Jennifer Frey

Professional Background

Dr. Jennifer Frey is currently the Dean of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa, with a secondary appointment as professor of philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. Previously, she was an Associate Professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina, where she was also a Peter and Bonnie McCausland faculty fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Frey is also a faculty fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America and a Newbigin Interfaith Fellow with The Carver Project. Prior to her position at the University of South Carolina, she was a Collegiate Assistant Professor of the Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she was also a member of the Society for the Liberal Arts. Dr. Frey earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied under John McDowell and Michael Thompson. In addition, she received a B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies (with a Classics minor) at Indiana University-Bloomington.

Dr. Frey’s academic research is primarily in moral psychology and virtue. She has co-edited a volume titled Self-Transcendence and Virtue with her former colleague Candace Vogler, and she is currently finishing up a volume titled Practical Truth with her husband and colleague, Dr. Christopher Frey. A third volume, titled Practical Wisdom, is under contract with Oxford University Press. In 2015, she was awarded a multi-million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation, titled “Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life.” She frequently writes more popular essays and book reviews in places like Breaking Ground, First Things, Image, and The Point. She hosts a philosophy, theology, and literature podcast called Sacred and Profane Love.

Points of Interest

• Aristotelian Virtue Ethics

• Philosophy of Literature

• Moral Psychology and Virtue

Education

PhD, Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, 2012

B.A., Philosophy, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2000, magna cum laude (with a Philosophy and Medieval Studies Minor)