20th September 2022Centre News Awards

In recognition of his global leadership in the field of character education, neo-Aristotelian thinking and virtue ethics, and following his keynote presentation at the Centre’s tenth annual conference, Professor James Arthur was presented with the 2020 Expanded Reason Award by Professor Max Bonilla on 8th September 2022 at Oriel College, Oxford. Given by the Vatican, Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, and UFV Madrid.
Given in recognition of innovation in academic programmes based on Benedict XVI’s proposal to broaden the horizons of reason, Professor Arthur receives this Award for an amalgam of projects, summarised under the title Teaching Character Virtues – A Neo-Aristotelian Approach, which captures the multiple teaching programmes initiated by James in the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, at the University of Birmingham. These programmes range from the internationally-recognised A Framework for Character Education in Schools, to the world’s first distance-learning Master’s degree in character education. James has promoted a neo-Aristotelian approach to virtue and character formation and, with the Jubilee Centre’s staff, continues to undertake world-leading research in character and virtues that guides practice and informs policy.
Professor Arthur, on behalf of the Jubilee Centre, reflected on this impact at the Expanded Reason Global Congress held in Madrid in May 2022. A recording of this session, the dedication given, and Professor Arthur’s remarks can be found here.