EPL Event Archive

Spring 2024 Ethics Colloquium

March 1: David Sobel (Syracuse University)

April 19: Ashwini Vasanthakumar (Queen’s University Law School)

Fall 2023 Ethics Colloquium

October 6: Daniel Jacobson (University of Colorado Boulder)

October 20: Renee Jorgensen (University of Michigan)

Spring 2023 Ethics Colloquium

April 21: Massimo Renzo (King's College London)

May 5: Justin D'Arms (Ohio State)

Fall 2022 Ethics Colloquium

October 14: David Brink (UC San Diego)

October 28th: Seth Lazar (Australian National U.)

November 4th: Sarah McGrath (Princeton)

Fall 2021 Ethics Colloquium

September 24th: Michael Smith (Princeton)

October 22nd: Luvell Anderson (Syracuse)

November 12th: Victoria McGeer (Princeton)

December 3rd: Susan Wolf (UNC)

Fall 2020 Public Debate Series

The Program on Ethics and Public Life hosted a public debate on October 1: "Health vs. Economy in the pandemic response: What is the right balance?"

This discussion featured Matthew Adler, professor of law and economics at Duke University and Peter Vallentyne, the Florence G. Kline Chair in Philosophy at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The debate was moderated by Rachana Kamtekar, Cornell professor of philosophy.

The full video recording of this event is now available to view via Cornell's video on demand.

Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 Speaker Series

"Politics and Justice in the Era of Donald Trump"

Sept. 12: Daniel Ziblatt (Government, Harvard) on danger signs and lessons from how democracies die

Oct. 15: Michael Dawson (Political Science, Chicago) on the politics of identity in the struggles for change

Nov. 12: Brian Schaffner (Political Science, Tufts) on the roles of racism, sexism and economic anxiety in support for Donald Trump

Feb. 14: Sheri Berman (Political Science, Barnard) on current challenges to democracy in Europe

Videos of lectures from Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 are available here.

EPL's Documentaries on China

EPL has created two documentaries on China. "The Two Worlds of Mr. Chen," about a migrant family in China split between beijing and a tiny village in Henan, is based on footage shot for EPL. The Chens' responses to the challenges of their urban/rural split and the views of the past and present and hopes for the future expressed by the Chens and their fellow-villagers illuminate great transformation of life in China. "Tiananmen 1985 in Depth" presents the course of the protests and their repression, including the diverse views of participants, making use of contemporary videos and an audio recording of events in the square the night of the final crackdown. These documentaries are included, along with shorter EPL videos on China, in eplchina.cornell.edu.

Spring 2018 Speaker Series

"The Difficulty of Democracy: Challenges & Prospects"

Feb. 9: Paul Pierson (Political Science, Berkeley) on The Risk of ‘Democratic Backsliding’: How Inequality & Polarization Threaten American Democracy”

Feb. 26: Nicholas Carnes (Political Science, Duke), Why is the U.S. Government an Upper-Class Club?: Class Barriers to Political Office and the Future of American Democracy

March 12: Cheng Li (Brookings) on The Fate of Intra-Party Democracy in the Era of Xi Jinping: Paradoxes, Perils, and Prospects

March 26: Michel Dawson (Political Science, Chicago) rescheduled for 2018

April 16: Atul Kohli (Politics, Princeton) on India’s Two-Track Democracy: Vibrant Citizens, Oligarchic Rulers

April 30: Arlie Hochschild (Sociology, Berkeley) on Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger at Government & Liberal Hopes, Can We Come Together Without Losing Ground?