Hi. My name is Yifan and I am a rising fourth-year Ph.D. student in Ethics and Legal Studies. My research has two main strands: workplace emotions and firms’ participation in democracy. My dissertation examines the ethics of workplace emotion management, including how emotion management practices may contribute to organizational wrongdoing, how these practices shape individuals’ moral values and agency, and how we should understand individual employees’ moral responsibilities when they are subject to extensive emotion management in the workplace.
Before coming to Penn, I earned an M.A. in Philosophy from Georgia State University and graduated with high distinction from the University of Virginia, where I double-majored in Political Philosophy, Policy, and Law (PPL) and Statistics. I have also worked in economic consulting, assisting economists who testified as expert witnesses in antitrust and class action lawsuits.
Outside of academia, I enjoy practicing hip-hop dance and exploring various neighborhoods in Philly.
This course explores business responsibility from rival theoretical and managerial perspectives. Its focus includes theories of ethics and their application to case studies in business. Topics include moral issues in advertising and sales; hiring and promotion; financial management; corporate pollution; product safety; and decision-making across borders and cultures.