Chad Van Schoelandt

I'm Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Tulane University, and Director of the Murphy Institute's Center for Ethics.

My research is in social and political philosophy — particularly the public reason and social contract traditions — and at the intersections of philosophy, politics, and economics. I'm currently writing a book, The Open Community, which argues that liberalism provides the institutional framework for community formation rather than destroying it. More on the Research page.

As Director of the Center for Ethics, I oversee our Visiting Faculty Fellows program, Public Lecture Series, and the Tulane Ethics Bowl program — a vertically integrated program connecting Tulane faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates with local high school teams across the New Orleans area. More on the Ethics Bowl page.

I'm also affiliated with Tulane's City, Culture, and Community Ph.D. Program, the Program in Medical Ethics and Human Values, and George Mason University's F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

I did my Ph.D. at the University of Arizona under the supervision of Jerry Gaus, graduating in 2015. Prior to that, I received my M.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (Thesis Supervisor: Julius Sensat). My B.A. is from the University of California, Davis.

Contact Information: 

• Email: cvanscho at tulane dot edu