Healthcare: An Interview with I. Glenn Cohen
Should patients be notified when AI directly impacts their medical care? Should healthcare organizations be required to take on costly monitoring of AI-enabled clinical tools when this would prevent many U.S. hospitals from adopting AI at all? Our faculty...
Hannah Duane and Tenzin Gund-Morrow named 2026 Marshall Scholars
Congratulations to ELSCE undergraduate fellows Hannah Duane '26 and Tenzin Gund-Morrow '26! They have been named 2026 Marshall Scholars and are part of a cohort of 43 American scholars chosen this year from over 1,000 applicants. Duane and Gund-Morrow...
Brandon Terry's Latest Book Named to New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2025
Congratulations to our faculty committee member Brandon Terry , whose book "Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement" was named one of The New York Times ' 100 Notable Books of 2025. From Matt Delmont 's NYT review...
