Click to watch the Spring 2026 Mitchell Lecture.

The Spring 2026 Mitchell Lecture

The Protestant Work Ethic and the Roots of Populist Authoritarianism

Friday, February 27, 2026

Photo of Elizabeth Anderson, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women's & Gender Studies;and Women's and Gender Studies Professor of Law University of Michigan.

Elizabeth Anderson

Arthur F. Thurnau Professor
and John Dewey Distinguished
University Professor of Philosophy
and Women's and Gender Studies
Professor of Law
University of Michigan

The 2025-26 MITCHELL LECTURE COMMITTEE

Prof. Paul Linden-Retek (Chair)
Prof. Michael Boucai
Prof. Alexandra Harrington
Prof. David Westbrook
Lisa Mueller
Daniel Ortega
Brandon Tubinis

Professor Anderson specializes in moral, social and political philosophy, feminist theory, social epistemology, and the philosophy of economics and the social sciences. A former student of John Rawls—whose work helped shape modern political philosophy—Anderson is the recipient of both the Guggenheim Fellowship and the MacArthur Foundation’s prestigious “genius grant.” Her exceptional career has also been profiled in The New Yorker.

Her research explores the interactions of social science with moral and political theory, how we learn to improve our value judgments, the epistemic functions of emotions and democratic deliberation, and issues of race, gender, and equality.

She is the author of The Imperative of Integration; Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (And Why We Don't Talk About It); and, most recently, Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back.