Alfred P. Stiernotte Lecture Series in Philosophy at Quinnipiac University - Video Collection: Home

Lori Gruen (born October 30, 1962) is an American philosopher, ethicist, and author who is the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Gruen is also Professor of Science in Society, and Professor of Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan. A scholar specializing in animal ethics, Gruen is the author of several books, including Ethics and Animals: An Introduction (2011) and Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals (2015).

Lawrence Blum (born April 16, 1943)[ is an American philosopher who is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is known for his work in the philosophy of education, moral philosophy, and race.

Vanessa Wells (born 1980) is a political philosopher, ethicist, educator, and activist based in Washington, DC, where she is Associate Professor of Philosophy at The George Washington University. She is the author of the book Marx’s Ethical Vision and is a founding editor of Spectre Journal, a biannual journal of Marxist theory, strategy, and analysis.

Lewis Gordon (born May 12, 1962) is an American philosopher at the University of Connecticut who works in the areas of African philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, social and political theory, postcolonial thought, theories of race and racism, philosophies of liberation, aesthetics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of religion. He has written particularly extensively on Africana and black existentialism, postcolonial phenomenology, race and racism, and on the works and thought of W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon.

David Roochnik (born June 2, 1951) is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University, where he teaches in both the Department of Philosophy and the Core Curriculum, an undergraduate program in the humanities. He is the author of two books on Plato, and has also published over 30 articles on a wide range of subjects in classical Greek philosophy and literature.

Seyla Benhabib (born September 9, 1950) is a Turkish-American philosopher. She is Eugene Mayer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University and was director of the program in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from 2002–2008. Benhabib is well known for her work in political philosophy, which draws on critical theory and feminist political theory. She has written extensively on the philosophers Hannah Arendt and Jürgen Habermas, as well as on the topic of human migration. She is the author of numerous books, and she has received several prestigious awards and lectureships in recognition of her work.

Alfred I. Tauber (born June 24,1947) is an American philosopher and historian of science, who, from 1993 to 2010, served as director of the Boston University Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. Tauber has published extensively on 19th and 20th century biomedicine, the development of modern immunology, the doctor-patient-relationship, and contemporary science studies. He is the 2008 recipient of the Science Medal from the University of Bologna in Italy, and Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa from the University of Haifa in Haifa, Israel, in 2011. Since 2013 he has been chairman of the board of governors of the University of Haifa.

Sally Haslanger (born February 27, 1955) is Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies at MIT. She has published in metaphysics, epistemology, feminist theory, and critical race theory. Her work links issues of social justice with contemporary work in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. In addition to research, Haslanger is deeply committed to promoting diversity in philosophy and beyond. She was the founder and convener of the Women in Philosophy Task Force, and co-founded PIKSI-Boston, a summer philosophy institute for undergraduates from under-represented groups. She was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award at MIT in 2014, and the YWCA Cambridge Tribute to Outstanding Women in 2011. In 2013-4, she was the President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, and in 2015, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

James Giordano (born February 1953) is Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program at Georgetown University. His ongoing research addresses the neurobiological bases of neuropsychiatric spectrum disorders; and neuroethical issues arising in and from the development, use and misuse of neuroscientific techniques and neurotechnologies in medicine, public life, global health, and military applications. The author of over 290 publications in neuroscience and neuroethics, 7 books, and 15 government whitepapers on neurotechnology, ethics and biosecurity, he is an Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine; Associate Editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics; and Contributing Editor of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Thomas Pogge (born August 13, 1953) is Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs and founding Director of the Global Justice Program at Yale. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science as well as co-founder of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), an international network aiming to enhance the impact of scholars, teachers and students on global poverty, and of Incentives for Global Health, a team effort toward developing a complement to the pharmaceutical patent regime that would improve access to advanced medicines for the poor worldwide.

Kwayme Anthony Appiah (born May 8,1954) is a British-Ghanaian philosopher, cultural theorist,and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah was the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, before moving to New York University in 2014. He holds an appointment at the NYU Department of Philosophy and NYU School of Law

John Grim (born October 7, 1946) is the co-founder and director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University, alongside his wife, Mary Evelyn Tucker. He teaches at Yale, where he holds appointments in the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the Divinity School, and the Department of Religious Studies. He specializes in Native American religions and has studied the Salish people of Washington State and the Crow/Apsaalooke people of Montana. He has also undertaken field work with healing practitioners in East and Southeast Asia and with religious leaders in Vrindaban and New Delhi, India.

Drew A. Hyland (born February 9, 1939) is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Philosophy. His scholarly and teaching interests include Ancient Greek Philosophy, 19th and 20th century Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Sport, and Philosophy of Art. He is the author of numerous articles and a number of books His teaching philosophy arises out of a deep commitment to the Socratic teaching that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” The intense and passionate examination of core philosophic texts in class is preparation for an intense and passionate examination of the core issues of people’s lives. He is the recipient of Trinity’s Brownell Prize for excellence in teaching, and Trinity Trustee Award for Faculty Excellence.

Dan Callahan (July 19, 1930 – July 16, 2019) was an American philosopher who played a leading role in developing the field of biomedical ethics as co-founder of The Hastings Center, the world's first bioethics research institute. He served as the Director of The Hastings Center from 1969 to 1983, president from 1984 to 1996, and president emeritus from 1996 to 2019. He was the author or editor of 47 books.

Joy Gordon is a professor of social ethics at Loyola University. She received her PhD in philosophy from Yale University, and her JD from Boston University School of Law. She holds a joint appointment with Loyola’s School of Law. Her areas of specialization include social and political philosophy, human rights, international law and global governance, and ethical issues in international relations. She is on the editorial board of Ethics and International Affairs. She has published extensively on legal and ethical aspects of economic sanctions and on issues involving the United Nations Security Council. One of her current projects involves working with Latin American scholars to support their research and publications in the field of international ethics.

Elizabeth Kiss (born July 12, 1961) is an American philosopher and academic administrator, specializing in moral and political philosophy. Since 2018, she has been the Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford University, and CEO of the Rhodes Trust. She is responsible for administering the Rhodes Scholarship, providing pastoral support to existing Rhodes Scholars and coordinating the Rhodes Trust. She is the first woman to hold this role. Previously she served as president of Agnes Scott College.

Note: The 2001 Lecture is only available Audio File format.
Ann Waters (born December 1949) is a professor and researcher in philosophy and law at the State University of New York. She is of Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Jewish descent. She holds four graduate degrees (two doctorates earned in 1992), and has published in several philosophy and American Indian journals and anthologies, written many appellate briefs, and edited several books. In 1992 Dr. Waters was the first of two American Indians to receive a Ph.D. in the discipline of Philosophy.

Elaine Pagels (born February 13, 1943), is an American religious historian. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism. Her best-selling book The Gnostic Gospels (1979) examines the divisions in the early Christian church, and the way that women have been viewed throughout Jewish history and Christian history. Modern Library has named it as one of the 100 best books of the twentieth century.

Charlotte Witt (born September 27,1951) is a professor of philosophy and humanities at the University of New Hampshire. Witt's research has focuses on ancient philosophy, metaphysics, and feminist theory. She has written extensively on metaphysics of gender, the philosophy of Aristotle (especially about Aristotelian metaphysics,) and feminist metaphysics. She has also written and spoken about the relationship between feminist philosophy and the traditional philosophical canon, arguing that feminist philosophy's enduring interest in the canon has been a process of historical self-justification (that is, justifying why feminist philosophy should exist,) and argues further that this is a process nearly identical to that that other emergent disciplines of philosophy undertook as they emerged. She has also published on the philosophy of adoption and the family.

Jules Coleman (born 1947) is a scholar of law and jurisprudence. He was the Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School until 2012. Now retired, he most recently served as the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning at New York University. He taught classes at Yale on philosophy of law; torts; law, language, and truth; political philosophy; and rational choice. Coleman is also known for his audiophilia and has published occasionally on the subject of music and sound systems. His brother is the fiction writer Reed Farrel Coleman.

Thomas Berry (November 9, 1914 – June 1, 2009) was a cultural historian and scholar of the world’s religions, especially Asian traditions. He also studied the history of the Earth and evolution, and called himself a “geologian.” He rejected the label “theologian” or “ecotheologian” as too narrow and not descriptive of his cultural studies in the history of religions. He was drawn early on to respond to the growing ecological and climate crisis and proposed the need for a "New Story" of evolution in 1978. In an essay he suggested that a deep understanding of the history and functioning of the evolving universe is a necessary inspiration and guide for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species. He taught Asian religions at universities in New Jersey and New York (1956–1965). He then became the founder and director of the graduate program in the History of Religions at Fordham University (1966–1979). There he directed over twenty doctoral dissertations. During this period he also founded and directed the Riverdale Center of Religious Research in Riverdale, New York (1970 – 1995).

Lisa H. Newton (born 1939) is a retired Professor of Philosophy who taught at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where she was the Director of the programs in Applied Ethics, and Environmental Studies. She is the author of several textbooks, and has written over 70 articles on ethics in environmental policy, politics, law, medicine, and business, and was the writer and ethics consultant for Media and Society’s 1990 series, “Ethics in America,” which aired on public television.

Leroy S. Rouner (August 5, 1930 - February 11, 2006) was a professor of philosophy and religion at Boston University for over 30 years. He served as Director of the University's Institute for Philosophy and Religion for 25 of those years, and during his tenure as director he established a series of symposiums attended by philosophers from across the globe that addressed issues on life, death, civility, loneliness, and religion. He also edited and published 20 volumes of the Institute's lectures.

Tom Beauchamp (born 1939) is an American philosopher specializing in the work of David Hume, moral philosophy, bioethics, and animal rights. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University where he was Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Beauchamp authored or co-authored several books on ethics and on Hume.

John E. Smith (May 27, 1921 - December 7, 2009) was an American philosopher and Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. Throughout his career, Professor Smith was known for championing, and often resuscitating, unfashionable branches of his field. Chief among them was the philosophy of religion, a subject that had fallen out of favor in the Rationalist climate of the mid-to-late 20th century. He argued for a more democratic stance: the search for truth, he argued, was an inherently social, communitarian enterprise. Where midcentury American philosophy embraced the cool concern with logic then popular in Europe, Professor Smith helped revive interest in seminal American thinkers of the past, among them the pragmatists William James, Charles Sanders Peirce and John Dewey, and the the idealist Josiah Royce.

Philip Hallie (May 4, 1922– August 7, 1994) was an author, philosopher and professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut for 32 years. He is best known for developing the theory of Institutional Cruelty. Hallie defined "institutional cruelty" as a persistent pattern of humiliation that endures for years in a community, but the victimizer and the victim find ways to downplay the harm that is being done. Both the victim and the victimizer justify cruel actions based on what they have been led to believe is "actual" inferiority. Hallie argued that cruelty is created by an imbalance of power, or hierarchy. According to his view, the opposite of institutionalized cruelty is freedom from the cruel relationship, not just kindness. He published several books and a number of articles, and many of them explore the nature of ethics—good and evil, cruelty and kindness. His writing and statements have made particular reference to the admiration he holds for members of the French Resistance against the Nazis during World War II.

Lynne Belaief (? – April 22, 2018) was a professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York. She was also was a Visiting Fellow for a number of years at the Truman Institute, Hebrew University. She specialized in the study of Whiteheadian ethical theory, which is based on the philosophical writings and beliefs of English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.