ISHF Fall 2021 Newsletter

FALL 2021
NEWSLETTER

Table of Contents 2
3
Welcome Message from the Director 3
Recap of Spring and Summer 2021 4
4
Civic Virtues Project Phase 2 and Strategic Plan Implementation Project 5
Teaching Intellectual Virtues 6
Self, Virtue, and Public Life Subawardee Conference 6
Kirkpatrick Foundation Grant Funding, “What is Home?” Project 7
Activities Planned for Fall 2021 7
Virtue Forum Luncheons 8
Faith, Civic Virtue, and Public Life Speakers’ Series 8
Virtue Focus Groups 8
OU Character Education Initiative 8
Practical Wisdom Conference 9
Second Subawardee Conference 9
Poetry Event 9
Financial Update and Future Plans 10
From the Desk of the Director of Finance 10
Future Plans 11
Fond Farewells 12
Dr. Michael Barnes 12
Dr. Devin McCarthy 12
Welcome to New Team Members 13
Dr. Adam Green 14
Grant Kauk 15
Notable Recognitions
ISHF Team
Acknowledgements

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Message from the Director

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing! I hope you enjoy our Fall
2021 Newsletter. Despite the pandemic, we have been proceeding with activities as best we
can. Our fall 2021 newsletter is divided into five sections. In the first, we provide an
overview of activities that we undertook in the spring and summer of 2021, some of which
are ongoing for the 2021-22 academic year. In the second, we review the talks, focus groups,
and conferences that we’re planning for fall 2021, and comment on a poetry event we are planning for the fall with
the generous support of the Kirkpatrick Foundation. In the third, we offer a brief financial update and discuss two
exciting grant opportunities. Fourth, we give a fond farewell to our two outstanding postdoctoral fellows, Drs.
Michael Barnes, and Devin McCarthy, by giving an overview of the research they did during the pandemic year of
2020-21. Finally, we welcome two newcomers to the Institute, Dr. Adam Green, who is joining OU as a member of
the Philosophy Department and a part-time addition to the Institute, and Mr. Grant Faulk, our new work study
student.

As always, we wish you health, prosperity, good friends, and family – in a word – flourishing – for the
upcoming year!

Warmly,

Nancy

University of Oklahoma, Norman Campus, South Oval Mums

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Recap of Spring and Summer 2021

Civic Virtues Project – Phase 2
Strategic Plan Implementation Project

The Civic Virtues Project Phase II (CVP II) is funded by a generous grant from the Templeton Religion
Trust and involves the participation of three partner schools from the Norman Public School District (NPS): Norman
High School, Norman North High School, and Irving Middle School. The Strategic Planning Implementation
Project (SPIP) is funded by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation, and involves the participation of
Norman High, Norman North High, Longfellow Middle School, and Washington, Kennedy, and Lakeview
Elementary Schools. Our education outreach team, consisting of Dr. Nancy Snow, Dr. Linda Parsons (Education
Outreach Coordinator), and Dr. Andrew Jebb (Assessment Coordinator), made extensive plans during the fall and
winter of 2020 for the implementation of both projects during the spring and summer of 2021.

At the core of both projects is the implementation of virtue activities in classrooms. In these, students are
taught virtue terms and behavioral lessons to exercise virtues. We’ll discuss CVP II first. In the first phase of the
Civic Virtues Project that focused on the civic virtues of compassion, fairness, and civility, the Teacher’s Guide to
Civic Virtues served as an effective resource for teachers implementing virtue lessons. However, going into the
second phase of the project, which focuses on the intellectual virtues of curiosity, intellectual humility, and open-
mindedness, we adjusted our approach. We reflected deeply on the kinds of changes that would make the
implementation of virtue-relevant activities more user-friendly to teachers. We ended up revising the Teacher’s
Guide to Intellectual Virtues in ways that differ substantially from the Teacher’s Guide to Civic Virtues. We also
enlisted the aid of the Oklahoma State Teacher of the Year for 2021, Ms. Jessica Eschbach, to create parallel
resources for teachers using the learning platform Canvas, which is used by NPS high schools and middle schools.
Dr. Parsons created another electronic resource, padlet. Both electronic resources provide useful tools for
implementing virtue-relevant lessons in the classroom. The Institute hosted preparatory workshops for participating
teachers via Zoom. From July 19-22, the six Norman-area teachers participating in the CVP II met with the ISHF
team for a workshop on virtue education. Each day, the workshops ran for 1.5 hours and had varied content,
including an introduction to virtue ethics, description of project expectations, introduction to online resources, and
mutual brainstorming among participating teachers.

Let’s turn now to the SPIP. The virtues of self-regulation, mindfulness, compassion, and civility were
chosen for this project. From July 26-29, 40 Norman-area teachers representing Norman High School, Norman
North High School, Longfellow Middle School, and Kennedy, Washington, and Lakeview Elementary Schools
participated in the SPIP and met with the ISHF team for 1.5 hours per day for the workshops. A Teacher’s Guide
was prepared for each school. The high schools and Longfellow Middle School were resourced with Canvas
modules prepared by Ms. Eschbach. Online resources for the elementary schools, which use SeeSaw as a learning
platform, were prepared by Mr. Trevor Graham. Dr. Parsons instructed teachers on the use of padlet.

Pre-assessment surveys, prepared by Dr Jebb, for both treatment and control sections have been
administered for both projects. Post-assessment surveys will be administered for both projects at the end of the
semester. Follow-up surveys will be administered early in 2022. We hope thereby to ascertain how effective virtue
activities have been in enabling students to understand and be motivated to be virtuous.

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Teaching Intellectual Virtues

During the spring of 2021, the Institute hosted the Teaching Intellectual Virtues Mini-Conference and four
follow-up workshops, funded by The John Templeton Foundation. As part of this initiative, undertaken in
collaboration with Dr. Hong Lin of the OU Center for Faculty Excellence and Dr. Felix Wao, the Director of the OU
Office of Academic Assessment, we were able to provide stipends and discretionary funds for new or redesigned
course development that meaningfully incorporates intellectual virtues into the curriculum through innovative
pedagogy.

The following faculty proposals were selected. Courses will be taught either during fall 2021 or spring 2022.

“Self, Virtue, and Public Life” Subawardee Conference

The “Self, Virtue, and Public Life Project,” generously funded by the Templeton Religion Trust, funds the work
of eleven international research teams (among other activities). Representatives of these teams met via Zoom on
March 5 and 6, 2021 to share their progress on their respective projects. A pre- and post-event survey collected
attendee affiliations, expectations, and experiences. There were 29 respondents for the pre-event survey, and 17
respondents for the post-event survey. Twenty colleges/universities were represented in the surveys, and respondents
came from ten different disciplines. Despite disruptions caused by the pandemic, all research teams are making good
progress on their projects. Open feedback from the post-event survey included the following comments:

• “Thanks so much for organizing this conference!”
• “After asking a question during one of the talks, I already was contacted in the Zoom chats by another grantee

to possibly collaborate in future conversations and possible projects. Very grateful for this opportunity!”
• “I'm enjoying my time with you all. I hope we can meet in person sometime!”
• “Thanks again for all of your work to make it a great remote conference!”
• “It's been great fun so far. I've learned a lot, and I've enjoyed seeing what the other project participants are

working on.”
• “Great conference!”
• “Greatly appreciate you hosting this”
• “Thank you. I was able to attend only on Saturday, but I was really fascinated by the vast research and a

variety of aspects. I keep learning.
• “The conference was very interesting, and the format was good. To allow a whole hour for each project gave

me an opportunity to get a meaningful insight into what others are doing. The questions after the
presentations were also very good and often helped me to understand the projects much better.

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Kirkpatrick Foundation Grant Funding,
“What is Home?” Project

The Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing, in collaboration with
Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, received a generous
grant from the Kirkpatrick Foundation to support “What is Home? A Digital
Storytelling Project,” involving students from Norman High School and Clinton
High School.

In fall 2020, faculty committees at each school selected students to
participate in the project. After selection, students began the process of
storyboarding (planning the video). They worked on editing 5-10-minute videos
on the topic of "What is Home?" during the spring 2021 semester.
The project sought to enhance students' digital storytelling skills while cultivating the virtues of creativity,
curiosity, open-mindedness, and perseverance. On March 8, students from Clinton and Norman High Schools visited
Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication as part of the project, and listened to presentations by Dean
Ed Kelley, Dr. Nancy Snow, and Mike Boettcher. They were given a tour of Gaylord and were encouraged to
consider careers in journalism and mass communication at OU. A banquet was held at Clinton High School for
parents, school administrators, and board members to showcase students’ work.

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Activities Planned for Fall 2021

Virtue Forum Luncheons

The Institute is pleased to announce the return of the Virtue Forum Luncheons. Our Virtue Forum Luncheon series
began during the planning stages of the Institute as a way for OU faculty and staff to discuss flourishing and virtue at
OU and in higher education generally.

This Fall, approximately once a month, the OU community and other interested parties will convene to share virtue-
related research and explore new ideas. Participants are united by an interest in approaching education informed by an
understanding of human flourishing, character, and virtue. For up-to-date information, please see the ISHF website. Out
of an abundance of caution, each session will be held via ZOOM conferencing. Participants must register to attend.

September 14, 2021 – 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST
Christian Miller, PhD
A.C. Reid Professor, Department of Philosophy
Wake Forest University
"Honesty: Some Preliminary Thoughts about a Stunningly Neglected Virtue."

October 6, 2021 – 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST
Blaine Fowers, PhD

Professor, Department of Education and Psychological Studies
University of Miami

"The STRIVE-4 Model of Virtues as a Research Framework for Realistic Virtues”

November 3, 2021 – 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST
Cheryl Hall, PhD
Associate Prof. & Director, School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies
University of South Florida
“The Emotional Heart of Environmental Virtues”

December 1, 2021 – 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST
Michael Lamb, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Miami
"Title TBD”

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Faith, Civic Virtue, and Public Life Speakers’ Series

Another initiative that is part of the “Self, Virtue, and Public Life Project” is the Faith, Civic Virtue, and
Public Life Speakers’ Series. We are pleased to announce the resumption of this series after delays caused by the
pandemic. Our speakers will be the Reverend Dr. Serene Jones, President of Union Theological Seminary in New
York, and Ms. Krista Tippett, host of the popular NPR series and podcast, “On Being.” Both hail from Oklahoma.

September 23, 2021 – 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. CST
Serene Jones, Ph.D.
President and Johnston Family Professor for Religion & Democracy
Union Theological Seminary
"Crossing Intra-Religious Divides"

October 22, 2021 – 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. CST
Krista Tippett

Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author
“Adventures of Civility”

Virtue Focus Groups

Since its inception, the Institute has promoted nine key virtues: open-mindedness, intellectual humility, love of
learning, honesty, perseverance, self-regulation, civility, compassion, and fairness. Ever mindful of the need for the
virtues to be relevant in today’s world, we have decided to conduct a series of focus groups this fall to revisit and, if
need be, revise the nine virtues. We do this in an effort to ensure that the virtues we promote are beneficial for
students and other members of the OU community – that they actually help people to flourish in today’s world. We
plan to convene four small focus groups in-person to undertake this work on the following dates: September 29,
October 27, November 10, and December 6. Light luncheons will be served at these events. If you are a member of
the OU community and would like to participate, please contact Nancy Snow at [email protected].

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OU Character Education Initiative

At the behest of OU President Joseph Harroz, Jr., and under the direction of Dr. David Surratt, Vice President for
Student Affairs and Dean of Students at OU, the Institute has taken the lead in spearheading the OU Character
Education Initiative. After a series of discussions during the 2020-21 academic year involving multiple units, we
began the integration of five virtues – self-regulation, perseverance, open-mindedness, civic engagement, and justice –
into the Camp Crimson first-year orientation experience. University College, which has long been a pioneer in
integrating virtues into classes for first-year students, continued its work with redoubled focus on these five virtues.
Plans are afoot to integrate compassion into President’s Leadership Class activities. The implementation of this project
is in its initial stages, and we have plans to do assessments to seek to understand how students are progressing in their
understanding of the selected virtues, how the virtues impact their lives, whether they become motivated to become
virtuous, and so on. To date, 570 incoming first-year students took the virtues assessment survey at Camp Crimson,
and 790 from University College’s Foundations course. We look forward to analyzing these data and comparing them

with subsequent assessments at the end of the semester.

Practical Wisdom Conference

Since its inception, the Institute has garnered funding to host a series of conferences for contributors to edited
volumes in the series that Dr. Snow edits for Oxford University Press. This series, entitled, “The Virtues,” will
eventually be comprised of fifteen volumes, each of which explores a virtue or a cluster of virtues from
multidisciplinary perspectives. To date, the Institute has hosted conferences that have resulted or will result in
volumes on Humility; Integrity, Honesty, and Truth- Seeking; Open-Mindedness and Perspective; and Loyalty. A
conference on Harmony (volume in production) was canceled due to the pandemic. We will resume this series with a
Zoom conference on October 15-16 on “Practical Wisdom.” Though the conference is by invitation only, interested
parties may email Dr. Snow for more information at [email protected]. A note on the series: In addition to Humility, and
Honesty, Integrity, and Truth-Seeking, two other volumes in the series – Justice, and The Virtues of Sustainability –
are available on amazon.com. Other volumes at various stages of the editorial process include: Solidarity, Civility,
Courage, The Virtues of Endurance, Hope, The Virtue of Reverence, and Forgiveness.

Second Subaward Conference

Our second subawardee conference for the “Self, Virtue, and Public Life Project” will be held on November 12-
13 via Zoom. We expect to learn of subawardees’ progress, their publications, and their plans for project continuation
or completion. In addition to the publications of each team, we expect to publish a journal issue as well as an edited
volume on each team’s findings and the success of the project as a whole.

Poetry Event

Through a generous collaboration with the Kirkpatrick Foundation, the Institute will be hosting a poetry event
via Zoom for the students at our partner schools. The Norman Public School District and Clinton High School have
already confirmed their participation. Inspired by the Inaugural Poem of Amanda Gorman, the Institute and the
Kirkpatrick Foundation seek to cultivate a love of poetry in our students. Students’ of all grade levels will be asked to
write poems on the topic, “Our Country, Our Future,” and to read their poetry at the zoom event. They will be given
the opportunity to choose a book of poetry up to the amount of $20 from amazon.com

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Financial Update and Future Plans

From the Desk of the Director of Finance

Hello friends of the Institute,
As we navigate through the current pandemic, the Institute continues to receive funding, which allows us to

continue with our core mission to advance the study of virtue and promote flourishing through leadership in virtue
education and outreach. To-date, the Institute has received roughly $9,583,526 in total grant funding. Currently, the
Institute is funded by grants from the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT), the John Templeton Foundation (JTF), and the
Kirkpatrick Foundation, as well as support from the University of Oklahoma.

ISHF is currently re-focusing our efforts in donor relations with the OU Foundation. ISHF anticipates
funding inquiries to potential donors soon. Obtaining donor support will be crucial to the success of the Institute
moving forward.

Lastly, I personally want to thank each and every one for their continued support of the Institute, whether
monetary support or by collaborating and providing service. Without your support the important initiatives the
Institute undertakes would not be possible.
Kind regards,
Mechelle

Future

We are pleased to share that we are seeking funding for two exciting projects. First, we have applied to the
Kirkpatrick Foundation for funding to hire a web expert and a social media professional for the Institute to increase
our public presence. This grant, should we receive it, will also fund a series of five talks via zoom on virtue ethics and
animals, starting in November 2021 and continuing through April 2022. The series will complement a co-edited
volume by Ms. Louisa McCune, Executive Director of the Kirkpatrick Foundation, and Dr. Snow on virtue ethics and
animals. Oxford University Press is interested in this volume, which will open up a new area of research in applied
virtue ethics.

Second, we have submitted an Online Funding Inquiry to the John Templeton Foundation requesting $2
million for “The Civic Friendship Project.” Should it be funded, this three-year project will begin on July 1, 2022, and
end on June 30, 2025. It will feature the efforts of five international research groups – at the University of Oklahoma,
the University of Miami, Monash University in Australia, the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and
the University of Genoa in Italy, to research the concept of civic friendship, its applications, and measurement in
educational, civic, and religious settings. Dr. Snow will be the Principal Investigator and will coordinate the
interaction of research teams. The grant will be administered by the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing.

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Fond Farewells

Research Fellows

Postdoctoral Fellows, Drs. Michael Barnes (philosophy) from Georgetown University and Devin McCarthy
(political science) from Duke University completed their time with the Institute during the 2020-21 pandemic year. We
remain in awe of their tremendous research accomplishments, summarized below, during this period.

Dr. Michael Barnes

PUBLICATIONS: Dr. Barnes was able to submit three articles for potential publication. The first
of these article is on the mechanisms and harms of online harassment, titled “Who Do You Speak
For? And How?: Identity and Anonymity in Online Abuse,” which was submitted to the Journal
of Ethics and Social Philosophy.

The second was a piece defending my account of the collective authority that undergirds hate speech, titled “Towards a
Theory of Collective Authority in Hate Speech”, which was submitted to the journal, Social Philosophy Today.

The third was a co-authored piece (with Professor Luvell Anderson, of Syracuse University), which they were invited to
submit. It is the entry for “Hate Speech” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP).

Finally, he received word that the anthology The Movement for Black Lives: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by
Michael Cholbi, Brandon Hogan, Alex Madva, and Benjamin Yost with Oxford University Press, within which he had
an entry titled, “The Pragmatics of Protest and Positive Propaganda,” entered production.

PRESENTATIONS: Dr. Barnes presented at a number of conference and workshop presentations. First, he presented his
piece on online abuse for the Cambridge Meaning Workshop (via Zoom) in September 2020—and remains a member of
this international workshop group, renamed the Words Workshop for the 2020–2021 term.

In January 2021 he presented some new work on online speech at The Social, Moral and Political Impact of Virtual
Technology Workshop, hosted by the Universidad Diego Portales, in Santiago, Chile (via Zoom). This talk was titled
“The Promise and Peril in Bringing Speech Act Theory Online: Collateral Damage in Speech Acts.” This talk explores
the many novelties at play in online speech—that is, our utterances mediated by networked technologies and social
platforms—and argues that some implicit assumptions in speech act theory mean that it cannot so easily be applied to
this new context. Barnes further argues that one key distinction of speech act theory—the distinction between
‘illocutionary acts’ (the act performed in speaking), and ‘perlocutionary effects’ (the causal effects produced by
speaking)—is over-emphasized in traditional speech act theory and poses problems for the analysis of the complex harms
associated with online speech. Barnes used the example of the human content moderators employed by companies like
Facebook and YouTube to make his case.

In the fall of 2020, he was invited to present his work on hate speech at William Paterson University’s Philosophy
Colloquium (via Zoom) and did so in February 2021. Here Barnes presented a version of his piece on the collective
authority in hate speech.

In April, he presented at the 2021 American Philosophical Association Pacific Division meeting (via Zoom). This was a
shorter version of his work on the collective authority in hate speech, discussed above.

Lastly, in the upcoming summer he will be presenting at the 2021 meeting of the North American Society for Social
Philosophy, with a talk titled, “Online Extremism, AI, and (Human) Content Moderation: Collateral Damage in Online
Speech.” This paper explores the role of Artificial Intelligence—along with algorithms more broadly—in online
radicalization. Barnes argues that technological solutions like better AI are inadequate to solve this problem. Dr. Barnes
attempted to demonstrate that the preference for technological solutions reveals an ideology that erases and obfuscates
the work of thousands of human content moderators, and to do so he analyzed these issues through the lens harmful online
speech.

Dr. Barnes will also be presenting this paper at the “Feminism, Social Justice, and Artificial Intelligence” workshop,
hosted by the philosophy department at the University of Waterloo, in July 2021. This workshop is intended to produce
papers for a special issue to appear in the journal Feminist Philosophy Quarterly (all papers will be subject to double-
anonymous review before publication).

OTHER SERVICE: In addition to publications and presentations, Dr. Barnes also performed a number of other tasks in
service to the research community. As mentioned above, he has remained a member of the Words Workshop, an

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international workshop group focused on social philosophy of language for the 2020–2021 term. He also attended
numerous (online) talks, as well as all three Division meetings of the American Philosophical Association (and also
chaired a couple sessions on social philosophy of language at the Central).

He has done research service by acting as a referee for a number of academic journals, most recently for Ethics and
Information Technology; Phenomenology and Mind; Erkenntnis, and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, who
produced a special issue on COVID-19.

Lastly, Barnes participated in all ISHF events when possible, and led a reading group on Tulsa 1921: Reporting a
Massacre, by Randy Krehbiel for members of the wider OU community.

Dr. Devin McCarthy

PUBLICATIONS: During Dr. McCarthy’s postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Human
Flourishing (ISHF), he had one paper published in a peer-reviewed journal, submitted two others for peer
review, and produced two new working papers that he hoped to submit for review this summer.

PRESENTATIONS: McCarthy presented papers at the American Political Science Association, Southern
Political Science Association, and Midwest Political Science Association conferences, and attended the
panel series “The Election Reform Agenda: A Deep Dive into H.R.1” hosted at Stanford University.

McCarthy’s paper “Ranked Choice Voting as a Generational Issue in Modern American Politics,” co-authored with Jack
Santucci, was accepted for publication at Politics & Policy in fall 2020 and published on January 4, 2021. The paper
study’s public opinion about the election reform ranked choice voting (RCV), an increasingly popular method of election
in which voters rank candidates in order of preference that has recently been adopted by Maine, Alaska, and numerous
municipalities. The paper focuses on the large generational gaps in support for RCV, finding that young people are
significantly more likely to support the reform than older citizens. It further suggests that this gap may be in part due to
young peoples’ greater dissatisfaction with the way democracy works in America. The paper has received some popular
attention already, as it was recently cited in an article about RCV in Marie Claire, for which I was also interviewed.

McCarthy submitted his paper “The Limits of Partisanship in Citizen Preferences on Redistricting” to the Election Law
Journal for peer review. This paper studies public opinion on redistricting, using survey experiments to test how citizens
make the tradeoff between partisan interest and democratic principles on district maps. McCarthy found that while
partisanship matters, a preference for fairness predominates. Furthermore, citizens do not appear to employ a “tit for tat”
strategy in these decisions. Seeing evidence that the opposing party has engaged in gerrymandering does not cause them
to abandon their own principles for the sake of partisan gain.

McCarthy also submitted his paper “Do Partisans Follow Their Leaders on Election Manipulation?” for peer review at
the American Journal of Political Science. This paper studies the abilities of party elites to influence how the public
applies its democratic principles to questions of election rules. The paper finds that elites are able to influence opinion on
voting policy issues even when their messages use principles that are unrelated to those policies. However, elites are
unable to directly affect the democratic principles that citizens prioritize. He presented this paper at the American Political
Science Association conference in September 2020.

His primary current project studies the public’s willingness to support overturning election results using legislative action.
McCarthy conducted a survey on this issue in advance of the 2020 election, using a survey experiment that tested elites’
ability to increase public support for anti-democratic action. After the election, as the possibility of a “legislative coup”
was seriously discussed, he reframed the project to focus on public support for this extreme form of anti-democratic action
and conducted a second survey in April 2021. That data is still under analysis. He presented the initial data at the Southern
Political Science Association conference in January 2021 and plans to present the full paper at the Election Science,
Reform, and Administration conference this summer.

The other new paper he drafted this year, entitled “The Dimensionality of Public Opinion on Voter Access,” uses a
combination of original data and data from the Survey on the Performance of American Elections to investigate the nature
of public opinion on voter access issues. The paper uses exploratory factor analysis and item response theory approaches
to map the dimensionality of public opinion on voter access reforms. McCarthy found support for a two-dimensional
model in which citizens think about reforms that restrict voting on a different dimension than reforms that make voting
more convenient. McCarthy presented this paper at the Midwest Political Science Conference in April 2021.

OTHER SERVICE: At the ISHF, McCarthy attended Virtue Forum lunches and the Self, Virtue, and Public Life Project
subawardee conference. Dr. McCarthy was instrumental in leading seven reading group discussions on the book Tulsa
1921: Reporting a Massacre by Randy Krehbiel.

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In addition to continuing with his research projects, Dr. McCarthy accepted a position for next year as Redistricting
Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union. McCarthy will be conducting data science work on behalf of the ACLU’s
legal teams in their effort to achieve fair district maps with equitable representation for racial minority groups.

Welcome to New Team Members

Philosophy/ISHF faculty

Dr. Adam Green joined both the ISHF team and Department of Philosophy in August
2021. Dr. Green focuses his work on the nature and value of being a social creature.
His scholarly work ranges from philosophical engagement with neuroscience,
psychology, anthropology, and the cognitive science of religion to reflection on
traditional problems in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion.

Student Employee

Grant Kauk joined the Institute in August 2021. Grant is a recent graduate
from Clinton High School. He is attending OU to pursue a career in Journalism.

Grant will be assisting with the day-to-day operations.

BRYAN TERRY via Imagn Content Services, LLC

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Notable Recognitions

 Dr. Nancy E. Snow, Institute Director, speaks at the 2021 Kirkpatrick
Foundation Animal Conference. She delivered an address on "Virtue Ethics
and Animals." The conference took place August 27-28 in Oklahoma City.

 Institute Director, Dr. Nancy E. Snow presented "Practical Eudaimonia" for the Hyde Park Institute, which
works with the University of Chicago. To watch Dr. Snow’s presentation, please click here.

 Drs. Matteo Bonotti & Steven Zech publish book on "Recovering Civility during Covid-19”.
Two scholars funded by the "Self, Virtue, and Public Life Project," Drs. Matteo Bonotti and
Steven Zech, have published a book on Recovering Civility during COVID-19.

 Dr. Nancy E. Snow, Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing and Professor
of Philosophy, co-authored Understanding Virtue: Theory and Measurement with
developmental psychologists Jennifer Cole Wright and Michael T. Warren. For further
information, please click here.

 Institute Director, Dr. Nancy E. Snow, published a book on Contemporary Virtue Ethics.
Published by Cambridge University Press, provides an overview of the central components
of recent work in virtue ethics.

 The Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing is pleased to announce Jessica Eschbach,
has been names the 2021 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year. Jessica teaches technology
integration at Norman North High School.

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ISHF Team

Nancy E. Snow, Ph.D.
ISHF Director
Professor of Philosophy

Adam Green, Ph.D.
Philosophy/ISHF faculty

Andrew Jebb, Ph.D.
Assessment Coordinator

Linda Parsons, Ph.D.
Outreach Coordinator

Mechelle Gibson
Director of Finance
Program Administrator

Grant Kauk
Student Assistant

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Acknowledgements

The Institute continues to be grateful to the following entities for their
help and support.

ISHF VISION

The Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing (ISHF; the Institute) is revitalizing and renewing the study
and cultivation of virtue in higher education, advancing the study of virtue through leadership in virtue
research, and improving the flourishing of students and of all people in Oklahoma and beyond through
effective and inspiring outreach programs.

ISHF MISSION

The mission of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing is to advance the study of virtue
and promote flourishing through leadership in virtue education and outreach.

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This publication has been printed and distributed by the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing at no cost to the
taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma. The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution (www.ou.edu/eoo). For
accommodations on the basis of disability, please contact the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing at (405) 325-4574
or visit our website at ou.edu/flourish.