Standford Center for Ethics in Society (Courses, Programs)

Photo credit goes to Standford U - online for Undergraduate Human Rights Fellowships

This year, in partnership with the Program on Human Rights, we launched our new Human Rights Fellowship program. These fellowships are intended to enable students to make a valuable contribution to human rights theory and practice. Offered to rising sophomores, juniors and seniors, grants will be given to four undergraduates (per year?) who will partner with human rights organizations, government agencies, NGOs, or international organizations (either here or abroad) during the summer. It is our hope that these fellowships will encourage students to build human rights work into their future careers, whether those careers are in academic life, in governmental or intergovernmental organizations, as activists, or as legal practitioners.

For more information, contact Joan Berry.

Application deadline: January 15 (of each year.) Please deliver a hard copy of your application material to Joan Berry, Galvez Modular (next to Sweet Hall), Room 118.

Sample Fellowships
Although this is the first year the Center for Ethics in Society is offering Human Rights Fellowships, Stanford students have been doing human rights work for quite some time.

Eligibility
This fellowship program is open only to Stanford University freshman, sophomores and juniors. Students from any field of study who have strong human rights interests are invited to apply.

Fellowship Details (these samples are from summer program currently underway):

* A $4000 stipend to support work with a human rights organization.
* A late spring workshop to prepare students for their summer fellowships.
* An informal event bringing the fellows together at the start of the Fall Quarter following their fellowship.
* A formal mini-conference in which fellows report on their experiences and present their research in the end of Fall Quarter.
* A formal write up of their experiences due at the end of the Winter Quarter.

Application Process (There is no application form per se. All we need are the pieces mentioned below, submitted in hard copy.)

Some potential students here may want to consider applying for other Undergraduate Studies and then to apply for the Human Rights Program next January by the 15th for NEXT Summer.

Also, educators who are reading this post may want to learn from this Program:

Standford Center for Ethics in Society:

The Program in Ethics in Society offers undergraduates the opportunity to write a senior honors thesis within a community of interdisciplinary scholars. Our course of study combines the analytical rigor of moral and political philosophy with the subject matter of each student’s self-chosen major to develop a sophisticated understanding of problems of social concern. Such problems include: the nature and implications of treating people with equal dignity and respect; the scope of liberty; the legitimacy of government; and the meaning of responsibility. The Program poses these issues, and others, in the context of debates which arise in our common public life. It thus extends moral concern and reflection across disciplines such as medicine, law, economics, political science, sociology, international relations, and public policy.

Students in the Program write honors theses on topics which use moral and political philosophy to address practical problems. Previous theses have considered such questions as the just distribution of health care, our obligations to future generations, the role of moral values in education, the moral implications of genetic engineering and the relationship between gender inequality and the structures of work and family. Many of our students have won scholarships to graduate study including Marshall, Rhodes and Fulbright Fellowships. Others have taken the step from moral analysis to moral commitment, pursuing careers of public service.

The Program in Ethics in Society is open to all students with a GPA of 3.3 or higher. Students take two required core courses in moral and political thought, a thesis seminar, and an elective related to their thesis topic. They spend their senior year writing their honors thesis. The Program fosters moral reflection, discussion and practice among students as well as encourages close work between faculty and students.

For more information about the Program, contact the Program's coordinator, Andrea Kuduk (akuduk@stanford.edu) or the Program's director, Professor Rob Reich (reich@stanford.edu).

Also feel free to stop by the Program office, located in the Galvez Modular (next to Green Library).

What are the strengths of the Program in Ethics in Society?

The Program in Ethics in Society devotes itself to undergraduate education and we facilitate close interaction with distinguished faculty. The Program offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of ethics and includes course offerings from Philosophy, History, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Economics, and Political Science. Additionally, students who write an Honors Thesis in the Program major in many disciplines, including Earth Sciences, Human Biology, Economics and Religious Studies.

The Program in Ethics in Society organizes itself around the Senior Honors Thesis. Students take a broad range of courses that prepare them for the challenge of integrating ethical theories with real world moral and political problems.

The Program offers individualized advising, because of its committed faculty and small size. Students meet with an advisor upon embarking on their Honors Thesis, and continue a relationship with their faculty mentors until graduation.

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Here are a few of the XTRA courses offered at Standford in the Ethics Program:

ETHICSOC 20. Introduction to Moral Philosophy—(Same as PHIL 20.) What is the basis of moral judgment? What makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong? What makes a state of affairs good or worth promoting? What is it to have a good or virtuous character? Answers to classic questions in ethics through the works of traditional and contemporary authors. GER:DB-Hum, EC-EthicReas 5 units.

ETHICSOC 30. Introduction to Political Philosophy—(Same as PHIL 30, POLISCI 3.) State authority, justice, liberty, and equality through major works in political philosophy. Topics include human nature and citizenship, the obligation to obey the law, democracy and economic inequality, equality of opportunity and affirmative action, religion, and politics. GER:DB-Hum, EC-EthicReas 5 units.

ETHICSOC 133. Ethics and Politics in Public Service—(Same as POLISCI 133.) Provides the basis for a connection between an undergraduate's service activities and his or her academic experiences at Stanford; especially for freshmen and sophomores who participate or intend to participate in service activities through the Haas Center or register for courses with service learning components. What does it mean to do public service? Why should or should not citizens do volunteer work? Is public service by definition a good thing? The history, hazards, responsibilities, and dilemmas of doing public service. A historical context of public service work in the U.S., introducing the range of ethical concerns involved with service.
GER: DB-SocSci. 5 units.

ETHICSOC 136R. Introduction to Global Justice—(Same as INTNLREL 136R, POLISCI 136R, POLISCI 336.) Recent work in political theory on global justice. Topics include global poverty, human rights, fair trade, immigration, climate change. Do developed countries have a duty to aid developing countries? Do rich countries have the right to close their borders to economic immigrants? When is humanitarian intervention justified? Readings include Charles Beitz, Thomas Pogge, John Rawls. 5 units.

ETHICSOC 137R. Justice at Home and Abroad: Civil Rights in the 21st Century—(Same as EDUC 261X, POLISCI 137R, POLISCI 337R.) Focus is on theories of justice. How the core ideals of freedom, equality, and security animate theories which John Rawls considers the first virtue of social institutions. Topics include the U.S. Constitution as a legal framework for the operation of these ideals, civil rights legislation and litigation as the arena of tensions between those ideals, and how ideas of justice function both at home and abroad to impact civil liberties in today's war on terror. 5 units.

ETHICSOC 157/257. An interdisciplinary examination of alternative and largely incompatible twentieth century defenses of the morality of capitalism, with a concentration on economic, Objectivist, and Christian arguments, considered historically, economically, politically, and philosophically. GER: DBHum. 5 units.

ETHICSOC 170. Ethical Theory—(Same as PHIL 170/270.) Major strands in contemporary ethical theory. Readings include Bentham, Mill, Kant, and contemporary authors. GER:DB-Hum, EC-EthicReas 4 units.

ETHICSOC 171. Justice—(Same as IPS 208, PHIL 171/271, POLISCI 136S, PUBLPOL 207.) Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include protecting religious liberty, financing schools and elections, regulating markets, assuring access to health care, and providing affirmative action and group rights. Issues of global justice including human rights and global inequality. GER:DB-Hum, EC-EthicReas 5 units.