18-19 final

Highlights of the Year
Academic year 2018-19 marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the evolution of the
Parr Center, with the arrival of our new Director. Professor Sarah Stroud joined UNC from McGill
University in August 2018, taking up a permanent appointment in the Department of Philosophy
and commencing a five-year term as Director of the Parr Center. An internationally renowned
ethicist and philosopher, Stroud also brought to the table prior experience in cross-disciplinary
academic leadership and a strong vision for the future of the Parr Center.
Throughout its history, the Parr Center has unquestionably benefitted from being physically and
administratively housed within the Department of Philosophy. But the Center’s new leadership
has made it a priority to expand and intensify the Parr Center’s reach beyond Caldwell Hall,
connecting more closely with units across the University. To that end, the Director has initiated
two new prestigious lecture series, the Parr|Bioethics Joint Lecture Series and the Ethics Across the
Disciplines lecture series. In both of these new series the Parr Center collaborates with other units
to invite renowned speakers of mutual interest to campus. These new lecture series have exposed
many more constituencies to the Parr Center and are an apt expression of the Parr Center’s firm
belief that ethics is everywhere: that there is no field of endeavor in which questions calling for
ethical reflection do not arise.
The Parr Center is unusual among academic ethics centers in its focus on students—also an area
the new leadership is prioritizing. The Center’s Undergraduate Fellowship program both grew in
size and added further structure in 2018-19. We welcomed the participating students into the
Fellowship at our first ever Induction Ceremony in the fall, and we fêted their accomplishments
and saluted our graduating students at our first ever End-of-Year Celebration and Poster Show in
April, which was a resounding success.
The reach of the National High School Ethics Bowl continues to grow prodigiously. If we compare
the 2017-18 season with the 2018-19 season, the number of regional tournaments grew from 32 (in
25 states) to 36 (in 28 states), and the number of students participating nationwide rose to
approximately 3200. We engaged in some successful external fundraising for the program in
2018-19, yielding new donations and grants which helped us to produce and expand this rapidly
growing program in 2019-20.
The joint Philosophy/Parr Center Outreach Program also presided over a flurry of activity in
2018-19. Outreach Program volunteers—mainly UNC graduate students—led approximately 160
ethics and philosophy discussions in the local community over the course of the year, with
participants who ranged from kindergarteners to residents of retirement communities. The
Outreach Program is proud to have opened a new partnership this year with Phoenix Academy,
the alternative high school of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District, which serves students
who have typically had difficulty at traditional high schools. Philosophy Club at Phoenix
Academy has quickly become a cherished part of their educational menu.