Debra Satz

Senior Associate Dean for the Humanities & Arts and the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society

Debra Satz, the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society, is the senior associate dean for the humanities and arts. Satz, a philosophy professor, directs the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society. She earned a bachelor’s degree from City College of New York and a doctorate in philosophy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After teaching at Harvard and Swarthmore College, Satz joined Stanford in 1988 as an assistant professor of philosophy. Her research focuses on the ethical limits of markets, the place of equality in a just society, theories of rational choice, democratic theory, feminist philosophy, ethics and education, and issues of international justice.

In 2004, Satz received the Walter J. Gores Award, Stanford’s highest teaching honor. She was awarded the Roland Prize in 2010 for faculty volunteer service. She also cofounded the Hope House Scholars Program, which pairs volunteer faculty with undergraduates to teach liberal arts courses to residents of a drug and alcohol treatment facility for women.

Satz has written and edited three books as well as dozens of articles, essays, and book reviews. She has also supervised 40 doctoral students and advised the thesis work of many undergraduates in philosophy and the Ethics in Society Program.

Publications, Professional Experience, and Honors:
• Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Limits of Markets (Oxford University Press, 2010)
• “Countering the Wrongs of the Past: The Role of Compensation,” in Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries (Oxford University Press, 2007)
• “Feminist Perspectives on Reproduction and the Family,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2004)
• “Child Labor: A Normative Perspective,” World Bank Economic Review (2003)
• Vice President, American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, 2007-10
• Associate Editor, Ethics, 2002-08
• Associate Editor, Politics, Philosophy and Economics, 2000-04
• Held visiting professorships and fellowships at the University of Michigan, Princeton, and Stanford.
• Received multiple awards, grants, and citations for research and teaching from Stanford and Harvard.