Originally at George Mason University and later Temple University, in 2009 Distinguished Professor Carol Gould reestablished The Center for Global Ethics & Politics at the Ralph Bunche Institute. The Center explores the ethics of globalization and the development of more effective transnational understanding and cooperation to deal with vexing issues of poverty, ethnic and cultural conflicts, and environmental degradation. The center's research and colloquia seek to clarify key value questions that confront contemporary societies, including the requirements of global justice; the meaning and scope of human rights; new forms of cosmopolitan democracy; intercultural perspectives on ethics; strengthened institutions of global governance; and more effective transnational forms of democracy and solidarity. The Center's Director, Professor Carol C. Gould, is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and in the PhD programs in Philosophy and Political Science at the Graduate Center of CUNY, as well as Editor ofThe Journal of Social Philosophy.
CGEP at the Ralph Bunche Institute
The Center for Global Ethics & Politics furthers CUNY’s focus on globally oriented research and education and on public outreach to the greater New York community. It attempts to bring needed attention to the values and norms that inevitably play a role in the search for knowledge and the devising of public policy. It is designed to help students and faculty to become aware of the social and personal benefits and costs of information and other technologies and the ethical issues that sometimes attend the practical applications of human knowledge, and will perhaps motivate them to include these considerations in their own theses and scholarly research where relevant. The emphasis on global human rights brings attention to human needs and to the way our knowledge and research can serve them or fail to do so. Questions of normative issues in global affairs also have practical effects in the development of new transnational linkages and democratic forms of cross-border communication. Finally, the emphasis on cross-cultural dialogue aims to contribute to CUNY’s leadership in the area of diversity and the appreciation of the contributions of different cultural traditions.
CGEP Collaborators
Director: Carol C. Gould, Distinguished Professor, Philosophy and Political Science, The Graduate Center & Hunter College, CUNY
Philosophy Program Executive Officer: Prof. Nickolas Pappas, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Political Science Program Executive Officer: Prof. Alyson Cole, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
CGEP Fellows
Patricia Elena Cipollitti Rodríguez
Senior Fellow and Center Assistant; Doctoral Student, Philosophy, Graduate Center, CUNY
Patricia studies social and political philosophy. Her recent research draws on feminist, critical, and decolonial theory to investigate the possibilities and limits of solidarity. Broadly, she is interested in understanding the current social order and what it means to prefigure alternatives within it – what it means, and what it takes, to relate more justly in a world structured by systems of domination. Patricia has a background in community organizing and retains a strong interest in labor and human rights, particularly in the context of global supply chains.
Patricia can be reached at pcipollitti(at)gradcenter(dot)cuny(dot)edu with any inquiries about the Center.
Jeremy Kane
Doctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Jeremy works on the philosophies of Kant, Hegel, and Marx, with a focus on how each conceives of the relationship between reason and freedom. He brings this work into conversation with contemporary issues in social philosophy, such as the relationship between norms and markets, the normative foundations of critique, ideology, collective action, and moral progress. He is a teaching fellow at Queens College, CUNY.
Alex R. Steers-McCrum
Doctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Alex focuses on social and political philosophy, especially Indigenous and critical race theory, sovereignty, democracy, and the environment.
Kamran Moshref
Doctoral Student, Political Science Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Kamran is a doctoral student in Political Science, researching questions of collective subjectivity, constituent power, and globalization in both Political Theory and among social movements.
Asher Wycoff
Doctoral Student, Political Science Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Asher is a doctoral fellow in Political Science at the Graduate Center, CUNY and an adjunct instructor at Brooklyn and Lehman Colleges. His current research examines critical deployments of eschatological tropes in liberal political thought.
Callum MacRae
Doctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Callum is a doctoral student in Philosophy at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His interests include: Aesthetics, Ethics, Metaphysics, and Social and Political Philosophy, particularly the nature and history of socialism and its relationship with liberalism.
Alana Pagano
Doctoral Student, Political Science Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Alana is a second-year doctoral student in Political Science. Her interests include theories of state violence, policing, the nation, security, and loss, with a focus on assimilatory forms of consuming narratives of state violence and the relationship between policing and warfare.
Jesi Taylor Cruz
Masters Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Jesi is a waste inequity researcher, Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) International Organizer, and student whose work lies at the intersection of Genocide Studies, Critical Race Theory, Political Theory, Black Feminist Ecology, and Discard Studies.
Cara Fitzgerald
Doctoral Student, Political Science Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Cara is a second-year doctoral student in Political Science. She is interested in studying theories of international relations, with a focus on escalation, economic sanctions, and territorial claims.
Shant ShahrigianMasters Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Shant is a M.A. philosophy student at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he’s pursuing his interests in political philosophy, ethics and other areas. He’s also an experienced journalist who has covered beats from New York City politics for the Daily News to European news and features for Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.
Matt DennehyMasters Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Matt is a philosophy M.A. student at the Graduate Center whose interests include theories of nationalism and the state, forms of political violence, and decolonial and indigenous scholarship which contributes to current scholarship or reframes previous work.
Maya von Ziegesar
Doctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Maya is a first-year doctoral student in Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her interests lie in social epistemology, structures of (in)justice, and post-colonial and feminist theories. She is also a sculptor, and interested in art and philosophy as transformative media.
Guillermo ÁvilaMasters Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Guillermo is an MA student in the Philosophy Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. His interests include ethics, social and political philosophy, particularly social epistemology, political economy, and contemporary issues such as climate change. He also has a background in Finance and is an Analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Caitlin Love
Masters Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Caitlin is a Master's student in philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her interests are in environmental philosophy, metaethics, aesthetics, and Adorno. Broadly, she's interested in how (mainly Western, European) subjects have historically come to see nature as an entity to be mastered and controlled, as a way to think about what might be involved in revising these attitudes. She has a background in journalism and is an occasional fact-checker for The New York Times's "Daily" news podcast.
Lara Shadde
Doctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Lara (they/them) is a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center. Their interests lie in feminist and trans philosophy, philosophy of language, and ethics. Broadly, Lara works on issues concerning sex and the injustices the analytic sex/gender distinction perpetuates against trans people. Further, they are interested in issues in social ontology, especially concerning the nature of social structures and how they impact our ordinary language conceptions of sex and gender. Lara received their BA degree in Philosophy and History from the University of Zurich summa cum laude and studied Philosophy in the MA program at the Free University of Berlin.
Griffin PionDoctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Georgie MaloneDoctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Ellie JeromeDoctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY
Emma ArvedonDoctoral Student, Philosophy Program, Graduate Center, CUNY