Jennifer Morton’s Moving Up Without Losing Your Way selected as Princeton University Pre‑read

Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility by Jennifer Morton has been selected as Princeton University’s Pre-read for the incoming Class of 2025.

Using philosophy, social science, personal stories, and interviews to explore the ethical dilemmas faced by college students from disadvantaged backgrounds, Moving Up Without Losing Your Way reframes the college experience to factor in not just educational and career opportunities but also essential relationships. In the book Morton—herself an immigrant to the United States, first generation college student, and Princeton alumna—urges educators to empower students with a new narrative, one that might allow them to achieve social mobility while retaining their best selves.

According to Princeton University, 22 percent of the 1,489 individuals admitted to the Class of 2025 will be first generation college students.

Princeton University Press Director Christie Henry notes: “Jennifer Morton’s empathic work offers the potential to change student learning and relational experiences at a formative chapter in their life narratives.  To have this book be a part of that narrative for the incoming students at Princeton, and to make a contribution to the University’s commitment to empower an inclusive and equitable student experience, is a collaborative honor for us.”

Praised by the Chronicle of Higher Education for its “empathetic and clear-eyed analysis”, Moving Up Without Losing Your Way was awarded the Frederic W. Ness Book Award by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, in recognition of its outstanding contribution to the understanding and improvement of liberal education.

Listen to Professor Morton discuss the book on NPR’s Hidden Brain podcast

Read an interview with Professor Morton on PUP’s Ideas page

About the Author

Jennifer Morton is associate professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This fall, she will become presidential associate at the University of Pennsylvania. Follow her on Twitter @jennifermmorton

About the Princeton Pre-read

The Pre-read program, initiated by Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber in 2013, introduces incoming first-year students to Princeton’s intellectual life. Members of the incoming class join together to read a book selected by Eisgruber during the summer before they arrive on campus. First-years then participate in Pre-read discussions with President Eisgruber as well as the book’s author during Orientation, as well as engage in small group discussions with Eisgruber and other faculty, staff and student leaders over the course of the academic year.