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.