Acclaimed philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah will deliver the keynote address for the first-ever Virginia Tech Humanities Week.

Appiah’s address is titled “Living Well: The Humanities as a Preparation for Life.”

The keynote address will be delivered from Feb. 10 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre at the Moss Arts Center, located at 190 Alumni Mall in Blacksburg. A reception will follow on the third floor balcony from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

To attend the event in person or virtually, register through this link.

Appiah, the author of the New York Times column “The Ethicist,” received the National Humanities Medal in 2011. Recipients of the prestigious honor are recognized for work that “has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects,” according to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Appiah earned the award “for seeking eternal truths in the contemporary world. His books and essays within and beyond his academic discipline have shed moral and intellectual light on the individual in an era of globalization and evolving group identities,” according to the White House.

Appiah has also been named Foreign Policy’s Top 100 public intellectuals and one of the Carnegie Corporation’s “Great Immigrants.”

Appiah serves as a professor of philosophy and law at New York University. He has previously taught at Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University, Duke University, and the University of Ghana.

Appiah also served as president of the PEN American Center, the world’s oldest human rights organization, from 2009 to 2012. 

His award-winning publications include “Cosmopolitan: Ethics In A World of Strangers,” “The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen,” “The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity,” “As If: Idealization and Ideals,” and “The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen.”

Virginia Tech Humanities Week will be held Feb. 7-11. The goal of Humanities Week is to showcase the vigor and variety of work in the humanities across the university.

To learn more about Humanities Week programming, visit the Humanities Week webpage or view them individually below.

Virginia Tech Humanities Week Events