Announcing the 60th Annual Robert D. Klein Lecturer

Ronald Sandler

Monday, March 25, 2024 | 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT

John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute, Cabral Center, Boston, MA

and via livestream

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“Should We Engineer Species in Order to Save Them?”

Professor Sandler will explore the ethical and philosophical issues raised by the growing use of bioengineering in conservation. He will discuss why it is that conservation practitioners are interested in employing biotechnological tools, some of the ways in which they could be (and are already) being used, and why their use is so interesting from an ethical and philosophical perspective. The discussion will be grounded in actual and proposed cases, such as cloning black-footed ferrets, genetic control of introduced rodents, genetic modification of the American chestnut, and “de-extinction” of mammoths and thylacines. He will also introduce evaluative perspectives that can be useful for working through the cases, including from environmental ethics, environmental justice, and philosophy of technology.

Ronald Sandler is a Professor of Philosophy and Director of Northeastern’s Ethics Institute. His primary areas of research are environmental ethics, ethical theory, and ethics of emerging technologies. Much of his current work involves conducting ethics and values analyses of novel conservation strategies in collaboration with conservation practitioners. He is author of several books, including Environmental Ethics: Theory in Practice (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Ethics of Species (Cambridge University Press, 2012), and Character and Environment (Columbia University Press, 2007), as well as co-editor of several others, including Environmental Justice and Environmentalism (MIT Press, 2007), and Ethics and Emerging Technologies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). His work has been funded by NSF, The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Woodrow Wilson Center, Mozilla Foundation, and Accenture, among others. He is currently co-leading an NEH funded Project entitled The Ethics of Conservation Biotechnology and an NSF funded project entitled Training Program to Expand the AI and Date Ethics Research Community.

Prior to serving as Interim Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, he served as Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion from 2016 through 2022. He received the Northeastern University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2005. 

The Klein University Lecturer Award

Established in 1964, upon the recommendation of the Faculty Senate, The Klein University Lecturer Award honors a member of the faculty who has contributed with distinction to their field of study. The Klein University Lecture enables faculty members to share the fruits of their scholarship with the university community and the general public. In 1979, the award was renamed in tribute to the late Robert D. Klein, professor of mathematics, chair of the Faculty Senate Agenda Committee, and vice chair of the Faculty Senate.