Gruen Elected Fellow of Hastings Center

Lori Gruen, chair and professor of philosophy, professor of environmental studies, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, has been elected a fellow of the prestigious Hastings Center.

The 45-year-old center, an independent bioethics research institute, addresses ethics in the areas of health, medicine and the environment.

“I’m delighted to be elected a fellow of the Hastings Center,” Gruen said. “The research publications (from Hastings) are cutting edge, and have been an integral part of my teaching.”

Gruen is coordinator of Wesleyan Animal Studies and director of the university’s Ethics in Society project, which aims to develop and foster teaching, scholarship, and institutional reflection on the ethical challenges facing individuals and society. Her work lies at the intersection of ethical theory and ethical practice, with a particular focus on ethical issues that impact those often overlooked in traditional ethical investigations, including women, people of color, and non-human animals.

She is the author most recently of Ethics and Animals: An Introduction. She edited, most recently, Ecofeminism: Feminist Intersections with Other Animals and the Earth (Bloomsbury Academic) and The Ethics of Captivity (Oxford University Press).

Hastings Center fellows are an elected group of accomplished individuals including academics, scientists, journalists, lawyers, novelists and artists, whose common distinguishing feature is insight and impact in the areas of critical concern to the center. These include how best to manage the uncertainties and societal effects of advances in the life sciences, the need to improve health and health care for all, and the mitigation of human impact on the natural world.