I’m a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, and I’m looking for a guest speaker to talk about utilitarianism and effective altruism in my spring course on “Pursuing the Good Life.” Think of this as an invitation to make your best pitch to college students that they should live well by putting philosophy into practice.

The class will survey answers to the question “What is the good life?” from a variety of philosophical and religious traditions. I’m inviting guest teachers who can share with the class both an academic understanding of a school of thought and their own experiences as practitioners. As we discuss utilitarianism, I hope to bring in a guest who can not only talk about how utilitarians think about happiness and value, but also speak to what it’s like to make costly personal commitments on the basis of this philosophy. I've been impressed with the EA movement from afar and would love to give my students insight into this community. 

While I’m generally inviting locals who can visit the class in person, I haven’t been able to get in touch with anyone at the UNC EA chapter (it seems to be defunct) or EA Raleigh. The effective altruism community is sufficiently online that I’m open to having a guest call in over Zoom. I thought I’d post here to see if I can connect with someone who's interested. A professor or graduate student would be great, or someone who does outreach to college students. 

If you’re interested in speaking to my class, or if you can suggest someone in the Triangle area, please let me know at kmwagn@unc.edu. Thanks!