Matthew Noah Smith is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and occasional Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. His work focuses on the ethics of interpersonal relationships as realized within a range of contexts like legal orders, trusting relationships, loving relationships, religious communities, political communities, etc. A major part of his research is focused on the "dynamics of sociality" - the phenomenal structure and governing norms of these contexts. Some questions he explores are: What kinds of mutuality and recognition are necessary for a social activity? What kinds of entitlements and responsibilities do we have in virtue of these forms of mutuality and moments of recognition?

At the IPK, Professor Smith hopes to collaborate with sociologists and political scientists in developing cross-disciplinary approaches to some of these questions.