Thanks to generous donations by Malar Selvan, Rice Philosophy is pleased to announce the Kural Ethics Lab.  The Lab, named for the classic Tamil text Tirukkural (often shortened to “Kural”), seeks to advance scholarship and teaching in Ethics, particularly those topics and themes addressed by this important text that is often overlooked in Western Philosophical scholarship.  The Kural is a poem with three main sections on Virtue, Wealth, and Love, and gives instruction on everything from the value of charity to the moral dangers of eating meat.  The Kural’s emphasis on a secular approach to ethics fits nicely with Rice’s strengths in both applied and theoretical moral philosophy, and the Ethics Lab will enable us to build on our strengths in this area.  Programming for next year is still underway, but our hope is to have an inaugural Kural lecture in the Spring of 2026.