Philosopher and academic Martha Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Philosophy Department, Law School, and Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She is an Associate in the Classics Department and the Political Science Department, a Member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, and a Board Member of the Human Rights Program. She is the founder and Coordinator of the Centre for Comparative Constitutionalism. She is particularly interested in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, political philosophy, existentialism, feminism, and ethics, including animal rights. Her contributions to political philosophy, ethics, and feminism have been significant. Nussbaum is also known for discussing the capabilities approach to well-being, asserting that all humans have a basic right to dignity.

She received numerous awards, including the Brandeis Creative Arts Award in Non-Fiction in 1990, the PEN Spielvogel-Diamondstein Award for the best collection of essays in 1991; Cultivating Humanity won the Ness Book Award of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 1998, the Grawemeyer Award in Education in 2002, and the 2002 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education for "Cultivating Humanity." Her notable works include "The Fragility of Goodness," "Cultivating Humanity," "Sex and Social Justice," and "Hiding from Humanity." "Sex and Social Justice" won the book award of the North American Society for Social Philosophy in 2000. "Hiding From Humanity" won the Association of American University Publishers Professional and Scholarly Book Award for Law in 2004.

She received her B.A. from NYU and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard. She has taught at Harvard, Brown, and the University of Chicago. From 1986 to 1993, Ms. Nussbaum was a research advisor at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki, a part of the United Nations University. She has chaired the Committee on International Cooperation and the Committee on the Status of Women of the American Philosophical Association and currently chairs its new Committee for Public Philosophy. She has been a member of the Association's National Board. In 1999-2000, she was one of the three Presidents of the Association, delivering the Presidential Address in the Central Division. Ms. Nussbaum has been a member of the Council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Board of the American Council of Learned Societies.

She has received honorary degrees from thirty-three colleges and universities in the U. S., Canada, Asia, and Europe, including Grinnell College, Williams College, Bard College, Knox College, The University of St. Andrews (Scotland), the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), the University of Toronto, The University for Humanist Studies (Utrecht, the Netherlands), the New School University, the University of Haifa, Ohio State University, and Georgetown University. She has also been recognized by the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, the Berggruen Prize, and the Holberg Prize, amongst others.

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