EDUCATIONAL ETHICS: A FIELD-LAUNCHING CONFERENCE

History 






Educational Ethics: A Field-Launching Conference was the final in a set of six conferences in philosophy of education funded by the Spencer Foundation across two grants between 2008-2023, and the first in a new triennial conference series focused on edethics. It was spearheaded by Meira Levinson, working in close collaboration with organizing committee members listed below, Jacob Fay, and Liz Block. We are grateful to the Spencer Foundation for allowing an expansion of the original proposal to enable an inclusive open-door conference, as well as for repeated grant extensions due to COVID-related delays. We are also grateful to the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics for additional financial and in-kind support.

Conference Series on Educational Ethics

“Democracy, Scientific Expertise, and Education”
Spencer Foundation, 2010

"Race, Opportunity, and Education”
Harvard University, 2011

“Virtue (Moral and Epistemic) and Education: Can We Be Taught To Act and Believe Wisely?”
Stanford University, 2012

This three conferences brought together about 25 philosophers of education, philosophers from other subfields, and doctoral students for intensive, closed-door discussions of seven original papers plus a day-long graduate workshop. 

“Public, Private, and Hybrid Education”
University of Pennsylvania, 2015

“Changing Access to Higher Education”
Stanford University, 2016

This series brought together about 25 philosophers of education, social scientists, and doctoral students for intensive, closed-door discussions of seven original papers and a graduate workshop.

"Educational Ethics: A Field-Launching Conference"
Harvard University, 2023

This final conference built upon the other events to offer a day-long graduate student paper workshop (virtual, 2020), a Pre-Conference Workshop on "EdEthics in Action," and an open-door two-day conference featuring over 50 presenters from philosophy and philosophy of education, social science (political science, anthropology, sociology, psychology, education, critical studies), history, law, journalism, and educational leadership. 

Upcoming Conferences  

We hope to host our next EdEthics conference in Spring 2026. Stay tuned!

Conference Organizing Committee Members

Sigal Ben-Porath

MRMJJ Presidential Professor Policy, Organizations, Leadership, and Systems Division

UPenn Graduate School of Education

& Faculty Director

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program

Lawrence Blum

Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy

University of Massachusetts, Boston


Harry Brighouse

 Mildred Fish Harnack Professor of Philosophy and Carol Dickson Bascom Professor of the Humanities

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Eamonn Callan

Professor Emeritus

Stanford Graduate School of Education


Randall Curren

Professor of Philosophy & Co-Chair of the Department

University of Rochester

Michael Hand

Professor of Philosophy of Education

University of Birmingham

Meira Levinson

Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Professor of Education and Society

Harvard Graduate School of Education

& Founder and Director 

EdEthics

Steven Norris

(deceased)

Professor and Canada Research Chair, Department of Educational Policy Studies

University of Alberta

Rob Reich

McGregor-Girand Professor of Social Ethics of Science and Technology

Stanford University

Harvey Siegel

Emeritus Professor of Philosophy

University of Miami