The Exchange, Fall 2020 - Our Abrupt Transition and Beyond

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Our Abrupt Transition and Beyond

JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE UNIVERSITY, state, and country, the activities of The Murphy Institute changed abruptly in the second week of March. There were a few portents that things might be changing—some international conferences were starting to be cancelled, a small number of schools across the country announced moves to remote instruction, and an international organization suspended work travel.

But like the rest of the world, at Tulane we were taking things in stride and plowing ahead with our events and conferences. The first weekend of March, we had three successful conferences on Tax Compliance, Securities Law, and the journal conference for Politics, Philosophy & Economics. We had visitors from Spain, Austria, Canada, and New Zealand in attendance. As an event host, I joined the diverse groups for dinner on both Friday and Saturday evenings. We were finalizing our contract with Bourbon House for our senior dinner as our class size

THE MURPHY INSTITUTE

Core Faculty

Steven M. Sheffrin, Executive Director, Department of Economics

James Alm, Department of Economics

Bruce Brower, Department of Philosophy

Kevin Callison, School of Public Health

Alison Denham, Department of Philosophy

Adam Feibelman, Tulane Law School

Douglas N. Harris, Department of Economics

Ann M. Lipton, Tulane Law School

Douglas R. Nelson, Department of Economics

David O’Brien, Department of Philosophy

Mary K. Olson, Department of Economics

Jonathan M. Riley, Department of Philosophy

David Shoemaker, Department of Philosophy

Richard F. Teichgraeber III, Department of History

Patrick Testa, Department of Economics

Martyn P. Thompson, Department of Political Science

Mark Vail, Department of Political Science

Staff

Paul Watson, Program Manager

John Louis Howard, Associate Director

Margaret M. Keenan, Assistant Director, Center for Ethics and Public Affairs

Kathleen C. Weaver, Assistant Director, Center for Public Policy Research

THE CENTER FOR ETHICS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Faculty Committee

Bruce Brower, Department of Philosophy

Olivia Bailey, Department of Philosophy

Alison Denham, Department of Philosophy

David O'Brien, Department of Philosophy

Jonathan Riley, Department of Philosophy

Oliver Sensen, Department of Philosophy

David Shoemaker, Department of Philosophy

Martyn P. Thompson, Department of Political Science

Chad M. Van Schoelandt, Department of Philosophy

ABRUPT TRANSITION continued from page 1

had outgrown the confines of our normal venue, Gautreau’s.

But starting on Sunday, everything changed: we decided to postpone the upcoming Yates lecture scheduled for Thursday and cancelled a health policy conference planned for Friday and the Tax Roundtable planned for late March. Tulane made the decision to go to remote teaching that Wednesday. Of course, we never did finalize the Bourbon House contract.

Although the year was abruptly interrupted, looking back we experienced a full year of activities. While we did postpone two conferences, most of our intellectual activity for the year was front-loaded. Aside from the Yates lecture, only one other public talk was cancelled. One of our Faculty Fellows presented his work to our seminar via Zoom. Another of our Faculty Fellows attended this talk via Zoom from her home in Montreal—she had just made it out of the city before the flights to Canada were cancelled.

Our Murphy faculty fully stepped up to the challenge of remote teaching for our regular classes and senior seminars. Teaching evaluations after the fact praised the efforts that faculty made to keep the classes as intimate as possible. We all felt bad for the graduating seniors, but John Howard kept in close touch with them, informing them of the senior awards that we made to a very large and accomplished class. We also shared with them news of their classmates’ plans for the coming year. In addition, we awarded the Schaefer fellowships for summer internships.

Looking back, I believe that this entire episode simply accentuates the value of the interdisciplinary social science education we offer in The Murphy Institute. I do not think that our students and graduates were seduced by the simplistic notion that “trusting the science” would provide all the answers to our dilemmas. Nor would they be surprised by the need for intricate balancing of health and economic concerns, the complexity of the ethical issues, and the variety of responses we witnessed across states and countries.

We have yet to experience the full effects of strains from Covid-19 on our economic and political system. The virus exposed and highlighted real weaknesses in terms of disparities in our health system and the long-term effects of inequalities across race and class. The next few years will be difficult for us all, but we trust that our Political Economy program has provided a strong foundation for our students and graduates to grapple with the emerging issues as productive leaders of our society.

THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH

Program

Directors

James Alm, Department of Economics, Public Finance

Douglas Harris, Department of Economics, Education Research Alliance

Mary K. Olson, Department of Economics, Health Policy

Adam Feibelman, Tulane Law School, Center for Law and the Economy

THE EXCHANGE

Tana Coman, Graphic Designer

Zack Smith, Photographer

Paula Burch-Celentano, Contributing Photographer

Kathleen C. Weaver, Editor and Layout Designer

Margaret M. Keenan, Contributing Writer

John Louis Howard, Contributing Writer

Jenny Meadows, Copy Editor

Send editorial correspondence to The Murphy Institute, 108 Tilton Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans, La., 70118

Telephone: (504) 865-5317

Facsimile: (504) 862-9755

Send questions and comments pertaining to The Murphy Institute’s Political Economy to jhoward2@tulane.edu; for those pertaining to the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs, contact mkeenan@tulane.edu; for those pertaining to the Center for Public Policy Research, contact kweaver1@tulane.edu.

Steven M. Sheffrin, Executive Director

August 2020

AUDACIOUS, ACTIVE, AND ENGAGED: POLITICAL ECONOMY

Proving every day that they don’t live in ivory towers nor are they trapped inside bubbles, our majors continue to be actively and politically engaged in their various communities. The interdisciplinary focus of our program encourages our students to seek the convergence between their intellectual and academic pursuits and the challenges posed to them by the economic and political conditions of their world. They have responded in myriad ways to these challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception to the rule here.

JULIA GUY ’20 parlayed her position as Senior Project Manager for Tulane Trash to Treasure into an opportunity to help local nonprofits respond to the crisis. Trash to Treasure collects and sells discarded and donated items from student dorm rooms, rather than leaving them for garbage disposal. Julia volunteered for the Greater New Orleans Caring Collective to assist those at risk for COVID-19 while her group donated more than $15,000 to local nonprofits through Trash to Treasure sales earnings.

The efforts made by our students often receive local, national, and international recognition. RACHEL ALTMAN ’21 was elected Executive Director of the Wave Center for Policy and Enterprise at Tulane for the upcoming academic year. Rachel also served as communications director and lead organizer for Tulane’s Students for Liberty chapter, which won Event of the Year for Students for Liberty in North America. The event was the Restoring Justice Summit, a regional summit on criminal justice reform. As a result of her work on this event, Rachel was also awarded a full scholarship to go to the Reason Foundation’s conference in Guatemala.

Our senior recipients of The Murphy Institute Public Service Award for 2020 have been outstanding leaders by example during their time as undergraduates at Tulane. EVA DILS ’20, also the recipient of a Tulane 34 Award this year, has had a pervasive influence on student culture at Tulane, thanks to their many efforts to improve conditions on campus.

CLIFFORD SOLOWAY ’20 has been politically active in the New Orleans community through his efforts to promote social justice.

“It is safe to say that my campaign would not have been nearly as successful without the foundation that Tulane and The Murphy Institute gave me.”

Stefan Suazo, Class of 2021

Eva Dils’ commitment has been relentless and they have excelled in a number of positions. They were a Resident Advisor with Housing and Residence Life at Tulane, collaborating with staff to build a positive living and learning environment for nearly 400 residents. They organized a voter drive to register first-year students. They served on the leadership team for Students Organizing Against Racism (SOAR), the Tulane Voter Engagement Coalition, and worked as a community engagement advocate for the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Center for Public Service. Eva also served as the Director of Student Health and Wellness for the Undergraduate Student Government at Tulane. It is safe to say that their efforts had an effect in some capacity on nearly every undergraduate student at Tulane over their four years at the university.

POLITICAL ECONOMY MAJORS TAKE ON CHALLENGES

Clifford Soloway’s significant impact on the New Orleans community has also been pervasive. He has served as a volunteer organizer for Take Em Down Nola and the People’s Assembly, as an intern at the Pro Bono Project, as an intern at UNITE HERE Local 2262 (now Local 23), as a volunteer organizer for the Cabildo Abierto Quintero-Puchuncaví, as an intern at the Institute for Palestine Studies, and as a volunteer organizer for Jewish Voice for Peace in New Orleans and Washington, D.C. In addition he has worked with organizations devoted to human rights and social justice at many different levels, including Human Rights Watch, the Orleans Parish Office of Public Defenders, Students Organizing Against Racism, and Students for Justice in Palestine. Clifford’s zest for service shows that there are no boundaries to a consistent commitment to help others.

DYLAN BORNE ’20 is an organizer for transgender liberation in New Orleans and Louisiana. They are currently working on the Trans and Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) People’s Covid Crisis Fund. The economic and public health crisis is having a devastating effect on trans and gender nonconforming people. The goal in the People’s Fund is to get immediate direct assistance to TGNC communities in Louisiana, with special attention to those who suffer most. Dylan also organizes the Real Name Campaign, for accessible name and gender marker changes. With correct legal identification, TGNC people may be able to reduce the risk of discrimination by employers, homeless shelters, and healthcare providers.

During the time that SARAH E. JONES ’20 has been at

AUDACIOUS continued from page 4

Tulane, she has engaged with political activism both on the campus level and in the city of New Orleans. She interned as a Campus Fellow with Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s campaign in 2017. As an intern, she canvassed and met with residents to collect data on the change that they wanted to see in the city. After the successful campaign, she had the opportunity to work for the Mayor’s transition team, Forward Together, and assisted consultants and experts at meetings focusing on small businesses, public health and safety, and infrastructure. After studying abroad in South Africa, where she did research for her undergraduate thesis, she re-entered the realm of New Orleans politics by interning at a communications firm and managing digital platforms for local campaigns and for Action New Orleans, a political action committee.

Sarah also was active in Students Organizing Against Racism and was an intern at Tulane Law School’s Domestic Violence Clinic. All of these experiences converged in a compelling way for her in her senior thesis project. In Sarah’s own words, “All of these experiences influenced the approach I took with developing my thesis. My research focuses on the impact of minimum wage laws on domestic workers in South Africa. For me, I wanted to create a body of knowledge that highlighted the politics of intimate spaces. Despite learning about

exploitation in courses, I had a chance to use this research as a form of activism to articulate the complexities of the gray space that exists between reproductive and productive labor. Through this work, I had the chance to meet with the president of the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union and the former attorney of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Both of the individuals have dedicated their lives to political and social activism.”

Finally, STEFAN SUAZO ’21 ran for a seat on the Jefferson Parish School Board in the most recent election cycle.  In the end, he garnered 27% of the vote in a field of three candidates after raising more than $10,000 (the other two candidates each raised more than $30,000). He was just four votes short of qualifying for the run-off election. Of the experience Stefan writes, “Looking back, it is obvious that my training in political economy informed many of the decisions that I made from the beginning of the campaign until the end. My platform was centered on best practices that I had learned about in the classroom setting, and the tone of my campaign was built upon the advice and informal education that I received from my fellow students every day. It is safe to say that my campaign would not have been nearly as successful without the foundation that Tulane and The Murphy Institute gave me.”

[ UNDERGRADUATE POLITICAL ECONOMY

54 NEWCOMB-TULANE COLLEGE

SENIORS were awarded B.A. degrees in Political Economy in May 2020. Several received high academic honors, with eight students graduating summa cum laude and nine students graduating magna cum laude. The summa cum laude are J OSH AXELROD, MARY BERG, NKETIAH BERKO, MATTHEW BROWN, EVA DILS, CLIFFORD SOLOWAY, COLIN THRELKELD, and LAUREN WALDMAN. The magna cum laude graduates are DYLAN BORNE, ALYSSA CLUNE, SOPHIE FRASER, ANNA GIMILARO, CHRISTIAN HYDE, MATTHEW KLINCK, MATTHEW LERNER, KATRINA LEYH, and MATTHEW SALETTA.

Other members of the class of 2020 include WILL ATNIPP, JESSICA BECKER, ALEXANDER BEHRENS, ZACHARY BRENNER, NICHOLAS DORSEY, TRUMAN DUNN, SAMUEL EIGEN, ALEC FELDMAN, JACOB GOLOBOY, LIZA GROSS, JULIA GUY, CHRISTOPHER HOFFLER, SARAH E. JONES, JENNA KARIC, MOLLY KELLOGG, THOMAS KNIGHT, CHRISTINA KRISBERG, MICHAEL LAVINE, SAMANTHA LEBUHN, MARCUS MALDONADO, KATHERINE PARKER, NILE PIERRE, CAMERON POOLE, MICHAEL ROZEWSKI, ISABELLA SCOTT, JAKE SIMENHOFF, DALTON SMITH, SPENCER STEWART, ANDREW SULLIVAN, ELISSA TODD, ADAM TSUNG, SHAHAMAT UDDIN, LELAND VAN DEVENTER, AUGUST VEERMAN, EMMA WATTERS, SAM WETZEL, and JACK WOOD. Four students graduated in Fall 2019, including AIDAN ADLER, JESSICA NOVEY, FELICIA TAN, and MEGAN TOBIN.

The Charles H. Murphy Prize in Political Economy was awarded to JOSH AXELROD, MARY BERG, NKETIAH BERKO, MATTHEW BROWN, EVA DILS, CLIFFORD SOLOWAY, COLIN THRELKELD, and LAUREN WALDMAN . The Murphy Institute Public Service Award was presented to EVA DILS and CLIFFORD SOLOWAY The Senior Honors Scholars in Political Economy were

DYLAN BORNE and EVA DILS

JOSH AXELROD was a triple major in English, Jewish Studies, and for his undergraduate thesis, “Greetings from New Jersey: Mapping Literary Jersey”. He will be joining NJ Advance Media for a year-long reporting internship. He will also be working as a temporary Associate Producer at CNN.

JESSICA BECKER interned for the office of the Cook County Public Defender in Chicago, Illinois. She will be taking the LSAT over the summer. In her gap year, she will be working for Legal Aid Chicago and the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing. She will be attending law school beginning in Fall 2021.

MARY BERG was a double major in Political Economy and Spanish. She won the Charles H. Murphy Prize in Political Economy and completed an undergraduate thesis, “The Effects of State Gun Control Laws on the Intimate Partner Homicides of Women”. She received the HispanoAmerican Studies Award from the Department of Spanish & Portuguese. After completing a year of service with City Year, she plans to attend law school beginning in Fall 2021.

NKETIAH BERKO was a double major in Political Economy and Political Science and completed a minor in Philosophy. He won the Charles H. Murphy Prize and was selected to represent our program at the National Undergraduate PPE Colloquium held annually at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. He will be attending law school at Yale University.

DYLAN BORNE was selected as a Senior Honors Scholar in Political Economy for their undergraduate thesis, “Communists’ China: U.S. Marxist Visions of

ECONOMY PROGRAM ’ 20 ]

Anti-Imperialism in the 1970s and 1980s”. They received a Newcomb-Tulane College Dean’s Grant to conduct archival research for their thesis in Washington, D.C. They accessed the Leo Deaner Left-Wing Publications Collection at George Washington University and the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. They will continue trans liberation organizing in New Orleans as they apply for a doctoral program in either political and historical sociology or comparative political science.

MATTHEW BROWN was a dual degree student in Political Economy and Finance in the Altman Program in International Studies & Business. He won the Charles H. Murphy Prize. He will be working as an analyst in the Real Estate Financing Group for Goldman Sachs in Dallas, Texas.

EVA DILS completed the rare triple of winning the Charles H. Murphy Prize, The Murphy Institute Public Service Award, and being selected as a Senior Honors Scholar, the latter for their undergraduate thesis, “Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Identity Discrimination in Access to Mental Health Care: A Pilot Study”. They also won the Class of 1909 Prize to the Outstanding Senior from the Newcomb College Institute and they were selected for Oak Wreath. They topped off the awards season by taking home a prestigious Tulane 34 Award.

SAMUEL EIGEN was a double major in Political Economy and Computer Science. He will be pursuing a graduate degree at Columbia University while working as a Software Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst for Columbia University’s Cybersecurity Department in New York City.

SOPHIE FRASER

minored in French and participated in a translation project for Tulane’s Department of French and Italian. The project required her team to translate more than

four hundred pages of material from the Louisiana Department of Education into French to help incoming teachers from French-speaking countries better acclimate to Louisiana’s K-12 school system. She will be working as a management consultant for Beacon Consulting Group in Portland, Maine. Her position requires her to consult in French for companies operating from Europe.

ANNA GIMILARO qualifies as one of our more active and engaged graduates. She completed internships with multiple entities, including Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA for Children), the New Orleans Child Advocacy Center, Lift Louisiana, and the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center. She served as a tutor with Tulane University Community Action Network and was an ESL tutor for Catholic Charities. And she could always be found out and about at the Reily Student Recreation Center, where she served as manager and trip leader for Outdoor Adventures, from whom she received the Outstanding Outdoor Adventures Employee Award. She will be earning her elementary education certification through Teach NOLA and will be teaching 4th-grade English Language Arts and Social Studies at Paul Habans Charter School in New Orleans.

CHRISTIAN HYDE was a double major in Political Economy and Political Science. He was the president of European Horizons and a member of the Tulane University Marching Band, for which he won the TUMB Award for outstanding band member. He was a MESA Undergraduate Research Workshop participant, where his paper, “Urban Policy in Divided Jerusalem,” was selected as one of only nineteen undergraduate papers to be discussed and presented at the 2019 Middle East Studies Association Conference.

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SARAH E. JONES was a double major in Africana Studies and Political Economy. She was selected to Oak Wreath and won the Class of 1909 Prize for the Outstanding Senior from the Newcomb College Institute. She was named Senior Honors Scholar for Africana Studies for her undergraduate thesis, “Domestic Workers in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” She interned with the Amistad Research Center, Last Word Strategies Communications Consulting Firm, Lift Louisiana, Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s campaign and transition team, and the Tulane Domestic Violence Law Clinic. She was also engaged in leadership positions with SOAR, African American Women’s Society (AAWS), Newcomb Scholars, the Liberal Arts Student Advisory Committee, and the Campus Climate Taskforce.

JENNA KARIC will be joining the Los Angeles cohort of the Coro Foundation’s Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs for 2020-2021. This is a highly selective graduate-level experiential program designed to provide hands-on learning experiences in public policy in order to shape the next generation of leaders in public affairs.

CHRISTINA KRISBERG will be working at Epic Systems in Madison, Wisconsin as a Project Manager, tasked to improve the workflows of large hospitals using the Epic Systems applications, with an eye to a career in healthcare policy.

MATTHEW LERNER is a funny guy. No, seriously, he is really funny. He was president and treasurer of Unscripted Improv, a member of Office Hours Sketch Comedy, and was on the Comedy Board for Tulane Campus Programming. He will take his sense of humor to McMaster-Carr Supply Company in Cleveland, Ohio, where he will join their Management Development Program.

ISABELLA SCOTT was a double major in Political Economy and Studio Art and completed a minor in Art History. She won the Alberta “Rusty” Collier Memorial Award in 2D Art from the Newcomb Art Department. The text for her award speaks volumes to her talent and integrity: “Current and former

professors of Isabella Scott have admired her sharp-eyed and steady focus, as well as her unwavering consistency as a student and painter.  Her attendance to class is foremost an attendance to her craft, which she has pursued rigorously for four years.  The images that come from her hand are fashioned with meticulous precision, tenderness, honesty, and fidelity.  Isabella’s paintings emerge from what is personal and forthright, yet in their cumulative variety offer something magnetic and mysterious.”

DALTON SMITH and ELISSA TODD are a dynamic combination. Together they completed a triple-degree program in Management, Accounting, and Political Economy that resulted in two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree each in five years as students in the Altman Program in International Studies & Business. Dalton will be a Securitized Products Analyst at Credit Suisse, and Elissa will be a Deal Advisory Associate for KPMG, both in New York City.

CLIFFORD SOLOWAY was a double major in Sociology. He won The Murphy Institute Public Service Award and was named Senior Honors Scholar in Sociology for his undergraduate thesis, “No More Business as Usual: Shades of Social Justice Unionism among Automobile Manufacturers and Service Industry Employees.” He interned in the Investigations Department of the Orleans Parish Public Defenders Office, and served as VicePresident of Tulane Students for Justice in Palestine and as Treasurer for Students Organizing Against Racism. He also received a Leaders in Service Award from the Tulane Center for Public Service.

SPENCER STEWART received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and double majored in Political Economy. He worked as an undergraduate research assistant at the Evolutionary Social Cognition Lab in the Tulane Department of Psychology. He will be working for New York Life as a financial advisor and life insurance agent in New Orleans.

COLIN THRELKELD was a double major in Philosophy and Political Economy. He won the Charles H. Murphy Prize and was presented the Anne Butler Hess Award as the top graduating senior in Philosophy. Colin was selected to represent our program at the National Undergraduate PPE Colloquium held annually at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He will pursue an

MSc in Political Theory at London School of Economics with the intention of eventually completing a doctorate in Political Theory or Philosophy.

SHAHAMAT UDDIN double majored in Political Economy and his self-designed Middle Eastern Studies major. He has worked as a volunteer EMT for New Orleans EMS through the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and is a member of the New Orleans Medical Reserve Corps. He was highly active and engaged at Tulane, participating in Green Wave Ambassadors, Tulane Emergency Medical Services as Lead EMT, Tulane Model UN, Tulane Muslim Students Association, School of Liberal Arts Undergraduate Student Government as a Senator, Center for Public Service as a Community Engagement Advocate, as an Undergraduate Program Coordinator for the Center for Academic Equity, as a Peer Advisor for the Tulane Study Abroad Office, and, as his many avid readers know well, as Intersections Editor of The Tulane Hullabaloo

H LELAND VAN DEVENTER will be attending LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans starting in July 2020.

AUGUST VEERMAN will enter Officer Candidate School for the United States Navy.

F LAUREN WALDMAN was a dual-degree student in Political Economy and Finance as a member of the Altman Program in International Studies & Business. She won the Charles H. Murphy Prize and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She will be working as a Credit Research Analyst at Credit Suisse in New York City.

Funds from the Judith Kelleher Schafer Summer Internship Grant Program were used to endow three fellowships in the amount of $3,000 each for Summer 2020. The students who received the funds, along with their graduating class and internship placements, are as follows:

JOSHUA LEVINE ’21 interned for the Pelican Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana.

STEFAN SUAZO ’21 interned for the Third District Volunteer Fire Department in River Ridge, Louisiana.

SARAH WALKER ’21 interned for the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1980s

HEATHER MCARN ’86 F (MA, Columbia, JD, Vermont) joined the New York office of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in October 2019 as Regulatory and Compliance Partner in the Consumer Financial Services Practice. She was previously the chief of staff and special counsel to the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services.

JIM HOLLINGSHAD ’89 is Senior Advisor for Economic and Business Affairs for the Consulate-General of Japan in Nashville, Tennessee.

1990s

GREGORY MADDREY ’91 (MBA, Georgetown ’96, MPH, Columbia ’06) is Director and President of Chartis Consulting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

EDUARDO FEBLES ’92 (PhD, Brown ’00) is Professor of French at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts. He published his English translation of Patrick Autréaux’s novel, In the Valley of Tears , in Fall 2019.

CHARLES ZEWE ’97 is Associate Director of Equity Sales Trading at the Macquarie Group in San Francisco, California. He was

ALUMNI NEWS

previously Executive Director of Equity Sales Trading at Oppenheimer & Company.

2000s

MARQUEST MEEKS ’04 F (JD, Georgetown ’07) is Senior Legal Counsel for Major League Baseball in New York City. Previously he was Senior Legal Counsel for Entergy Corporation and prior to that was Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

LISA FRANKEL LEE ’07 (MBA, Texas ’09) is Senior Brand Manager at the Coca-Cola Company in Sugar Land, Texas.

LUCAS LOCKHART ’08 (PhD, Minnesota ’17) is a Program Evaluator in the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor in Saint

Paul, Minnesota.

ASHLEY ROSE ’09 (MA, Johns Hopkins ’16) is a Strategic Planning and Program Analyst with the United States Secret Service in Washington, D.C.

2010s

LAURA WHITE ’12 (MEd, George Washington ’15, MBA Oxford ’19) is Director of Operations at MyVillage in Oxford, England. MyVillage is a community of high-quality, in-home childcare programs.

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STEPHANIE STEFANSKI ’12 E (MEsc, Yale ’14, PhD, Duke ’19) is an Environmental Economist and an Associate at McKinsey & Company in Washington, D.C.

MORGAN FRANKLIN ’13 F (JD, Harvard ’17) is Lecturer at Harvard Law School and Clinical Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program.

OCTAVIA ABELL ’14 is CEO and Co-founder of Govern for America, a training and internship placement program designed to help local governments increase diversity while providing recent graduates with a pathway to public service positions. She was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for 2020.

MATT SIMON ’15 is Chief of Staff for Technology Operations at Steward Health Care in Boston, Massachusetts.

EMILY LUBIN ’16 (JD, Penn ’19) is Assistant Public Defender for the East Baton Rouge Office of the Public Defender in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

ALYSSA HUANG ’18 was accepted to Harvard Law School and began there in Fall 2020.

Nostalgic for in-person, public lectures? At Tulane and throughout New Orleans, The Murphy Institute is known for hosting fascinating lectures on current issues by leading academics. In order to share these lectures more widely, we also feature our public lectures on our website and YouTube channel. While we eagerly await a return to safe, in-person public events, our public lecture archive is always available.

To see our latest lectures, check us out on YouTube at YouTube.com/MurphyTulane.

HONORS, AWARDS, AND PUBLICATIONS

ANN LIPTON , Michael M. Fleishman

Associate Professor in Business Law and Entrepreneurship, is the author of “Not Everything Is about Investors: The Case for Mandatory Stakeholder Disclosure,” published in the Yale Journal on Regulation 37 (2020), “Beyond Internal and External: A Taxonomy of Mechanisms for Regulating Corporate Conduct,” published in the Wisconsin Law Review (2020), and “After Corwin: Down the Controlling Shareholder Rabbit Hole,” published in the Vanderbilt Law Review 72 (2019).

KEVIN CALLISON , Assistant Professor of Global Health Management and Policy, is co-author of “The Effect of Paid Sick Leave Mandates on Coverage, Work Absences, and Presenteeism,” forthcoming in the Journal of Human Resources , and “A Test of Supply-Side Explanations of Geographic Variation in Health Care Use,” forthcoming in Economic Inquiry .

MARY K. OLSON , Associate Professor of Economics, chaired the dissertation committees of two recent PhDs in Health Economics and Policy, both of whom accepted academic job offers. She is the organizer of the TulaneLSU Applied Microeconomics Conference and the Innovation and Behavior in Health Markets Conference, both of which were rescheduled due to the pandemic but will be held in the future.

DAVID SHOEMAKER , Professor of Philosophy, is the author of “Responsibility: The State of the Question—Fault Lines in the Foundations,” published in The Southern Journal of Philosophy 58, and the chapter “Empathetic SelfControl,” in Alfred Mele, ed., Surrounding Self-Control (Oxford University Press, 2020). He is also editor of Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, Vol.6, published in 2019 by Oxford University Press.

DOUGLAS N. HARRIS, Professor and Chair of Economics, is the author of Charter School City: What the End of Traditional Public Schools in New Orleans Means for American Education , published in 2020 by the University of Chicago Press.

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ALISON DENHAM , Associate Professor of Philosophy, is author of “The Nature of Nurture: Poverty, Father Absence, and Gender Equality,” published in Philosophy and Child Poverty , and “Making Sorrow Sweet: Emotion and Empathy in the Experience of Fiction,” published in Literature and Affect.

DAVID O’BRIEN, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, is author of “Inequality: Do Not Disperse,” forthcoming in Utilitas.

THE MURPHY INSTITUTE IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE GARY HOOVER'S APPOINTMENT AS INCOMING DIRECTOR

The Murphy Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Gary “Hoov” Hoover has accepted the appointment as the new director of the Institute and Professor of Economics, effective January 1, 2021. Hoover comes to The Murphy Institute from the University of Oklahoma, where he has served as the President ’ s Associates Presidential Professor and Chair of Economics. He is co-chair of the American Economics Association ’ s Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession and founding editor of Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy. Hoover, whom University President Mike Fitts and Provost Robin Forman note is a “ national leader in the study of economic policy and its impact on wealth and income inequality,” also specializes in public finance and ethics in economics, and his papers have been published in many top journals. Hoover is as excited to arrive at The Murphy Institute as Tulane is to bring him here. “I am thrilled and humbled to be joining the team as the Executive Director of The Murphy Institute,” he says. “The opportunity to have discussions about the most challenging economic, moral, and political problems of our time is an honor that I cannot wait to begin. The work done by Dr. Sheffrin has given me the firmest of foundations to lead us forward.”

conferences the center for public policy research

TULANE CORPORATE AND SECURITIES LAW ROUNDTABLE

The annual Corporate and Securities Law Roundtable, organized by Murphy Affiliate Ann Lipton, took place at Tulane Law School on Saturday, March 7th. The panels featured lively discussion among many of the country’s leading corporate law scholars.

LEVERS OF CONTROL

Discussant: Elizabeth Pollman, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Institute for Law and Economics, University of Pennsylvania

Beyond Internal and External

Ann M. Lipton, Michael Fleishman Associate Professor in Business Law & Entrepreneurship, Tulane University

Financial Alchemy and Corporate Gov-Lite

Jeremy McClane, Associate Professor of Law, University of Illinois

REGULATING SKYNET

Discussant: J.W. Verret, Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Algorithmic Manipulation

Gina-Gail Fletcher, Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University

Regulating Intermediary Risk in Fintech

Kristin Johnson, McGlinchey Stafford Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research, Tulane University

OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL

Discussant: Sung Eun (Summer) Kim, Assistant Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law

Initial Public Offerings and Optimal Corporate Governance

Arrangements

Albert Choi, Professor of Law, University of Michigan

The Myths and Realities of Corporate Governance in Venture CapitalBacked Private Companies

Jennifer Fan, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Washington

Fiduciary Duties in VentureBacked Firms

Eric Talley, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

MAXIMIZE WEALTH, THEY SAID

Discussant: Brian Quinn, Associate Professor of Law, Boston College

Shareholder Value(s): Index Fund Activism and the New Millennial Corporate Governance

Michal Barzuza, Professor of Law, University of Virginia

Corporate Purpose and Credible Commitments

Lisa M. Fairfax, Alexander Hamilton Professor of Business Law, George Washington University

The Fire Eater: Passive and Active Shareholders in 1950s Corporations

Sarah Haan, Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University

THE ENFORCERS

Discussant: Ann Lipton, Tulane

Private Company Lies

Elizabeth Pollman, Pennsylvania

Coalitions among Plaintiffs' Attorneys in Securities Class Actions

Adam Pritchard, Frances and George Skestos Professor of Law, University of Michigan

ECONOMIC AND BEHAVIORAL

DETERMINANTS OF TAX COMPLIANCE CONFERENCE

Guest writer: Matthias Kasper

In recent years, the traditional dialogue in public economics, and particularly in tax compliance research, has been enriched by incorporating insights from behavioral economics. These insights have enhanced our understanding of tax compliance, and they have touched on many disciplines, including economics, psychology, law, and accounting.

On March 6, 2020, The Murphy Institute and Department of Economics at Tulane hosted a one-day conference to explore new contributions to economic and behavioral dimensions of tax compliance, including empirical, experimental, and theoretical contributions. The conference, organized by James Alm of Tulane's Economics Department and myself, brought together

researchers, administrators, and public servants working on these issues to explore recent advances in the field and to increase awareness of the subject.

The conference provided a multidisciplinary perspective on the determinants of tax compliance, the effects of tax policy reform, and the behavioral implications of tax audits. More specifically, the panels discussed international tax evasion and domestic tax avoidance, and they provided an international perspective on the effects of corruption and noncompliance with value-added taxes. Other panels debated the compliance implications of correspondence audits and the issue of non-filing, as well as the behavioral determinants of tax compliance.

Nina Olson, the former National Taxpayer Advocate, gave the Luncheon address. Her talk “Taxpayer Needs and Preferences in the 21st Century” reflected her decade-long experience as head of the Taxpayer Advocate Service. In her address she emphasized that a multidisciplinary perspective on taxpayer behavior is crucial for tax agencies to provide high-quality services and to ensure high levels of tax compliance.

The conference featured Sebastian Beer (IMF), James Prieger (Pepperdine University, School of Public Policy), Anh Pham (George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government), Nikolaos Artavanis (Virginia Tech, Pamplin College of Business), Alan Plumley (IRS), Brian Erard (B. Erard & Associates), Erich Kirchler (University of

Vienna, Department of Psychology), and Matthias Kasper (Tulane, Economics) as presenters. James Alm (Tulane, Economics), Kevin Callison (Tulane, Economics), Adam Feibelman (Tulane, School of Law), Elliott Isaac (Tulane, Economics), Steve Sheffrin (Tulane, Murphy Institute), James Richardson (Louisiana State University, Department of Economics), Daniel Mochon (Tulane, Freeman School of Business), and Alexander Siebert (Tulane, Economics) served as discussants.

The presentations stimulated a lively debate, and the participants agreed that the economic and behavioral determinants of tax compliance will remain an important topic in public economics and beyond.

the center for public policy research

workshop in regulation

workshops

In this workshop from the Center on Law and the Economy, visiting scholars present works in progress on regulation of economic activity. The faculty conveners for the 2019–2020 academic year were Adam Feibelman and Blair Druhan Bullock in Law and Steven Sheffrin in Economics and The Murphy Institute.

CARLA REYES

Assistant Professor of Law, Michigan State University Corporate Crypto-Governance

SALLY RICHARDSON

A.D. Freeman Associate Professor of Civil Law, Tulane University

An Exploration into Louisiana Enclosed Estate Doctrine

ANUP MALANI

Lee and Brena Freeman

Professor of Law, University of Chicago Tolerating Slums

SCOTT BAKER

Vice Dean for Research and Faculty Development and William F. & Jessica L. Kirsch

Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis Compromising Accuracy to Encourage Regulatory Participation (co-written with Anup Malani)

SADIE BLANCHARD

Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Sustaining Informal

Contracting:

A Case Study of Reinsurance (co-written with Matthew Jennejohn)

next steps

Congratulations to Mary Elizabeth (Beth) Glenn and Matthias Kasper, who have completed their two-year appointments as Postdoctoral Fellows in the Center for Public Policy Research.

Beth, who specializes in Education, has accepted a permanent position with the Education Research Alliance, where she is now Senior Research Fellow.

Matthias, who was the Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Finance, is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna.

The Murphy Institute Working Groups on Health Policy and on Public Policy bring together faculty from numerous disciplines across Tulane’s campuses to establish a network of professionals and produce interdisciplinary research that addresses critical policy issues. Despite spring cancelations, we had two health policy workshops during the 2019-2020 academic year. At the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year, both the health and public policy working groups resumed in full force, albeit on Zoom. The Fall 2020 working groups are also highlighted below.

HEALTH POLICY WORKING GROUP

XUANHAO HE

Postdoctoral Fellow, Economics and The Murphy Institute

Physician Payment and Demand for Health Insurance: Evidence from Medicaid Primary Care Payment Parity

AUGUSTINE DENTEH

Assistant Professor of Economics

Using Machine Learning to Estimate the Heterogenous Impacts of Medicaid Managed Care

ANDREW ANDERSON

Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management

Follow-up Post-discharge and Readmission Disparities among Medicare Fee-for-Service Beneficiaries

ENGY ZIEDAN

Assistant Professor of Economics

Medicare Reimbursements and Innovation

SIOBHAN INNES-GAWN

Ph.D. Candidate, Economics

Strategic Generic Entry Deterrence: The Case of Pharmaceutical Product Hopping

XUANHAO HE

Postdoctoral Fellow, Economics and The Murphy Institute

Does Makena Work? A QuasiExperimental Approach to Examine the Drug Treating Preterm

PUBLIC POLICY WORKING GROUP

HAIBIN JIANG

Postdoctoral Fellow, Economics and The Murphy Institute

The Effects of the Child Care Tax Credit on Maternal Labor Supply

LAN NGUYEN

Postdoctoral Fellow, Economics and The Murphy Institute

The Effects of the New Orleans School Reforms on Youth Crime (with Stephen Barnes and Douglas N. Harris)

seminars & lectures the center for ethics and public affairs

Organized by Professor Bruce Brower, the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs speaker series brings leading academics to Tulane to present their latest research. The 2019-2020 series was particularly strong, with topics ranging from consent to free speech, and from the origins of liberalism to political equality.

JOSÉ MEDINA

Walter Dill Scott Professor, Northwestern University

Capital Vices, Institutional Failures, and Epistemic Neglect in a County Jail

THOMAS MERRILL

Associate Professor, American University

Hume’s Revolution: Puritanism, Divine Right Monarchy, and the Origins of Liberalism

FIERY CUSHMAN

Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University

How We Know What Not to Think

SHELLY KAGAN

Clark Professor of Philosophy, Yale University

What Is the Opposite of Well-Being?

JAPA PALLIKKATHAYIL

Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh

What Is Consent?

DEREK BAKER

Associate Professor of Philosophy, Lingnan University

A Real Marketplace of Ideas Will Constrain Speech—and That’s a Good Thing

HILLE PAAKKUNAINEN

Associate Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University

Virtue and Practical Interference

AMANDINE CATALA

BENJAMIN ROSSI

CEPA Faculty Fellow, Murphy Institute

Hypocrisy Is Blameworthy, ValueExpressing Inconsistency

Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Quebec at Montreal

CEPA Faculty Fellow, Murphy Institute Colonial Memory, Epistemic Injustice, and Political Equality

SHYAM NAIR

Associate Professor, Arizona State University

CEPA Faculty Fellow, Murphy Institute

The Moral Mathematics of "Adding Up" Reasons

Pittsburgh

PPE 2020: ETHICS AND MIGRATION

The PPE Conference is an annual event organized by the editors of the journal PPE: Politics, Philosophy & Economics . The 2020 conference brought international experts to discuss some of the most pressing issues of our time. Papers presented at the conference are slated for a special issue of the journal, subject to peer review.

PAUL BOU-HABIB

Professor of Government, University of Essex

The Brain Drain as Exploitation

Session Chair and Comments: MARC FLEURBAEY

Professor of Economics, Yale University

conferences the center for ethics and public affairs

JAVIER HIDALGO

Associate Professor of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond

Who Has a Principled Case for Open Borders?

Session Chair: KRISTI OLSON

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bowdoin College

PATTI LENARD

Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa

Sanctuary as a Model of Democratic Non-cooperative Resistance

Session Chair and Comments: MELISSA SCHWARTZBERG

Silver Professor of Politics, NYU

MARTIN RUHS

Professor and Deputy Director of the Migration Policy Center, European University Institute and Associate Professor of Political Economy, University of Oxford

Public Attitudes and Refugee Protection in Rich Democracies

Session Chair: PETER VANDERSCHRAAF

Professor of Political Economy, University of Arizona

JOSEPH CARENS

Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto

Why Do Political Philosophers Disagree?

Session Chair and Comments: JACK KNIGHT

Frederic Cleaveland Professor of Law and Political Science, Duke University

the center for ethics and public affairs

NOWAR 2019 conferences

NOWAR, the New Orleans Workshop in Agency and Responsibility, is an international biennial conference organized by Professor David Shoemaker.

The Oxford University Press series Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility (edited by Professor Shoemaker) draws on presentations from this conference.

CANDACE VOGLER

Stern Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago

Keynote: Of the Highest Good

JADA TWEDT STRABBING

Associate Professor of Philosophy, Wayne State University Blame and Fitting Attitudes

HANNAH TIERNEY

Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Sydney Guilty Confessions

CARLA BAGNOLI

Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, University of Modena Disclaiming Responsibility, Voicing Disagreements, and Negotiating Boundaries

DAVID BEGLIN

Postdoctoral Fellow, Law and Philosophy, UCLA

Unconditional Forgiveness and Normative Condescension

PAMELA HIERONYMI

Professor of Philosophy, UCLA Keynote: Fairness, Sanction, Condemnation

DANIEL TELECH

Fellow, Polonsky Academy, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute Accountability Praise

ANESS WEBSTER

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Nottingham Agency and Autonomy: Lessons from Marginalized Identities

MICHAEL BRATMAN

Durfee Professor, Stanford University Shared Agency and the Construction of Organized Institutions

DEREK LAM

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Stipulative Agency

RICHARD MORAN

Young Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University

Keynote: Self-Division, Self-Identity, and Self-Consciousness in Moral Psychology

Outgoing Director Steven Sheffrin Reflects on a Decade of Progress Ahead of an Exciting Transition

After serving as director of The Murphy Institute for eleven years, I stepped down from my leadership role at the end of 2020 and turned over the reins to our newly appointed director, Professor Gary Hoover. All institutions need an infusion of new leadership from time to time. Incoming leaders bring new ideas, fresh perspectives, and arrive prepared to challenge underlying assumptions. Leadership transitions are also a time to reflect upon changes and accomplishments. The Murphy Institute’s progress during the last decade has been striking, changing its trajectory in fundamental ways.

When I assumed the directorship, we had two principal programs—the undergraduate Political Economy program and the Center for Ethics. Both had developed under the guidance of long-term director Professor Richard Teichgraeber. The undergraduate program continues fundamentally unchanged and has become the leading program within the School of Liberal Arts and a drawing card for new undergraduate recruits to Tulane. The Center for Ethics was also well established, bringing Faculty Fellows to the Institute and sponsoring highly stimulating intellectual seminars, lectures, and conferences.

My principal goal as a newly appointed director was to integrate the Institute more fully into the Tulane campus and extend its reach outward to the city, state, and nation. Institutionally, I founded the Center for Public Policy Research and used this vehicle to develop programs in conjunction with the Department of Economics, the School of Law, and other scholars around Tulane. Here on campus, these activities included establishing programs for postdoctoral students, graduate students, and Visiting Assistant Professors; developing focused areas of study, including health policy, which drew on faculty expertise from across the campus; fostering new data analysis capabilities; establishing new workshops in public policy; and creating new classes for both undergraduate and graduate students. Because of these programs, several Tulane academic units—the departments of Philosophy, Economics, and the School of Law—now see themselves as very closely aligned and identified with The Murphy Institute. These new relationships also helped to strengthen our existing programs, as a broader group of faculty members now saw themselves as part of a wider intellectual project, and raised the ambitions of the faculty.

Beyond the Tulane campus, we have been able to channel the enhanced faculty resources of the Institute to take a prominent role in several public policy ventures. We worked with faculty and graduate students at Tulane and LSU to conduct a major study of Louisiana’s tax system, which became embodied in legislative initiatives and provided the roadmap for a major state governmental task force on restructuring the state’s fiscal system. We regularly advised lawmakers and their staffs as well as a variety of nonprofits on fiscal matters both in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. We also coordinated with major national organizations, including the Brookings Institution and the American Tax Policy Institute, to share the expertise of our faculty on a national scale through webinars.

I like to think that after the progress of the last decade, The Murphy Institute is now fully outwardly focused to the Tulane community and beyond. That means that our partners both on and off the campus now turn to us with new ideas and new initiatives they wish to explore. Our growth has been organic, with partners with ideas and suggestions that are consistent with the overall Murphy mission. As we look forward to a new decade for the Institute, this outward orientation will remain a most important asset.

None of these changes would have possible without the tireless work of all our faculty and staff. I learned so much—both institutionally and intellectually—from interacting with all of you. Your care for the Institute was always evident. The leadership at Tulane and on the Tulane Murphy Foundation Board was always supportive and encouraging. Provosts Michael Bernstein and Robin Foreman, Tulane Presidents Scott Cowen and Mike Fitts, and Board Chair Martha Murphy always made me feel that we were on a joint venture to raise the Institute to new heights. It has been a deep privilege and a true pleasure to work with you. My only wish is that the Institute continues to flourish as a unique, singular force in education and public affairs.

Steven M. Sheffrin, Executive Director December 2020

the center for ethics and public affairs 2019–2020 faculty fellow profiles

THE FACULTY FELLOWS PROGRAM lies at the heart of the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs.

Each year, the Center for Ethics invites faculty from around the world who work in the fields of ethics and public affairs to enter the Center’s annual faculty fellowship competition. Selected scholars spend an academic year at the Center, working on their own research projects, participating in the Center’s events, and fostering academic connections with Tulane faculty and graduate students.

AMANDINE CATALA had a very successful fellowship year at The Murphy Institute’s Center for Ethics and Public Affairs. Time off from teaching allowed her to focus on her research program on epistemic injustice and agency, including a monograph and series of articles. The aim of these works is to “provide a systematic philosophical account of the ways in which individuals may not be adequately believed or understood because they belong to non-dominant social groups.”  Putting her time at the Center to good use, Professor Catala completed the first draft of her manuscript and published two articles: “Multicultural Literacy, Epistemic Injustice, and White Ignorance,” in Feminist Philosophy Quarterly , and “ Metaepistemic Injustice and Intellectual Disability: A Pluralist Account of Epistemic Agency” in Ethical Theory in Moral Practice .  She also completed five papers, which are currently under review, and garnered two grants: one for Canada Research Chair on Epistemic Injustice and Agency for 2019-2024 and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Grant for 2020-2025.

Professor Catala found The Murphy Institute an excellent place to conduct research:  “In addition to providing invaluable time to write and feedback on the work in progress,” she says, “being a Faculty Fellow at the Murphy provided a stimulating and friendly intellectual environment, with many opportunities to hear and discuss interesting works and ideas, whether through the seminars and public lectures or the NOWAR and PPE conferences.”  She also notes that “enjoying many of the wonderful things Tulane and New Orleans have to offer made my sabbatical both productive and fun.”

After a productive year, Professor Catala returned to Canada, where she is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Canada Research Chair on Epistemic Injustice and Agency at University of Quebec at Montreal.

Affairs.

ethscholars in the students.

SHYAM NAIR , Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State University, received his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 2014 and focuses his research at the intersection of ethics, epistemology, and philosophical logic.  His interest in ethics is broad.  He has published journal articles on the role of idealization in ethics (“Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” in Nous ), the relevance of  moral uncertainty (“Normative Uncertainty and the Dependence Problem,” in Mind ), and in population ethics applied to animals (“The Diner’s Defense,” in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy ).

He spent his fellowship year at The Murphy Institute working on a project on decision-dependence.  The phenomenon of decision-dependence, he explains, involves “ cases where some important input into our moral evaluation of options depends on the decision we actually make – for instance, when the identity and number of future citizens depends on what policymakers choose.”

Despite being a relatively recent Ph.D., Nair is already making a name for himself as one of the most dynamic academics working in his field.  In addition to the highly ranked journals Nous, Mind, and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy , his work appears in numerous other leading venues, including  Philosophical Studies and  Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , and he has published chapters in the Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity  and the Routledge Handbook of Philosophy

BENJAMIN ROSSI specializes in ethics, with a particular focus on meta-normativity, with additional research interests in the philosophy of law, free will and moral responsibility, the ethics of blame, and political philosophy. His work appears in a wide range of leading venues, including The American Journal of Bioethics , Ethical Theory and Moral Practice , and Law and Philosophy . He also has a chapter in the Routledge Companion to Free Will

As a Faculty Fellow, Rossi devoted most of his time to his research project on the nature and ethics of hypocrisy. “ Essentially,” he explains, “I want to answer the following questions: What is hypocrisy? Why and under what conditions is it morally objectionable?” During his tenure at The Murphy Institute, he published the article “Hypocrisy Is Vicious, Value-Expressing Inconsistency” in the  Journal of Ethics , and “False Exemplars: Admiration and the Ethics of Public Monuments” in the Journal of Ethics and Social Policy . The latter article is a philosophically grounded intervention into the popular debate about what to do with existing monuments to historical figures who are now widely considered to be perpetrators of unjust acts. He also presented the paper “ Hypocrisy Is Blameworthy, Value-Expressing Inconsistency” at a Faculty Seminar, reporting “great feedback on my work” at the event.

Rossi is grateful for the time that the fellowship afforded him for research as well as the ideal environment for conducting it. “The fellowship,” he says, “provided an amazing opportunity to work on my project, as well as stimulating conversations, lectures, and seminars.”