Nancy Sherman: December 2013

Nancy Sherman is a distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. In 1997-1999, she served as the inaugural holder of the Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the United States Naval Academy. She is the author of The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of our Soldiers (W.W. Norton 2010); Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind (Oxford 2005); Making A Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue (Cambridge 1997); The Fabric of Character: Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue (Oxford 1989). She is also the editor of Critical Essays on the Classics: Aristotle’s Ethics (Rowman and Littlefield 1999). The Untold War was a NY Times “Editors’ Choice” and a featured “pick” of TIME magazine.

Sherman’s research is in the general area of ethics, history of moral philosophy, ancient philosophy, military ethics, moral psychology, and the emotions. Her work has been translated into many languages. She has been the recipient of many national awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Philosophical Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, the Mellon Foundation, and the Newcombe Fellowship Foundation of the Woodrow Wilson. She is currently writing a book, Making Peace With War, on the moral psychology of returning from war, with a focus on positive reactive attitudes, such as trust, hope, and self-empathy, critical for moral repair.

Prof. Sherman holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University in philosophy, an M. Litt. in philosophy from University of Edinburgh, and a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, magna cum laude, with honors. Sherman is also a research graduate of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. Before arriving at Georgetown, she was an Assistant and Associate Professor at Yale. She is currently affiliated with the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown and frequently teaches at the Georgetown University Law Center. Sherman has held numerous posts in the APA Eastern Division over the years. She currently serves on the Nominating Committee of the Eastern Division, and was elected the Eastern Division Representative to the APA. She has been a member of the APA Committee on Committees, and the Program Committee.

In October of 2005, Sherman was part of a small team invited by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to visit Guantanamo Bay Detention Center to observe and advise on medical and psychological conditions of detainees and matters of medical ethics. In 2011, she was invited as an observer to the Vice Chief of the Army’s Suicide Review Board. Sherman’s views on military ethics have been featured broadly in the media, at home and abroad.