Umar Agha is a graduate of the AM program. At Harvard, he worked on virtue science—the translation of virtue ethics from philosophical traditions into evidence-based paradigms, and a major focus of The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science. This research is tied to his larger commitment to the defense of the common good in philosophy, ethics, and the law. 

 

Umar's current interest is in exploring the application of ancient political and ethical theory to contemporary debates in the governance of emerging technologies, such as AI ethics and policy, and of people, such as the future of democracy during periods of profound technological transformation and society-level risks. 

 

He intends to pursue an MPhil (leading to the DPhil) in Law at the University of Oxford. Before Harvard, he worked on oversight and accountability mechanisms for the intelligence community, and had a close brush with an MPP at one of Harvard's peer institutions.