Andrew M. Flescher, PhD

Associate Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Medical Humanities 
Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics

Theories of Compassion, Altruism, and Supererogation
Ethics
Religion and Health Care
Medical Humanities
Bioethics
Religion and Society
Methods and Theory of Religion

Office Phone: (631) 638-1014; Email:andrew.flescher@stonybrook.edu

Andrew M. Flescher is an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University specializing in Religion, Ethics, and Medical Humanities and the co-director for the Masters Program in Compassionate Care, Bioethics, and Medical Humanities. He currently serves on the Stony Brook Hospital Ethics Committee and Organ Donor Council. Dr. Flescher was previously (2000–2009) Associate Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Society at California State University, Chico, where he served as the director for the Center for Applied and Professional Ethics for five years (2001-2006). He received his B.A. in Medieval and Renaissance Studies and History from Duke University (1991) and his M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (2000) in Religious Studies from Brown University. He has published articles and book reviews in the Journal of Religion, Journal of Religion and Society, Dialogue and Alliance, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, among others. He is the author of two books: Heroes, Saints, and Ordinary Morality (Georgetown University Press, 2003) and The Altruistic Species: Scientific, Philosophical, and Religious Perspectives of Human Benevolence, co-authored with Daniel L. Worthen (Templeton Press, 2007). The Altruistic Species earned the Choice award for outstanding academic title (2009) and the course which inspired it, “What Motivates Altruism?,” taught with co-author Dr. Daniel Worthen, won a national award. Currently Dr. Flescher is finishing his third book, Four Models of Moral Evil, again under contract with Georgetown University Press. Dr. Flescher spent much of this past summer in Hamburg, Germany and Lisbon, Portugal, delivering papers on the relationship between hope and healing. With Dr. Stephanie Brown, Dr. Flescher is one of the lead interviewers of 9/11 responders in Dr. Luft's World Trade Center Oral History Project. Dr. Flescher performs on the piano every other Thursday in the hospital lobby for our patients.