"Eudaimonia Institute" Archive

Nobel Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus to speak in Wait Chapel

Muhammad Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding the global microfinance movement, will discuss his vision for “A World of Zero Poverty” in Wait Chapel on Dec. 6.

Yunus will present the inaugural Noesis Lecture at 4 p.m.  The event is free and open to the public.

He is often called the “banker of the poor” and the father of social business.  Yunus founded Grameen Bank as a non-profit in Bangladesh to provide small, collateral-free loans to the poor, most women, to start their own businesses.

The lecture is sponsored by Wake Forest’s Eudaimonia Institute: the Center for Bioethics, Health and Society; the School of Business; the Graduate Programs in Sustainability; the Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability; and the Department of Economics.

More details.

Categories: EventsInside WFU

National leaders gathering at Wake Forest to "Rethink Community"

For three days in October, Wake Forest is bringing together national thought-leaders across the ideological spectrum to discuss what it means to live in a society that is more diverse, polarized, global and virtual than at any time in the past.

Called the Rethinking Community Conference, it will take place Oct. 19-21.  Registration details for the conference are available at its website.  The website offers information on the conference schedule, dates and times of events, as well as locations.

Hosted by the Eudaimonia Institute and the Pro Humanitate Institute, the conference will feature timely discussions about free speech and safe spaces, the fight to end or defend DACA, a conversation about free press and fake news, and the powerful interplay of politics and sports today.  Journalists, politicians, scholars and public intellectuals will participate in the discussions.

A University news release about the conference is available here.  A separate news release focuses on a conference panel discussion that will explore the role of sports in community and address related tensions.

Categories: EventsInside WFU

WFU receives $4.2 million to further study of human flourishing

Today Wake Forest University announced nearly $4.2 million in new research funding to further the study of human flourishing through the Eudaimonia Institute. Eudaimonia (yoo-dye-mo-NEE-uh) is Aristotle’s term for “flourishing.”

Established earlier this summer, the Eudaimonia Institute’s mission is to study the nature of human flourishing, as well as the institutions, attitudes and cultural practices that encourage it. An interdisciplinary intellectual community of scholars will explore the concept beyond the typical scope of how happiness is understood or used in everyday conversation.

Jim Otteson, Executive Director of the Eudaimonia Institute, says he expects the institute will put forth the first call for research proposals later this year.

An independent Faculty Advisory Board of a dozen faculty members from across the University – including those from the humanities, social sciences, business, law and divinity – will evaluate the proposals, following standard University practices. They anticipate the research proposals they receive will be as wide-ranging as the scholarly interests at Wake Forest.

“If we are talking about a society that is not only diverse but also aspires to be inclusive, we should expect diverse views,” said Simeon Ilesanmi, Washington M. Wingate Professor of Religion and Eudaimonia Institute Faculty Advisory Board member.

Ilesanmi continued, “My training is in religious ethics and law. These are two disciplines that also explore the kinds of topics that the Eudaimonia Institute will consider – looking at the kind of society we ought to live in and the institutions that can promote human flourishing. What are the values society should invest its resources in and what impacts will those have on our lives? How do we account for the presence and distribution of well-being? I think the University is a proper place to explore various ideas and metaphors that constitute the complex significations of human flourishing or the highest good.”

“The Eudaimonia Institute presents a great opportunity to take us back to questions that are at the core of the liberal arts. When we think about the liberal arts historically, we often think about a broad education that prepares us to grapple with big questions about human life and how we interact with and relate to each other,” said Eudaimonia Institute Faculty Advisory Board member Ana Iltis, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Bioethics, Health and Society.

“Wake Forest now has a very concrete way to support teacher-scholars who seek to explore those questions. We’re always talking about interdisciplinary work and cross-disciplinary work. The Eudaimonia Institute offers us another opportunity to partner with each other across disciplines to pursue meaningful work,” Iltis said.

Centers and institutes update

The Office of the Provost has approved a one-year planning grant to establish the Eudaimonia Institute to study human flourishing.

The institute aims to create an interdisciplinary intellectual community of researchers, scholars, and students who will investigate the nature of eudaimonia—Aristotle’s word for “happiness,” “flourishing,” or “wellbeing”—as well as the political and economic institutions, the moral beliefs and attitudes, and the cultural practices that enable and encourage eudaimonia.

James Otteson, the Thomas W. Smith Presidential Chair in Business Ethics, will serve as Executive Director of the Eudaimonia Institute. He will continue to serve as Executive Director of the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism.

The Eudaimonia Institute is the third academic institute at Wake Forest. It joins the Humanities Institute, led by Wake Forest Kahle Professor of Religion Mary Foskett, and the Pro Humanitate Institute, led by Maya Angelou Presidential Chair and Professor of Politics and International Affairs Melissa Harris-Perry.

The Provost also recently approved renewals of the Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability (CEES) and the Center for Molecular Signaling (CMS), formerly known as the Center for Molecular Communication and Signaling (CMCS).

Miles Silman, the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation Presidential Chair in Conservation Biology, is the director of CEES. Biology professor Gloria Muday directs CMS.

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