Jadranka Skorin-Kapov

Jadranka Skorin-Kapov is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the College of Business, Stony Brook University. She served as the Head of Management Area at the College of Business from 2015-2024. In addition, she has affiliated faculty positions in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. Skorin-Kapov has a diverse educational background, with three PhDs: in Operations Research, in Philosophy, and in Art History and Criticism. She founded the Center for Integration of Business Education & Humanities (CIBEH) in an effort to enhance business education with ideas framed by philosophy and art.
Skorin-Kapov is the author or coauthor of about eighty scholarly publications (in Operations Research and Combinatorial Optimization and Business and Professional Ethics), and the recipient of a number of grants and awards, including five National Science Foundation grants and a Fulbright Award. Her work in Operations Research includes applications of discrete optimization to network design, manufacturing design, scheduling, and location and layout, and issues in game theory. She developed algorithms (heuristic search and learning, and polynomial algorithms for special cases) for difficult decision problems arising in engineering and business areas.
Skorin-Kapov has published scholarly books in continental philosophy and film art and criticism. Her research in philosophy is in the area of Continental Philosophy, especially aesthetics and the phenomenology of surprise. The diversity of her academic interests has underlined her understanding of the notions of surprise and irreducible newness, presented in her book The Aesthetics of Desire and Surprise: Phenomenology and Speculation, (Lexington Books, 2015, 2019). The intertwining of aesthetics and ethics, relevant for contemporary business, is presented in her book The Intertwining of Aesthetics and Ethics: Exceeding of Expectations, Ecstasy, Sublimity, (Lexington Books, 2016).
Skorin-Kapov’s research in art history concerns the filmic art and her recent book is Darren Aronofsky's Films and the Fragility of Hope (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, 2017). Skorin-Kapov integrated her research in business, philosophy, and art history in the book entitled Professional and Business Ethics through Film: The Allure of Cinematic Presentation and Critical Thinking (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). This book on business ethics through film considers ethical issues arising in professional and business settings and the role of individuals making decisions and coping with moral dilemmas. Readers can benefit from engagement in filmic narratives, as a simulated environment for developing a stance towards ethical challenges.
Skorin-Kapov is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2016, and Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program in 2017. In 2020 Skorin-Kapov was elected as the corresponding member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Social Sciences. In 2022 Skorin-Kapov was appointed as SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor.

Research: Operations Research (combinatorial optimization, game theory), Continental Philosophy (ethics and aesthetics), Art Criticism (film)

Teaching: Decision Sciences, Management Science, Management and Business and Professional Ethics