Call for Submissions for DePauw Undergraduate Ethics Symposium

On April 10 - 14, 2014, The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics will host the seventh annual DePauw Undergraduate Ethics Symposium, designed to encourage undergraduate scholarship and artistic work. The conference is shaped around a series of workshops in which student scholars, creative writers, filmmakers and photographers present their best work on a subject of ethical concern. This year the theme of the Symposium is Virtue and Victory: Ethical Challenges in Competitive Life, but we welcome submissions on all issues of ethical concern.

 This is an honors symposium, and all submissions will be read by a panel of DePauw faculty members. Those students whose works are received by the February 1, 2014, deadline and accepted for inclusion in the conference will have their expenses paid for travel (up to $400), lodging and food. The group will be relatively small. We prefer to have 20 to 30 students from a variety of colleges and universities to keep the seminar groups at seven to ten students each.

 The students whose works are accepted for the symposium will benefit from the discussion of their ethics-related work by leading scholars and professionals in their fields and from their peers. Our goal is that each student who participates in the Symposium will have a polished piece of work which s/he can submit in a portfolio, a graduate school application, or a job application.

If you would like further information, please visit our website (http://www.depauw.edu/academics/centers/prindle/ues/2014/) for more details about this year’s symposium.

2014 DePauw Undergraduate Ethics Symposium Theme

 

Virtue and Victory: Ethical Challenges in Competitive Life

Competition is a pervasive feature of human life; we find it on the athletic field and the battlefield as well as in politics, the business world, the courtroom and the classroom. What obligations do we have to our adversaries? Do virtue and integrity enhance or impede our quest for victory? What should we do when winning conflicts with doing the right thing? Is competition an obstacle to or an essential component of a meaningful life? Can institutionalized competition in economics or politics enhance the public interest? How should competition be effectively regulated?

These are just some of the questions that fall under the umbrella of the theme of this year’s Symposium.

Although we encourage submissions on the “Virtue and Victory: Ethical Challenges in Competitive Life” theme, undergraduate students may submit essays and creative project on any topic in ethics. The Prindle Institute welcomes works centered on ethics from all disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and the arts. Examples of the types of works accepted in the past include: argumentative and analytic essays, creative writing, poetry, film, documentaries and photography.