With Lisa Herzog (Groningen University) and Brian Berkey (The University of Pennsylvania). Click here to register on the PPE website to receive the Zoom meeting info. Event Description: The end of 2020 was sweetened somewhat by news that scientists had created multiple effective vaccines for COVID-19. On receiving this news, states moved rapidly to confront the next major hurdle in the battle against the pandemic: the mass production and distribution of vaccines. Programs of public immunization are already underway in countries fortunate enough…

With Geraldine Brooks (Harvard University) Click here to register on the PPE website to receive the Zoom meeting info. Event Description We invite you to join us for a live panel discussion with Pulitzer-prize winning author, Geraldine Brooks, on the topic of “imagining and writing a pandemic.” Geraldine Brooks is a journalist and novelist. During her career as a journalist, Brooks reported on environmental issues and international conflicts for the Wall Street Journal and Sydney Morning Herald.  She won the…

With Rachel Fraser (University of Oxford) and C. Thi Nguyen (University of Utah). Click here to register on the PPE website to receive the Zoom meeting info. Event Description: During the Pandemic, many of us have spent a lot of time alone, and a lot of time online. These circumstances seem to have favored the emergence of a range of potent conspiracy theories. Some of these theories pertain to COVID-19 or the vaccination program against it, while others implicate pizza restaurants,…

Via Zoom (registration required) with Elizabeth Anderson. The relevant readings will be provided to registered students via email. Click here to register on the PPE website.   Our current political discourse has become toxic, especially when it comes to discussing fraught issues such as racism and sexism. Given a background commitment to democracy, what norms of communication with our fellow citizens should we adopt when discussing such fraught issues? In this session of the PPE Author Series, we will discuss…

This event will be held via Zoom. Click here to register on the PPE website to receive the Zoom meeting information.   Following the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Twitter permanently banned President Trump from using its platform and Facebook temporarily suspended his account and asked its Oversight Board to decide whether the suspension should continue indefinitely. Seeing as Twitter and Facebook are not state actors, their actions were not in violation of the First…

Via Zoom with Stephanie Collins. Click here to register on the PPE website to receive the Zoom meeting information. Event Description: The COVID-19 pandemic raises many pressing issues about both individual and collective action. As individuals, we ought to wash our hands, practice social distancing, and wear masks. But, when facing a calamity of such magnitude, individual action might not seem like enough. Do we also then have duties to think and act collectively? What does it mean to think and…

Via Zoom. Click here to register for this event on the PPE website.   When Anita Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her while he was her supervisor, many doubted her credibility. Nearly three decades later, Christine Blasey Ford’s veracity was questioned when she alleged that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her while they were both in high school. Is it unjust that Hill and…