PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS
Global Education Initiative
In collaboration with the African American and Diaspora Studies Department for the cultivation of exchange programs with universities in Africa, this program is primarily centered on study abroad opportunities for students, the development of an explicit ethical dimension in AADS theses and projects, and potential faculty collaborations through opportunities such as The Center for Applied Ethics (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) and an international symposium on "Tolerance and Intolerance."
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Justice Studies Project
Beginning in the summer of 2007, Monica Casper led an extensive survey of Justice Studies programs in universities in the United States as well as a survey of resources at Vanderbilt for justice studies. The project is now engaging Vanderbilt faculty members and students in a continuing workshop that addresses theoretical and empirical issues in the study of justice and is oriented by the goal of bringing together the exceptional resources and interests on this topic at Vanderbilt into a coherent program of study.
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Vanderbilt Visions Topics and Approaches Project
With Vanderbilt Visions faculty and staff, designing a series of filmed vignettes based on real-life stories submitted by students about challenging experiences and dilemmas they have faced in the transition to college. For use in Vanderbilt Visions group discussions.
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South Africa Study Abroad Program
With the Program in African American and Diaspora Studies and the Council on International Educational Exchange, the Center is developing a study abroad program for Vanderbilt students with the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, where there are exceptional opportunities for the study of applied ethics.
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The Achievement Gap Program
The Center is currently supporting the Summer Scholar Identity Institute that takes place in association with the Vanderbilt Achievement Gap Project. This institute addresses Black male underachievement at the local level. It aims to prepare one hundred Black males to challenge themselves academically, psychologically and emotionally to be high-achieving students who are able to overcome and cope with peer pressures and other distractions that get in the way of their learning. Presentations, readings, discussions, and activities help students to enhance their problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, social skills, soft skills, and conflict resolution skills. The program is based on the research of Donna Ford and Gilman Whiting, who are the key faculty in this program.
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Center for the Study of Religion and Culture on Religion and Politics
The Center is also supporting (and its faculty are participating in) an ongoing project with the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture on Religion and Politics. See the CSRC website for details.
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Ethics 105 TAs
The Center sponsors additional TAs for Professor John Lachs' Introduction to Ethics course, offered in the department of Philosophy. The TAs that the Center sponsors come from disciplines and schools other than philosophy and Arts and Science. The objective is to increase the exposure of graduate students from other disciplines to the history and teaching of philosophical ethics and to further increase the exposure of students in Ethics 105 to specific areas of ethical interest, such as ethics in religion, law, medicine, and business.
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Dissertation Seminars
Each semester, the Center for Ethics sponsors two or more multi-disciplinary groups of “Dissertation Fellows,” dissertation-stage graduate students whose work has an ethical focus, and who read, comment on, meet regularly, and discuss their work.
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May Seminars
May Seminars for advanced graduate students involved with teaching, Mark Schoenfield, director. One seminar will be introductory and called “Pedagogy of the Difficult”; the other, with a textual focus, will be for students who have already attended “Pedagogy of the Difficult.” Title TBA.