Initiatives

Since the founding of the Center, we have been funding several initiatives involving research, undergraduate education, an annual conference, and more.


RESEARCH

Over the past three years, we have funded synergy, emerging, momentum, and research partnership scholars. We also fund scientist/practitioner pratnerships.

Inaugural Conference for the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding

  • These postdoctoral fellows and senior PhD students form a collaborative network between the Center and their home labs. These scholars investigate the nature of moral understanding across politics, religion, and race.

    Synergy Scholars: Diego Reinero, Matti Wilks, Steven Rathje, Daniel Yudkin

  • These early career scholars are rising stars in the field with the promise to guide the future of the field of moral understanding. These scholars will initialize projects that will serve as the foundation for their future careers investigating moral understanding.

    Emerging Scholars: Michael Grigoni, Jeffrey Lees, Melanie McGrath, Victoria Spring, Michael Stagnaro

  • These mid-to-early career scholars have a proven track record of making discoveries related to moral understanding and disseminating these discoveries to a wide audience. These scholars will leverage their past success to discover barriers to moral understanding and how to overcome them.

    Momentum Scholars: Matt Baldwin, Mark Brandt, Lisa Chalik, Daniel Effron, Allison Skinner, Julian Zlatev

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  • Science-practitioner Scholars: Julia Minson, Juliana Schroeder, Michael Yeomans, Daniel Hack, Stacey McElroy-Heltzel, Shauna Bowes, Alexander Garinther, John Sarrouf, Nadiya Brock, Damien Lally, Micah Kessel, Sa-Kiera T.J. Hudson, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Lulu Miller, Joel Mier


Undergraduate Education

The future of any field hinges on the growth of undergraduate students. The Center fosters undergraduate students through key initiatives.

© The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

© The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  • This undergraduate course was developed to provide a solid scientific basis in the issues surrounding intolerance and the latest research in solving them. It also provides experiential learning through discussing politics and religion with those who disagree. Click here to access the course site containing all the materials needed to teach the course.

  • The Science of Moral Understanding Summer Program is a free 8-week online program opportunity for undergrads and recent graduates. Students will have the opportunity to join our public lecture series, research seminar, and research workshop. This year, we host a great group of professors, including Paul Bloom, Robb Willer, Sylvia Perry, and more, who share some of their recent work and trends in the research on how best to bridge moral and political divides across people. Following these presentations, Center staff give a short research seminar on areas of the research process or methods that are typically less emphasized in most research methods courses. Finally, in research workshops, students are grouped with other students and a TA based on shared research interests and get the opportunity to apply what they learn in the seminars to their own cumulative project on moral understanding or bridging political divides.