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Moral Psychology Research Group Conference

Despite spending the past academic year at Stanford as a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Professor Timothy Schroeder organized a meeting of the interdisciplinary Moral Psychology Research Group; the meeting was hosted by Ohio State’s Department of Philosophy, November 16-18, 2012.

The conference, which centered on the topic of order and disorder in the moral mind, brought together philosophers, psychologists, and other scholars from institutions across the nation.

The first afternoon of the event featured talks by Schroeder himself—on moral compulsions and desire—and Ohio State philosophy graduate student Christa Johnson, on OCD and free agency.

The subsequent days of the conference included talks by a diverse line-up of moral psychology researchers: Victor Kumar, philosophy, University of Arizona; Nina Strohminger, psychology, University of Michigan; John Mikhail, law, Georgetown University; Jesse Graham, psychology, University of Southern California; Shaun Nichols, philosophy, University of Arizona; Dan Kelly and Natalia Washington, philosophy, Purdue University; and Simine Vazire, psychology, Washington University.

Professor Richard Samuels hosted a party for all participants and attendees on the opening night of the conference. The second night featured a dinner for members of the research group at local restaurant, DeepWood.

Overall, the conference fostered lively and productive exchanges among scholars with varied approaches to topics surrounding moral reasoning and cognition; these included not only the aforementioned speakers, but many other members of the Moral Psychology Research Group—who came from around the country to attend the conference—along with Ohio State students and faculty, who attended the conference in large numbers despite the pleasant autumn weekend.