The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, founded July 1, 1978, at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, was established by the American scholar, industrialist, and philanthropist Obert Clark Tanner. Lectureships are awarded to outstanding scholars or leaders in broadly defined fields of human values and transcend ethnic, national, religious, or ideological distinctions. Volume 31 features lectures given during the academic year 2010–2011 at Yale University, The University of Utah, The University of Michigan, Stanford University, Princeton University, and Harvard University.

Contributors:
Rebecca Goldstein, “The Ancient Quarrel: Philosophy and Literature”  Rebecca Goldstein is a research associate in the Department of Psychology, Harvard University, and an award-winning novelist.

Spike Lee, “America Through My Lens: The Evolving Nature of Race and Class in the Films of Spike Lee”  Spike Lee, a writer-director, actor, producer, author, and educator who has revolutionized the role of black talent in cinema, is widely regarded as today’s premiere African-American filmmaker.

Susan Neiman, “Victims and Heroes”  Susan Neiman is the director of the Einstein Forum, an international interdisciplinary think tank in Berlin, and is the author of three books.

Elinor Ostrom, “Frameworks” and “Analyzing 100-Year-Old Irrigation Puzzles”  Elinor Ostrom is Distinguished Professor, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, and senior research director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Robert Putnam, “American Grace: Religious Americans Are Nicer and Happier. Why?” and “American Grace: Americans Are Religiously Devout and Religiously Divided, yet Religiously Tolerant. Why?”
Robert Putnam is Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and has written more than a dozen books.

James Scott, “The Late Neolithic Multispecies Resettlement Camp” and  “The Long Golden Age of Barbarians, a.k.a. Non-State Peoples”  James Scott is the Sterling professor of Political Science and professor of Anthropology and director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University.

Martin Seligman, “Flourish: Positive Psychology and Positive Interventions”  Martin Seligman is Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Positive Psychology Center. He is the author of twenty-one books and more than 250 articles.

Susan Smith, “Moral Maze: Dealings in Debt” and “Ethical Investment?: Attending to Assets”  Susan Smith, Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, researches the interdisciplinary world of housing studies. She has published more than 100 scholarly articles.