Debra Satz

In April, Satz was named to the 2018 Class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her numerous awards include Stanford’s Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching for “her extraordinary teaching that combines the importance of rigorous thought with serious engagement in the moral dilemmas facing humanity.”

Among her roles at Stanford, Satz served as chair of the Stanford Faculty Senate in 2016-17 and was the faculty director of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society from 2008 to 2015, where she led university-wide initiatives on topics such as the ethics of food and the environment and the ethics of war. A dedicated teacher, she is the J. Frederick and Elisabeth Brewer Weintz University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, through the Bass University Fellows Program, appointed from 2013 to 2018. She also co-founded a program with colleague Professor Rob Reich where Stanford faculty members teach classes each quarter to addicts released from prison. This year she has been on sabbatical as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Satz is known for her work in political philosophy, where her research has spanned topics on the moral limits of markets, the interpretation of equality of opportunity and the nature of rational choice. She is the author of several books, including Why Some Things Should Not Be For Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets (2010) and Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy (with Dan Hausman and Michael McPherson) (2017), as well as numerous articles. She is the current editor of the journal Philosophy and Public Affairs.

A first-generation college student, Satz earned her BA in philosophy from City College of New York in 1978, where she was named the outstanding graduate in philosophy. She earned her PhD in philosophy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987.

Satz began her teaching career as a lecturer at Harvard University and an assistant professor at Swarthmore College, before joining Stanford in 1988 as assistant professor of philosophy. She became the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society, professor of philosophy and professor, by courtesy, of political science in 2007.