We are delighted to announce that Duncan Pritchard recently received an Honorable Mention at UCI’s Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation 2024 Celebration of Teaching Awards (Excellence in Pedagogical Development), for his work on the Anteater Virtues Project. Congratulations, Duncan!
We are excited to announce that the 2024/25 UCI campus wide theme focuses on scholarly values, and the Anteater Virtues Project will play a central campus wide role during the coming academic year. Below is the announcement from Howard Gillman, UCI Chancellor:
“Universities position themselves as bastions of advanced knowledge, rooted in the dedication of faculty members and students to the approaches, methods, and norms of expert scholarly inquiry. The research and creative endeavors of faculty members undergo rigorous peer review globally and ensure that their perspectives and conclusions are well-justified and reflect best practices within their disciplines. Students are immersed in learning methodologies and approaches that distinguish mere opinion from more reliable knowledge.
Acknowledging the pivotal importance of academic excellence and integrity to the university’s mission, I invite all members of the campus community to engage in discussions during the 2024-25 academic year about the essential role that scholarly values must play in knowledge discovery and dissemination across our various and diverse disciplines. Among the topics that might be addressed:
What key norms and mindsets are essential in the pursuit of greater knowledge and the cultivation of a scholarly frame of mind?
How can we best ensure that students grasp and commit to the concept of academic integrity?
Is there a need to refine the practice of peer review to address recent controversies that call into question the reliability of research findings?
How can we improve the reproducibility of research findings to enhance the reliability of scholarly knowledge?
Are there topics or debates that we should be having in our fields that are being marginalized or silenced because our departments or fields have an overly narrow perspective on the legitimate range of acceptable viewpoints? How open should we be to arguments or viewpoints that challenge prevailing ways of thinking?
How can scholarly norms and values enhance lives for individuals who are not students or professional scholars?
The 2024-25 Year of Scholarly Values will be guided and supported by an outstanding group of colleagues in a committee chaired by Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Duncan Pritchard, who directs our Center for Knowledge, Technology and Society as well as our important Anteater Virtues Project. Joining Distinguished Professor Pritchard on the Year of Scholarly Values Advisory Committee are:
Richard Arum, Professor of Sociology and Education
Vy Dong, Chancellor’s Professor of Chemistry
Michael Goodrich, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science
Val Jenness, Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, Sociology, and Nursing
Pramod Khargonekar, Vice Chancellor for Research
Mark Lazenby, Dean, Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing
Julia Lupton, Distinguished Professor of English
David Reinkensmeyer, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Luiza Osorio G. Silva, Assistant Professor of Art HistoryAs with this past year’s Year of Free Speech, the committee will be responsible for organizing a few tent-pole campus-wide conversations and will provide guidance for efforts organized by our various schools, departments, centers, institutes, and Student Affairs professionals.
I call upon all campus members to collaborate with their leaders to identify the most pertinent topics and events for their disciplines and programs. These discussions are central to our foundational goals, and I extend my gratitude in advance for your active participation in these crucial conversations and activities.
Fiat Lux,
Chancellor Howard Gillman”
We are delighted to announce a new 3-year project ‘Cultivating Intellectual Character in the AI Age’, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. This project will explore how educating for virtuous intellectual character affects student use of AI. Stay tuned for updates on this new project!
We are delighted to announce that Duncan Pritchard was recently awarded the Paul H. Silverman Award for Outstanding Work in Ethics, for his work on the Anteater Virtues Project. Congratulations, Duncan!
UCI’s Division of Undergraduate Education has a dedicated webpage offering advice for students on making use of the Anteater Virtues modules:
As explained there, you can self-enroll in the modules using this link:
In addition, there is also the option to self-enroll in the ‘Integrity’ module only, using this link:
Note that students don’t need to take these modules as part of a UCI course, as the modules are available to all UCI students, regardless of whether they have been assigned to you by faculty.
UCI’s Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI) has a dedicated webpage offering advice for faculty on making use of the Anteater Virtues modules:
This webpage offers tips on using these modules in your courses. In particular, you can at present either make use of the modules as a whole (including selecting from them as you see fit) or assigning only the ‘Integrity’ module. If you would like to check-out the syllabus for the full set of modules, then this is available here. Faculty can encourage their students to self-enroll for the full set of Anteater Virtues modules using this link:
Alternatively, if you wish for your students to only self-enroll on the ‘Integrity’ module, then give them this link:
We will be adding supporting educational materials for the Anteater Virtues modules in due course, so please keep watching this space.
There is a completely free public version of the full set of the Anteater Virtues modules available to everyone who is interested in using them, whether an individual or an educational institution. Here is the link:
In addition, we will in due course be providing supporting educational materials to help with the use of these modules in an educational setting.
If you are interested in employing the Anteater Virtues in your educational establishment—whether it be a university, community college, high school or wherever—and you would like further information from the project team about how best to do this, then please contact the project Director, Professor Duncan Pritchard, directly at dhpritch@uci.edu