Michelle Mason

Michelle Mason Bizri is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota, where she has been teaching since 2000. Her primary research interests lie in normative moral psychology. Her significant contributions have been in defending the view that particular person-focused, esteem-based attitudes play a crucial role in moral evaluation. Bizri received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 2001, with her doctoral thesis titled "Moral Virtue and Reasons for Action." Even before completing her doctorate, she accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Minnesota. In the academic year 2002–2003, she was a faculty fellow in Harvard University's Program in Ethics and the Professions. She was recognized as a McKnight Land-Grant Professor from 2005 to 2007 and was promoted to associate professor in 2007. In 2013, she took on the role of associate editor at the journal Ethics. More recently, in 2015, she began a recurring visiting professorship at Brown University. Mason Bizri's work specifically delves into ethics and moral psychology, with a particular focus on reactive attitudes. She examines how modern philosophical commitments within normative ethical theory influence the range of morally justifiable reactive attitudes. Notably, she has argued in favor of including attitudes such as properly focused shame and contempt, as well as moralized forms of pride and love, within this class of justifiable attitudes.