Events
Center for Ethics programs and events are designed to foster a sense of community, engage in productive discourse, and encourage critical thinking about important ethical issues. Whether you are a student, faculty, professional, or simply curious about ethics, there is something for everyone.
2025 Fall Semester Events
Date/Time: Sep 4, 2025 - 7:00 pm
Location: Center for Ethics, 1531 Dickey Drive, Room 252
SPECIAL GUESTS
David Harrington, Violinist, Founding Member of the Kronos Quartet, Kluge Chair in Modern Culture, Library of Congress.
John Fenn, Head of Research and Programs at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
One of the Center's aims is to bring thoughtful people into conversation, so they talk through their efforts to be conscientious in a particular domain. This event arose from the thought that "appropriation" is a term to mark a failure of appropriately acknowledging one's creative sources, where "appropriate" might involve showing respect for, being generous with, even honoring the source, whether a person or a tradition.
The founding question for this event is thus: Beyond honest credits, how does one acknowledge, even honor the artists and cultural traditions that any artist inevitably relies upon in generating their own work?
Date/Time: Sep 11, 2025 - 7:00 pm
Location: Center for Ethics, 1531 Dickey Drive, Room 102
SPECIAL GUESTS
Teresa Morgan, PhD, D. Litt, Yale Divinity School
Louis E. Newman, PhD, Carlton College
Wrongdoing, suffering, and repairing are part and parcel of the human condition. Yet these are variably understood across traditions. Some traditions speak of such experiences in terms of transgression and atonement, others use terms like sin, guilt, and repentance. Forgiveness and reconciliation, dignity and humility, vulnerability and trust mix and mingle in this eternal pursuit to mend profound wounds. Come and hear this conversation between scholars of religion, theology, and ethics.
Healthcare Ethics Diaglogue Series
Date/Time: Sep 24, 2025
Location: Center for Ethics, 1531 Dickey Drive, Room 162
SPECIAL GUEST
Renee McLeod-Sordjan, DNP, PhD, MBA, FNAP, FAAN, Founding Dean & Professor of Nursing, Morehouse School of Medicine
We explored how the shifting information ecosystem (social media, AI, intentional misinformation and fragmented expertise) reshapes patient and family willingness to trust clinical recommendations. Using case-based discussion, ethical principlism will be connected to practical communication tools (e.g., Ask–Tell–Ask, transparency about uncertainty, equity-minded framing) to navigate misinformation without eroding autonomy. Participants leave with a concise, measurable trust-building plan tailored to their own professional and clinical practice.
Learning Objectives (by the end of this session, participants will be able to…)
- Analyze at least three drivers of patient/family trust and mistrust (e.g., historical harms, digital misinformation ecosystems, clinician communication behaviors) and then link them to core ethical principlism
- Apply an ethically grounded culturally sensitive conversation framework (e.g., Ask–Tell–Ask with teach-back and transparency about uncertainty/evidence strength) to complex ethics scenarios to address prognostic uncertainty.
- Design a brief trust-building ethical action plan including risk/benefit framing, transparency, and equity-minded/community-engagement strategy, along with practical consult metrics to evaluate impact.
October 27, 2025 - 2:30 pm
Location: Center for Ethics, 1531 Dickey Drive, Room 162
SPECIAL GUESTS
Aaron Gross, PhD, Assoc. Professor at Univ of San Diego, Founder/CEO of Farm Forward
Ani Satz, PhD, JD, Founding Director of the Health Law, Policy & Ethics Project at Emory. Professor of Health, Policy & Management at the Rollins School of Public Health, a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Center for Ethics, and an Affiliated Professor at the Goizueta Business School.
Even in polarized times, most Americans agree that compassion for animals matters. Yet for decades our laws and institutions have failed to protect animals when it’s most consequential. Can we hope to change course in the Anthropocenic era when compassion itself seems under attack? Join us for a heartfelt conversation about legal and policy protections for the well-being of animals with scholars who see enormous scope for positive change.
November 5, 2025 - 7:00 pm
Location: Center for Ethics, 1531 Dickey Drive, Room 252
SPECIAL GUEST
Meghan O’Rourke, Poet, Author of NYTimes Bestseller The Invisible Kingdom: Reimaging Chronic Illness and Editor, The Yale Review
How should medicine and society respond to patients whose illnesses resist conventional diagnosis? Drawing on The Invisible Kingdom and her own experience, Meghan O’Rourke examines the harms of disbelief and neglect and reflects on the ethical responsibility to recognize and care for suffering even when its causes remain elusive or hard to "see."