The Center for Ethics and Culture (CEC) will welcome new leadership as law professor Carter Snead prepares to take over as director July 1, according to a University press release.
Snead said in an email interview that his most general goal in his new position would be to build upon the CEC's existing achievements.
"The Center for Ethics and Culture is an essential, indispensable institution dedicated to the pursuit of matters that lie at the heart of Notre Dame's distinctive educational and religious mission," Snead said. "It has been a vibrant forum for dialogue and exchange for elite and emerging scholars from a diversity of viewpoints and disciplines."
The Center hosts "lectures, conferences, film and literature series, awards, student formation programs and other initiatives" since its founding in 1999, according to the release.
The annual CEC Flagship Fall Conference will be held on campus from Nov. 10 to 12.
Snead said the Center's unique work facilitates an exceptional platform for scholarly ethical debate.
"[The Center] has been a place for students, scholars and public figures inside and outside of Notre Dame to explore together the richness of the Catholic tradition, including especially its unique resources for engaging concrete ethical problems in the broader culture," he said.
John McGreevy, dean of the College of Arts and Letters, said in the release that Snead would build upon the Center's existing programs.
"We all welcome Carter Snead into his new role and look forward to the programs and publications that will emerge under his leadership," McGreevy said.
Snead's area of expertise focuses on the relationship between bioethics and law, and he has previously served on the President's Council on Bioethics, the Council of Europe's Steering Committee on Bioethics and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) International Bioethics Committee, the release stated. His work has been published in the New York University Law Review and the Harvard Law Review Forum.
Snead will replace professor of Philosophy W. David Solomon as director. Solomon, in addition to his role as CEC's founding director, has lectured on ethical theory and medical ethics at more than 100 colleges and universities and co-authored "Abortion and Public Policy" and "The Synoptic Vision: The Philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars," the release stated.
In the release, McGreevy praised the achievements of the center made possible under Solomon's leadership.
"All of us are grateful to David Solomon for his work at the center as its founding director and visionary, and his continued effort to enrich not just scholarly conversation but student intellectual life at Notre Dame," McGreevy said.