Center for Ethics selects its 2002-03 Safra Fellows

The University Center for Ethics and the Professions has selected five Harvard graduate students to be named Edmond J. Safra Graduate Fellows in Ethics. Under the direction of Arthur Applbaum, professor of ethics and public policy at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), the new fellows will devote their time to an approved course of research and study, and will take part in a weekly center seminar. Fellows will read works in practical ethics and discuss research problems and strategies common to the study of ethics in the several professions. In addition, graduate fellows are encouraged to take part in the wider intellectual life of the center with the Faculty Fellows in Ethics. (See the Sept. 19 Harvard Gazette for an article on the 2002-03 Faculty Fellows in Ethics.)

The deadline for applications for the 2003-04 graduate fellowship is Nov. 18, 2002. For further information, contact the center at (617) 495-1336.

The Edmond J. Safra Graduate Fellows in Ethics

Tal Ben-Shachar is a Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior. His research concerns the application of social psychology to ethics, asking questions regarding how the empirical study of human nature can inform the study of ethical behavior and what a manager interested in creating an ethical team or organization can learn from research in psychology. Ben-Shachar graduated from Harvard College with a degree in philosophy and psychology and then spent a year at the University of Cambridge studying education as Harvard’s John Eliot Scholar. He has been the teaching fellow for courses in psychology applied to business, applied social psychology, and personality psychology.

Maximo Langer is an S.J.D candidate at Harvard Law School (HLS). His dissertation examines whether there have been tendencies toward globalization in criminal procedure, both in the common and in the civil law worlds, analyzing what is at stake in these globalizing tendencies from the perspective of political philosophy. Langer earned an LL.M from HLS and an LL.B magna cum laude from the School of Law of the University of Buenos Aires. In Argentina, he clerked for a federal judge, and taught jurisprudence, criminal law, and procedure. He has been awarded the Byse-Rockefeller Center, Fulbright, Harvard-Fortabat, and Organization of American States fellowships, and has published in the fields of criminal procedure and criminology. Langer teaches a Law School workshop on legal transplants and globalization in criminal procedure.

Sara Olack is a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy. In her dissertation, she will develop a theory of punishment. Drawing on the classical tradition of social contract theory, she will argue that the relations between the members of a well – constituted political society are characterized by certain forms of reciprocity and respect. She will maintain that punishment is best understood as the means by which the political society expresses its commitment to these forms in its relations with persons who fail to conform to them. Olack will argue that this view of punishment and its related conception of desert incorporate the most plausible elements of contemporary deterrent and retributive accounts of punishment while avoiding their shortcomings. Olack holds a B.A. in philosophy from Rice University. At Harvard she has been a teaching fellow for courses in the philosophy of law, ancient philosophy, and the history of moral philosophy.

Martin O’Neill is a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy. His research centers on issues of responsibility, autonomy, and distributive justice. His dissertation will explore the ways in which our understanding of the metaphysics of action should influence our conception of the nature of equality. He is generally interested in moral, political, and legal philosophy, and has published on Wittgenstein’s conception of logical necessity. Originally from London, Martin attended Oxford University before coming to Harvard. He holds a B.A. in philosophy, politics, and economics, and an M.A. and a B.Phil. in philosophy from Balliol College. At Harvard, he has been a teaching fellow for courses on ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of law in the Core Program, and has on three occasions been awarded a Certificate of Excellence in Teaching from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.

Patrick Shin is a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy. His dissertation will examine various conceptions of what might be called the right to equal treatment, i.e., the right of an individual not to be treated differently from other individuals who are similar in morally relevant respects. He will explore the types of considerations that can and cannot justify differential treatment of individuals. Shin received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Before beginning his Ph.D. studies, he served as a law clerk for a federal district judge in Boston and for two judges on the 1st U.S. Court of Appeals. He also spent several years in the litigation department of a large Boston law firm. At Harvard, he has taught a tutorial on the concept of rights and has been a teaching fellow in courses on the philosophy of action, the philosophy of law, and the nature of moral motivation.