In an era of deep division and conflict, how should MIT think about the moral formation of its students? Does character matter, and should the university - particularly one focused on science and engineering such as MIT - play a role in building it? And how does one do so in a way that respects the pluralistic society that MIT happily supports? Join Prof. Jennifer Herdt and the Octet Collaborative for a thought-provoking conversation in pursuit of intellectual hospitality.

Jennifer A. Herdt is Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale University’s Divinity School.  She is the author, most recently, of Assuming Responsibility: Ecstatic Eudaimonism and the Call to Live Well(link is external).  Her 2019 book, Forming Humanity: Redeeming the German Bildung Tradition(link is external), was supported by a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.  She is also the author of Putting on Virtue: The Legacy of the Splendid Vices (link is external)(selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title), and of Religion and Faction in Hume’s Moral Philosophy(link is external), and has published widely on virtue ethics, early modern and modern moral thought, and political theology. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Christian Ethics, Studies in Christian Ethics, and the Journal of Religion, and served as the 2020 President of the Society of Christian Ethics. From 2013-2021, she served as the academic dean of Yale Divinity School. She is currently researching more-than-human creaturely agency as a senior member of a research team that has received a $3.9M, 3-year collaborative grant from the Templeton Foundation(link is external) in 2020 to pursue projects in science-informed theological anthropology.

This event is by invitation only. If you’re interested in attending, please email comm@octetcollaborative.org