Keynote Speakers

Elizabeth Anderson
Max Shaye Professor of Public Philosophy, John Dewey Distinguished University Professor; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan.

She is particularly interested in exploring the interactions of social science with moral and political theory, how we learn to improve our value judgments, the epistemic functions of emotions and democratic deliberation, and issues of race, gender, and equality. She is the author of Value in Ethics and Economics, The Imperative of Integration, and, most recently, Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (And Why We Don’t Talk About It), as well as articles on value theory, the ethical limitations of markets, facts and values in social scientific research, feminist and social epistemology, racial integration and affirmative action, rational choice and social norms, democratic theory, egalitarianism, and the history of ethics (focusing on Kant, Mill, and Dewey). 

Professor Anderson is a MacArthur Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the British Academy. She designed and was the first Director of the Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at U-M.

Harry Brighouse
Mildred Fish-Harnack Professor of Philosophy of Education, Professor of Philosophy, Carol Dickson-Bascom Professor of the Humanities, and Affiliate Professor of Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

His research interests include all those topics, as well as philosophy of education; and he has an abiding interest in education (including higher education) policy and practice. His recent books include (with Helen Ladd, Susanna Loeb, and Adam Swift) Educational Goods: Values and Evidence in Decision-Making (University of Chicago Press 2018) and (with Adam Swift) Family Values: The Ethics of Parent-Child Relationships (Princeton University Press, 2014). He co-edited The Aims of Higher Education: Problems of Morality and Justice (University of Chicago Press, 2015) with Michael McPherson, which won the 2017 Federic W Ness Award for the book contributing to our understanding of liberal education from the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He directs the Center for Ethics and Education, and is a regular contributor to the group blog Crooked Timber. His strangest accomplishment is an uncredited appearance in the Ken Loach movie Bread and Roses.