Field
Anthropology
Project Description
This doctoral dissertation research will investigate how rationality and compassion are co-constructed in the Effective Altruism movement, a social movement that aims to transform philanthropy through the conversion of individual donors to its principles and practices. In the US, the NL, and beyond, effective altruists are working to popularize their techno-utopian vision, and with the recently enhanced influence of AI labs and researchers, the ideology that shapes this movement and the resources it stands to mobilize could play an outsized role in policy and practice. Drawing on the anthropology of philanthropy, morality, and conversion, this research explores how certain ways of seeing the world become established, and how these worldviews are reproduced–in other words, how are individuals (re)made into effective altruists, and what effects does “rational compassion” have on broader conceptions of “the good”?
Team
Sarah Paust
Sarah Paust (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Her research interests lie at the intersection of critical philanthropy studies, critical global health and development studies, and the anthropology of ethics, morality, and religious conversion. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, watching scary movies, and reading whatever she can get her hands on
