This event through the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making will bring together several scholars in the social sciences and humanities to talk about different disciplinary approaches to the study of “fragmentations” and moral boundaries. The event will be headlined by three keynote talks: philosophers Michael Brownstein (who is a Penn State Philosophy Ph.D. alumnus) and Daniel Kelly on their new book Somebody Should Do Something (on philosophy and social science of collective action), philosopher Matt Lindauer on his new book The Fruitfulness of Normative Concepts (on the practical relevance of philosophical ethics for social life), and policy and Rock Ethics scholar Ben Jones on his new book on the ethics of policing, Protecting Life: The Ethics of Police Deadly Force. Chuck Huff will talk about his new book Taking Moral Action as well, which covers interdisciplinary boundary-crossing in studying morality. Scholars from anthropology, psychology, philosophy, history and religious studies, public policy, and management and organizations will convene to work through and build each other’s thinking to highlight the value of collaborative, constructive conversation.
The event will be held downtown at the Innovation Hub, with coffee and refreshments provided, and also live-streamed. We encourage all who are interested in the exciting interface at the boundaries of our fields to check out this event.
Conference Date: Sunday, April 19 (9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. EDT), Monday, April 20 (11:15 a.m.–2:30 p.m. EDT
Conference Location: Sunday in Innovation Hub Room 603; Monday in Innovation Hub Room 113
Conference Contact: Daryl Cameron, cdc49@psu.edu
Sponsored by the Consortium on Moral Decision-Making, which is supported by the Social Science Research Institute, Rock Ethics Institute, the College of the Liberal Arts, Davis Program for Ethical Leadership, The McCourtney Institute for Democracy, School of Public Policy, and the Departments of Psychology and Philosophy.
What do you think of when you think about Fragmentation and how does that connect with morality and your work?
NOTE- These are responses of individuals who said yes to their quote being used for promotion of the conference and social media!
6:00–8:00 p.m. EDT | Webster’s reception with Michael Brownstein, Dan Kelly, Matt Lindauer, Ben Jones, and Chuck Huff about their books
9:00–9:15 a.m. EDT | Welcome and Coffee
9:15–10:15 a.m. EDT | Session 1
Meltem Yucel | Exploring children’s moral, conventional, and religious norm judgments in Singapore and China
Religion can lie at the center of intractable conflicts when people of different faiths disagree over beliefs and practices. This talk examines how 3- to 12-year-old children in China and Singapore evaluate moral, religious, and conventional norm violations as a function of the violator’s group membership (same-faith vs. different-faith). We investigate whether children view moral violations as more serious and less alterable than religious or conventional violations, whether they apply religious norms more selectively to ingroup members, and whether they show heightened sensitivity to religious norms across social contexts. The study was designed by the members of the Developing Belief Network (see Weisman…Yucel et al., 2024).
Simone Tang | The double-edged sword of "family": People see a family-owned business as both moral and immoral
The word, “family” usually conjures up feelings of warmth and comfort. Family businesses seem to understand this, given that they often highlight that they are “family-owned.” I argue and find that the “Family” label is a double-edged sword by communicating two contradictory messages simultaneously. When using the label “family-firm” or telling people about their family ownership (vs. no label or product-specific information), people see the same business as more generous and kind. But they also see the businesses as more cronyistic and favor blood-ties over merit. These perceptions have implications for attracting potential employees: Which view applicants take influences whether they apply there.
Catherine Wanner | Fraying Moralities, Violating Boundaries and the Elusiveness of Finding a Just Peace in the Russo-Ukrainian War
Russian President Vladimir Putin thought that it would take a few days to conquer Ukraine when he launched his full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. The war is now in its fifth year. In 2022, it was quite clear to most Ukrainians and the international community that this was a “Just War” to defend the boundaries of Ukrainian state sovereignty. But five years later, what are the criteria to establish a “Just Peace”? What are the grounds of commonality between the two countries and their allies that could forge a consensus to end this war? This talk offers responses to these questions and an analysis as to how the introduction of ecocide as a war crime and other prohibitions against purposeful infliction of damage to ecosystems, which are impervious to boundaries, could alter calculations as to what constitutes a Just War and a Just Peace. It also suggests that if the study of war took a multispecies perspective, we might be able to reduce the moral fragmentation and perceptions of self interest that serve to perpetuate violent conflict.
CATHERINE WANNER is a historical anthropologist and Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History, Anthropology, and Religious Studies at Penn State. Using ethnographic and archival methods, her research centers on the politics of religion and increasingly on conflict mediation, ecocide, and trauma healing. She was the Senior Advisor for the Religion and Inclusive Societies program at the United States Institute of Peace until it was unlawfully shut down in 2025. She is currently writing a book entitled, War from the Perspective of Animals: Ecocide and Empathy after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
10:15–10:30 a.m. EDT | Break
10:30–Noon EDT | Ben Jones Panel
Ben Jones + Panelists (Brian N. Williams, Itzel Garcia, with Moderation by Christopher Moore) | Author Meets Critics on "Protecting Life: The Ethics of Police Deadly Force"
This panel brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to discuss the book “Protecting Life: The Ethics of Police Deadly Force” (Oxford University Press 2026) by Ben Jones. Controversial killings by police continue to put the issue of how officers use—and should or should not use—deadly force at the center of public debate. The idea that police should prioritize the protection of life represents at least one point that many can agree on. It is common for use-of-force policies to endorse that principle. But figuring out what it means in practice proves more challenging. “Protecting Life” takes up that question at the intersection of ethics and policy. As a number of high-profile incidents in recent years remind us, too often police fall short in their obligations to protect life. The problem goes deeper than a few bad apples. Law, policy, and training entrench practices that result in avoidable killings, which hit marginalized groups the hardest. Importantly, how police use deadly force is intertwined with questions of distributive justice. Motivated by that insight, “Protecting Life” develops a framework to evaluate police deadly force at the individual and institutional level, with close attention to concerns voiced by Black Lives Matter on how policing contributes to structural injustices in society. The book’s engagement with social science research reveals ways to translate moral principles into policy. It ultimately makes the case for rethinking the state’s obligations to those most vulnerable to police violence–particularly, disadvantaged racial groups and persons with mental illness.
After Ben Jones’ talk, there will be responses by Brian N. Williams (Public Policy, UVA) and Itzel Garcia (Philosophy, Cal Poly Pomona), with moderation by Christopher Moore (Philosophy, Penn State).
Noon–1:00 p.m. EDT | Lunch (Catered from Roots)
1:00–2:30 p.m. EDT | Session 2
Mary Beth Oliver | Are Politics and Inspiration Oil and Water? Democrats’ and Republicans’ Responses to Partisan Inspiring Message
Not everyone is “inspired” by uplifting media. Although some viewers may experience profound feelings of elevation to a given media message, other viewers may perceive the same message as manipulative, overly sentimental, or even disgusting. This talk will overview a series of studies examining these types of divergent reactions in the context of political ideology. These studies examine not only the types of “uplifting” content provided by right- and left-leaning media, but also how the source of the message, the assumed popularity of the message, and the political focus of the message play a role in Democrats’ and Republicans’ responses.
Ray Block Jr. | Civic Sanctuaries in Fragmented Times: Classrooms as Laboratories of Democratic Life
In an era marked by political polarization, declining institutional trust, and a rapidly changing information environment, many of the spaces where people once learned to engage across difference have weakened or disappeared. Yet one institution still regularly brings individuals with diverse experiences, values, and perspectives into shared conversation: the classroom.
This talk explores the idea of classrooms as civic sanctuaries—spaces where students practice the habits of democratic life. Drawing on my teaching experiences and research on civic participation, social identity, and democratic trust, I argue that classrooms serve as laboratories where students learn how to navigate disagreement, listen across differences, and confront morally complex issues in real time.
Rather than treating emotional responses or moments of tension as distractions from learning, I show how these moments can become opportunities for deeper reflection and democratic skill-building. In classrooms where trust, structure, and intellectual empathy are cultivated, students develop the capacity to hold competing ideas in tension, speak with humility and conviction, and remain engaged even when conversations become uncomfortable.
At a time when many public arenas reward outrage, avoidance, or ideological sorting, the classroom remains one of the few places where people are deliberately asked to stay in the room with difference. Understanding classrooms as civic sanctuaries highlights the important role educational institutions can play in strengthening democratic culture. By fostering spaces where students learn not just what to think, but how to engage with others in the presence of disagreement, classrooms help prepare the next generation for the difficult but essential work of democratic life.
Anne Pisor | Foes, friends, and frenemies: How human groups do it all
As an “ultrasocial” species, groups have been a throughline for humans past and present. In this talk, I’ll overview what we know about groups and intergroup dynamics from the perspective of evolutionary anthropology. As I walk you through research by myself and others, we’ll tackle questions like: What is a group, anyway? What predicts increases and decreases in intergroup conflict? When are boundaries strictly enforced or more permeable? I’ll then conclude by identifying some potential future directions for interdisciplinary work on groups and intergroup dynamics.
2:30–2:45 p.m. EDT | Coffee Break and Networking
2:45–4:00 p.m. EDT | Matt Lindauer Panel
Matthew Lindauer + Panelists (Anne Pisor, Daryl Cameron) | The Fruitfulness of Normative Concepts
Can philosophical concepts do real work in improving our world? Should we, when evaluating competing understandings of concepts like ‘justice,’ ‘empowerment,’ and ‘solidarity,’ take into account whether these different understandings can actually help us to fight injustice, empower the oppressed, and promote solidarity between people? In The Fruitfulness of Normative Concepts I make the first book-length attempt to argue that the answer to both of these questions is an emphatic “yes,” defending a tight relationship between philosophical theory and practice. The book advances the view that moral and political philosophers should be and often are interested in the “fruitfulness” of normative concepts – how well they help us to solve practical problems that we inevitably face as human beings interacting with one another. Philosophers must consult and sometimes conduct new empirical research to address questions of fruitfulness, in particular research in moral psychology. Hence, empirical research is not merely of side interest to moral and political philosophy but central to the philosophical enterprise of concept evaluation in these areas. In this talk, I will present the theory of normative fruitfulness developed in the book, discuss several case studies of empirical research that bears on dimensions of normative fruitfulness, and discuss prominent alternative ways of viewing the relationship between science and moral theory. I will also discuss how the approach taken in the book is compatible with traditional a priori theorizing in general, so long as such work makes room for empirical research to bear on fruitfulness considerations.
After Lindauer’s talk, there will be panel and Q&A with Anne Pisor (Anthropology, Penn State) and Daryl Cameron (Psychology and Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State).
4:00–4:15 p.m. EDT | Break
4:15–5:30 p.m. EDT | Kelly and Brownstein Panel
Michael Brownstein and Dan Kelly + Panelists (Ray Block, Matt Lindauer) | Someone Should Do Something
People often feel powerless to create social change, particularly when it comes to complex, multifaceted problems like the climate crisis, misinformation, and the erosion of democracy. How can anyone make a meaningful difference when it comes to problems like these? Drawing from philosophy, history, and contemporary social science, Brownstein and Kelly discuss tools for thinking in new ways about how individuals can help create transformative change. They argue that each of us can make a difference, but not in the ways we usually think.
Brownstein and Kelly will each give talks about this work, and afterward, there will be panel discussion with Ray Block (Political Science, Penn State) and Matt Lindauer (Philosophy, Brooklyn College, and CUNY Graduate Center).
5:30–6:00 p.m. EDT | Closing Remarks and Roundtable Discussion
11:15–Noon EDT | Chuck Huff
Chuck Huff | Our Virtues Do Not Make Us Virtuous: The Distributed Moral Import Hypothesis
Moral psychology looks fragmented because the phenomenon itself is structurally plural. An adequate reframing of this puzzle must take into account four necessary yet variable dimensions of moral action: reflective agency, the normative force of morality, actor (in)consistency, and the distributed domains through which moral import operates. No single disciplinary lens can grapple with this patterned plurality. Explanatory rigor therefore requires coordinated inquiry across psychology, philosophy, and the study of moral ecologies.
Two influential philosophical responses to this landscape illustrate the fragmentation. John Doris emphasizes situational variability and the fragility of global traits, while Christian Miller seeks to discipline psychological variability within a unified, causally efficacious virtue framework. Each captures important features of the empirical terrain, yet both generate explanatory strain when confronted with its full plurality.
This talk proposes the Distributed Moral Import hypothesis, a distributed grounding model in which moral import is variably grounded across multiple domains and stabilized across psychological, social, and normative registers. On this account, virtues name stabilized patterns of distributed moral responsiveness rather than functioning as the primary causal source of moral action. Thus, Miller’s mixed trait virtue account reflects the coordination of multiple grounding sources within persons, while Doris’s emphasis on situational influence is incorporated within a broader account of social grounding. Reframing the debate in this way clarifies how stability and variability coexist and opens empirical pathways for investigating moral formation, breakdown, and repair.
The talk will draw upon Huff’s recent book Taking Moral Action, which a recent review by Christian Miller in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, described as “an overview text that is unparalleled in its range of topics covered, in its mastery of a vast empirical literature, and in its interdisciplinary engagement with philosophy, theology, history, education, and other fields.”
Noon–1:00 p.m. EDT | Lunch
1:00–1:30 p.m. EDT | Kyle Law
Kyle Law | Expanding the Moral Circle Across Time: Intergenerational Concerns and Moral Obligation to Protect Future People
Future generations constitute occupy a unique position at the outer edge of our moral circle. The vast majority of people readily endorse the belief that we ought to care about those who come after us, even at temporally distant timeframes, expressing broad support for protecting the long-term future. Yet this concern often remains latent rather than activated. Although future others are included in principle within our moral community, they are psychologically distant—abstract, unidentifiable, and temporally removed from everyday decision-making. As a result, moral regard for future generations is highly endorsed but often underutilized in decision-making processes. In this talk, I will examine how the boundaries of the moral circle stretch across time, from near-future to distant-futures, map our beliefs about the degree to which we should protect future people, elucidate why intergenerational concern may fail to guide action, how this could be remedied through educational interventions, and what this tension reveals about the fragmentation of moral obligation in contemporary society.
1:30–2:00 p.m. EDT | Linda Trevino
Linda Trevino | A Threatened Organizational Identity: Explaining A Multi-Stakeholder Defense
We investigated a case that demonstrates and explains stakeholder engagement in an organizational identity defense. Importantly, this work illustrates the contagion of an organizational identity and its values to multiple stakeholder groups, both internal and external. We understand the case to represent the process of awakening multi-stakeholder identification with an organizational identity grounded in self-transcendence values. The widening group of awakened stakeholders engaged in the identity defense, not just through voice but also through values-consistent actions fueled by morally elevating positive emotions. Our findings suggest important contributions and revisions to theorizing about organizational identity, its boundaries, and identity defense processes, including the role of self-transcendence values, values-congruent actions, and discrete moral emotions.
2:00–2:20 EDT | Desiree Lim
Désirée Lim | Gender, “AI Boyfriends”, and Relational Equality
The use of AI companions – that is, chatbots who are treated and perceived as emotionally responsive companions – is becoming common enough that the states of New York, California, and Washington have enacted new laws that respond to the potential mental health and safety risks of these technologies. Quite apart from these safety risks, philosophers have criticized the use of AI companions through what I call a “moral-relational” lens. More particularly, because of the “feminization” of artificial intelligence, there is a worry that AI companions may worsen misogyny. In my talk, I argue that this assumption is too quick. I do this by examining the phenomenon of “AI boyfriends” and the possibility that, under non-ideal circumstances, they may provide women with valuable relational resources that would otherwise be unavailable.
2:20–2:30 p.m. EDT | Closing Remarks
Penn State Presenters
Dr. Ray Block is Brown-McCourtney Career Development Professor in the McCourtney Institute and Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Penn State University. His research interests included how COVID-19 contributes to social inequality, how race, ethnicity, and gender identity affects civil involvement, and the formation and changing of social identities. Currently, he is working on a book, Truth Decay: How It Endangers Democracy and What We Can Do About It with David Luckey, Dennis Murphy, Fernando Esteves, and Clay Strickland.
Dr. Block received his master’s and Ph.D in Political Science from Ohio State in 2006. Outside of Penn State, he will be working as the Micheal D. Rick Distinguished Chair for Countering Truth Decay and Affiliated Adjunct Staff in the Department of Defense and Political Science at the RAND Corporation. Additionally, he is a senior analyst for the African American Research Collaborative.
Assistant Professor, Public Policy, Penn State
Dr. Ben Jones is the Assistant Director and Research Associate of the Rock Ethics Institute and Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Penn State University studying political philosophy, applied ethics, and criminal justice policy. His work has been featured in several journals such as the Political Research Quarterly, Human Rights Review, and the European Journal of Political Theory and the Washington Post. In 2022, he published Apocalypse without God: Apocalyptic Thought, Ideal Politics, and the Limits of Utopian Hope, which details how and why secular scholars draw on Christian apocalyptic traditions to interpret politics and everyday life. Currently, he is working on two books, Protecting Life: The Ethics of Police Deadly Force and Antiracist Policing with Karin Martin.
Dr. Jones received his Ph.D in Political Science from Yale University in 2016. Additionally, he co-founded the Policing, Policy, and Philosophy Initiative (3PI), which uses philosophical tools to understand policing’s role in society and how it informs society.
Dr. Désirée Lim is the Catherine Shultz Rein Early Career Professor and an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Penn State University. Her work focuses on political and social philosophy, immigration, discrimination, and global justice. Her first book, Immigration and Social Equality: The Ethics of Skill-Selective Immigration Policies, recounts the discriminatory nature of skill-selective immigration policies in western countries and pushes for social justice for noncitizens through real-life anecdotes and emigrational disobedience. Additionally, she serves as the Associate Director of and Senior Research Associate at the Rock Ethics Institute. She is currently working on her second book, On the Right to the Freedom of Movement.
Dr. Lim completed her Ph.D in Philosophy at King’s College London in 2016 and served as a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University’s McCoy Center for Ethics in Society. Additionally, she is an affiliate of The Centre for the Experimental-Philosophical Study of Discrimination, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Potsdam’s Political Theory Department, and a Faculty Fellow at the California Center for Ethics and Policy. She has been featured on several podcasts including ABC’s Philosopher Zone and UCL’s Uncovering Politics.
Outside of research, she is interested in producing electronic music, instant photography, and fiction writing.
Dr. Mary Beth Oliver is a Donald P. Bellisario Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Film Production and Media Studies at Penn State University. Her work uses her interests in media studies and positive psychology to investigate media effects on emotions and cognition and stereotyping in media. She co-directs the Media Effects Research Lab and leads the Media Psychology Group, which investigates the social and psychological impacts of media messaging and technologies. She has published and edited several papers, journals and books including Journal of Media Psychology, Journal of Communication, and Media Effects: Advances in Theory. Recently, she co-authored and published an Introduction to Positive Media Psychology.
Dr. Oliver completed her Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1991. In 2025, Dr. Oliver received the Paul J. Deutschmann Award for Excellence in Research from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC), which recognizes scholars who blend science, journalism, and mass communication that have significantly influenced media research over the course of their career.
Dr. Anne Pisor is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Demography and a Social Science Research Institute Co-Funded Faculty Member at Penn State University. She is a scientific anthropologist studying how individuals manage risk and the evolution of cooperation in humans. Her lab, the Human Sociality Lab, that she co-directs with Dr. Kristopher Smith, investigates how people use their social relationships to navigate changes on their health though a multi-perspective lens.
Dr. Pisor received her Ph.D in Anthropology from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016. Recently, she was named as a Rising Star by the Human Behavior and Evolution Society and was a co-principal investigator on Unlocking Urgent Climate Action by Making the Health Effects of Climate, which received funding through the Wellcome Trust.
Outside of her research, she works with undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurs at Penn State to help them translate their skills to do social good.
Dr. Linda K. Treviño is a Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behavior and Ethics in the Department of Management and Organization at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. Her research interests include understanding ethical and unethical conduct in work organizations, ethical leadership, impacts of speaking up in organizations, and identity issues affecting ethics officers and dyslexics in the workplace. In 1986, she developed the Trevino’s Person-Specific Interactionist Model to explain ethical decision making in the workplace has been used internationally in several papers. She has recieved serval awards over the course of her career, including the Best Paper Award by the Academy of Management Review in 1993 and the Eminent Leadership Scholar Award from the Network of Leadership Scholars in 2019.
She recieved her Ph.D in Management from Texas A&M University in 1987. In 2018, she was regarded as one of the most impactful scholars in Management textbooks, and her work was ranked in the top 1% of citations from 2006-2016.
Catherine Wanner is a historical anthropologist and Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History, Anthropology, and Religious Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. Using ethnographic and archival methods, her research centers on the politics of religion and increasingly on conflict mediation, ecocide, and trauma healing. She was the Senior Advisor for the Religion and Inclusive Societies program at the United States Institute of Peace until it was unlawfully shut down in 2025. She is currently writing a book entitled, War from the Perspective of Animals: Ecocide and Empathy after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
External Presenters
Deputy Executive Officer of Philosophy at City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center
Dr. Micheal Brownstein is an Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at John Jay College and Professor and Deputy Executive Officer of Philosophy at City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. His research investigates the intersections of social change, ethics, and climate change. In 2018, he published his first monograph, Implicit Mind: Cognitive Architecture, the Self, and Ethics, which investigates the ethics behind and how spontaneity and the implicit mind act as a virtue and vice we use to navigate ourselves and the world. Additionally, he runs a colloquium within CUNY Graduate Center’s Philosophy department.
Dr. Brownstein completed his Ph.D in Philosophy at Penn State University in 2009. Recently, he co-authored Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change with Alex Madva and Daniel R. Kelly, which argues against the mindset that we as individuals do not make an impact on society and details how to reshape this mindset to create systemic social change.
Outside of research, he founded the Greene Tennis Association, an organization raising money to repair tennis courts. He also enjoys competing in triathlons with the Brooklyn Tri Club.
Dr. Chuck Huff is a Professor of Psychology at St. Olaf College studying the intersections between ethical computing, religion, gender, and moral psychology. He published several articles and papers in journals, like The Journal of Information, Communications, and Ethics in Society and served on several editorial boards, including Social Science Computer Review, and Computers in Society. Published in 2023, his book, Taking Moral Action, investigates how and why individuals take moral actions, rejecting the idea of a single form of morality.
Dr. Huff completed his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Princeton University in 1987 and served as a NIH post-doctoral fellow with the Committee for Social Science Research in Computing at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Benedictine Oblate at St. Johns Abbey in Minnesota and co-founded Cloister Seminars with his wife, Dr. Almur Furchert, a place where community members can attend seminars learning to connect spirituality with everyday life.
Founding co-director of the Cognition Agency, Intelligence Center, Purdue University
Dr. Daniel “Dan” R. Kelly is a Professor of Philosophy Department and founding co-director of the Cognition Agency, and Intelligence Center at Purdue University studying intersection of philosophy of mind and cognitive science, evolution, social issues, and moral theory. He frequently works interdisciplinarily through the Moral Psychology Research Group, Purdue’s Institute for a Sustainable Future, and the Implicit Bias and Philosophy International Research Project. In 2013, he published his dissertation, Yuck! The Nature of Moral Significance of Disgust, investigating how disgust plays into our morals and everyday lives.
He completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rutgers University in 2007. Recently, he co-authored Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change with Micheal Brownstein and Alex Madva, which argues against the mindset that we as individuals don’t make an impact on society and details how to reshape this mindset to create systemic social change.
Outside of research, he enjoys surfing and vanning with his family in California during the summers.
Dr. Kyle Law is a Post-Doctoral Research Scholar for the Intergenerational Decisions and Effective Action Lab (IDEA) at Arizona State University, whose work focuses on the intersection of moral psychology and ethical philosophy to understand the limits of altruism, prosocial behavior, and human cooperation. He was awarded several grants for some of his projects, including from the John Templeton Foundation, Create the Change: A Comprehensive Approach to Human Science Leadership in Sustainability Science, Duke Veteran Transitions Research Lab (VTRL) Seed Grant, and Consortium for Moral Decision-Making Seed Grant.
Dr. Law received his Ph.D from State University of New York Albany in 2024 and was a post-doctoral researcher for the Morality Lab at Boston College.
Associate Professor of Psychology, CUNY Graduate Center.
Dr. Matthew Lindauer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and an Associate Professor of Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. He uses empirical methods to study intersections of moral and political philosophy and moral psychology to investigate moral motivation and justice. He is the co-director of the Psychology and Philosophy lab (PsyPhi Lab), which fosters collaboration between psychological and philosophical thought to investigate norms, morality, politics, and art.
Dr. Lindauer received his Ph.D in Philosophy from Yale University in 2015 and was a post-doctoral research fellow for Australian National University from 2017 to 2018. In 2025, he published The Fruitfulness of Normative Concepts, which investigates the importance of empirical research in normative inquiry and moral and political concepts.
Outside of research, He enjoys playing music, reading literature, spending time with his family, and walking around in nature.
Dr. Simone Tang is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration and the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. Her work investigates moral perceptions, ethics, and values that influence group dynamics and individuals’ attitudes, judgements, and behaviors through the lens of management, psychology and criminology. She has published several of her interdisciplinary works in several journals including Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
She completed her Ph.D in Management and Organizations from Duke University in 2018. She is currently an organizer for the Joint SC Johnson College of Business-ILR M&O Area Conference and on the SC Johnson College of Business Marketing Area Recruiting Committee. In 2021, Dr. Tang was awarded the President’s Council of Cornell Women Affinito-Stewart Grant, a grant given to fund research projects of Cornell women faculty to help be considered for tenure.
Dr. Meltem Yucel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University studying cognition, morality, and how people influence, create, understand, and violate social norms. Her lab, the Moral Minds Lab, uses developmental and social psychology and multi-cultural perspectives to explore cooperation and morality across the lifespan. She has won several awards for her dissertation, “No fair!”: An investigation of children’s moral development, including APA’s Dissertation Research Award, UVA’s Three Minute Thesis Competition, and SAS’s Best Dissertation in Affective Science Award.
She completed her Ph.D. in psychology with a concentration in quantitative psychology from the University of Virginia in 2021 and her NIH post-doctoral position at Duke University. She is currently a co-organizer for the International Moral Psychology List and Seminar Series and the founder of the PsychResearchList, a website dedicated to helping make psychology research, jobs, and graduate school tips more transparent and accessible to all.