ASU Professor Joan McGregor named new director of Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics
The Lincoln Center’s current mission is focused on exploring responsible uses of AI and the development of more humane technologies that center the human in new innovations. ASU photo
Arizona State University’s Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics welcomed Joan McGregor, a professor for the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, as its new director on Aug. 15.
McGregor's research interests center on bioethics, environmental ethics and sustainability. Her recent scholarship focuses on questions of food justice, health and the unintended consequences of practices and technologies in our food systems.
These foci share key interests of the Lincoln Center’s current mission, which is focused on exploring responsible uses of AI and the development of more humane technologies that center the human in new innovations.
“I could not be more thrilled to have Joan McGregor at the helm of a center whose importance has only grown since its founding," said Jeffrey Cohen, dean of humanities for The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. "We live in a time when we urgently need better thinking about and training in applied ethics, especially as technological advancements continue to extend what we can do without regard to what we should do.”
Another research focus of McGregor’s is building moral and social norms that bind our democratic society. Her latest project, just funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. through the Educating Character Initiative, is titled "Cultivating Civic, Moral, and Epistemic Virtues Among Undergraduates in Arizona’s Public Universities." This institutional grant seeks to build educational leaders to cultivate the civic virtues in their classes.
McGregor received her PhD in philosophy from the University of Arizona in 1985, with a minor in law. She has taught at Florida State University, the University of Hawaii, the University of Arizona and the University of Padua, Italy — but throughout her career, she found her way back to ASU.
With many appointments throughout her career at ASU, McGregor’s relationship with the Lincoln Center began in 2002 as an affiliate faculty and Lincoln Professor.
"Dr. McGregor is a longtime affiliate of the center, as well as a renowned expert in the field. Under her leadership, its future is bright,” Cohen said.
Since the passing of the Lincoln Center’s director, Gaymon Bennett, earlier this year, the role of leadership has been filled by Interim Director Sarah Florini, during which the Lincoln Center was awarded for its continued work on responsible AI and algorithmic justice. Also during this time, the center launched three work groups focused on issues of humane technology.
Under the new leadership of McGregor, the center will continue its renewed mission of pursuing more ethical innovations and investigating technologies that promote human flourishing. Research will also expand into other areas of applied ethics, such as bioethics, supporting ASU’s new medical school and the cultivation of virtue and character in higher education.
“I am excited to take leadership of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics,” McGregor said. “Joan and David Lincoln were visionaries about the role of higher education in cultivating moral character and producing first-class research in applied ethics across the university. I intend to build our center into a premiere ethics center in the United States.”
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