The LSU Ethics Institute
The LSU Ethics Institute is the center of research, teaching, and training in the
domain of ethics and human values. Ethics is an ancient field of study that wrestles
with some of the weightiest human questions:
- What does it mean to lead a good life?
- What is justice, and how is enacted?
- What obligations do we have to future generations?
- How do we become good?
- What are our obligations to the environment?
- What are the ethical implications of new technologies?
- What values and ends should orient our actions?
At the LSU Ethics Institute, we grapple with these and other such questions by hosting lectures, sponsoring reading groups, and organizing academic workshops. We are especially interested in fostering interdisciplinary relationships with other disciplines, departments, and colleges in order to build intellectual bridges that will serves students, faculty, staff, and all Louisianans.
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Director 106 Coates Hall
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Associate Director 208A Coates Hall
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Administrative Coordinator Carrie Powell 102 Coates Hall |
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Mailing Address Louisiana State University LSU Ethics Institute 102 Coates Hall Baton Rouge, LA 70803
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Campus Office 208 Coates Hall 225-578-2220
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Interested in Making a Donation? There are many ways to giving to the LSU Ethics Institute! Visit www.lsu.edu/ethics/give.php to check out your options |
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Embedding Ethics in STEM @ LSU In 2022, the LSU Ethics Institute was awarded a $103,900 Departmental Enhancement Grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents for this project. We have continued to carry out the work of this grant by partnering with STEM faculty affiliates and outside experts to develop course modules that are focused on ethical literacy and moral issues. These modules may be implemented into STEM courses across LSU to supplement and enhance existing course materials, all with the goal of expanding ethics education and awareness throughout STEM courses.
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The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Working Group is the product of a partnership 0 ormed in 202 between the LSU Ethics Institute and Dr. Hartmut Kaiser's STE||AR group at the LSU Center for Computation and Technology (CCT). Together, they have applied for two grants together and collaborated on an AI colloquia series featuring prominent ethicists.
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The Environmental Justice Working Group brings together scholars and researchers across LSU with deep knowledge of historical patterns of inequality—particularly the distribution of environmental burdens and economic benefits--in the United States and the Gulf South. Our research collaborations seek to operationalize notions of distributional and reparative justice in ways that center vulnerable communities, and provide effective frameworks to assess and evaluate community benefits in collaboration with affected communities.
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The Carceral Studies Group brings together students, scholars, artists, practitioners, and activists who study, interrogate, and challenge the harms of the carceral system, policing, criminalization, and punishment as they exist in the United States today.
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The Cecil L. Eubanks Ethics Bowl Team at LSU enhances understanding an ethical issues by enlisting undergraduate students onto a competitive team. Members train by studying a set of cases in advance.
In a typical match, a moderator poses a question to which the presenting team gives a detailed answer. The commentating team then responds with questions and criticisms, and the presenting team follows up with a reply. Finally, the presenting team takes questions from a panel of judges. Teams are evaluated on the basis of the clarity of their presentation, the degree to which they clearly identify and thoroughly discuss the central moral dimensions of the case, and whether they properly consider objections that would loom large in the reasoning of individuals who disagree with the team's position. Winners of regional competitions in San Antonio, TX advance to the national competeition.
The Ethics Bowl is a tremendous opportunity for students looking to enhance their ability to think critically and to communicate effectively about matters of pressing ethical concern.
Interested students should contact Dr. Anthony Kelley (akelley@lsu.edu) for more information.
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April 16, 2025, 4:00pm, 143 Coates Hall Laura T. Murphy (Center for Strategic and International Studies) "How Researchers, Government, and Civil Society Collaborate to Fight Authoritarianism: Lessons Learned from the Uyghur Region in China"
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February 26, 2024, 3:30pm, Hill Memorial Library Joanna Wuest (Mount Holyoke College) "Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement"
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November 6, 2023, 4:00, French House Sternberg Salon, Ogden Honors College Dr. Adolph Reed, Jr. (University of Pennsylvania) "Making Sense of Race: What It Is and Isn't, What It Means and Doesn't, and Its Implications for Medical and Public Health Practice" Co-sponsored with the Department of History for the Fall 2023 Lecture Series: Race, History, and Medicine
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October 27, 2023, 3:30pm, Hill Memorial Library Kathryn Olivarius (Stanford University) "Necropolis: Disease, Power and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom" Co-sponsored with the Department of History for the Fall 2023 Lecture Series: Race, History, and Medicine
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October 23, 2023, 3:30pm, Hill Memorial Library Kevin McQueeney (Loyola Unviersity) "A City Without Care: 300 Years of Racism, Health Disparities, and Health Care Activism in New Orleans" Co-sponsored with the Department of History for the Fall 2023 Lecture Series: Race, History, and Medicine
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December 1, 2021, 3:00pm, Zoom Dr. Alex Hanna (Ethical AI Team at Google and University of California, Berkeley) "Beyond Bias: Algorithmic Unfairness, Infrastructure, and Genealogies of Data"
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May 26, 2020, 12:00-2:00pm, Zoom AI Ethics/Algorithmic Justice Panel Discussion
"The Ethical Algorithm"
"New paradigms of Justice: How We Can Respond to the Information Crisis"
"Algorithmic Bias and Responsibility: Who, When, To Whom?" |
| COVID-19 in Louisiana |
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Andrea Gallo (The Advocate): Louisiana Hospital's Crisis Response Ethics & Crisis Management in Louisiana: Summary Louisiana Department of Health: State Hospital Crisis Standards of Care |
| Medical Ethics |
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Hastings Center: Ethical Framework for Health Care Hastings Center: Bioethics and Governmental Responsibility STAT News: Research Ethics in a Pandemic Johns Hopkins: Ethics and Policy Insights for COVID-19 Journal of Clinical Ethics: The JCE has compiled a set of articles on Catastrophic Care. They are open for public access. On the front page of the website is a box entitled "JCE Special Publication." At the bottom of the box there is a link to access the document. New England Journal of Medicine: Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources Scott Hershovitz (New York Times): Rationing Essential Care: You Can Save One Person or Five, but Not All Six |
| The Ethics of Recovery |
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MIT: Stronger Pandemic Response Yields Better Economic Recovery New York Times: Restarting America Paul Franks (The Conversation): Comparing Nordic Strategies for COVID-19 Bernardo Kliksberg (BBVA): Re-Examining the Relationship Between Ethics and the Economy |
| Personal and Social Ethics |
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Laura Marris (New York Times): Camus's Inoculation Against Hate Sean Illing (Vox): Social Solidarity Sean Illing (Vox): Camus and the Plague Allain de Botton (New York Times): Camus on the Coronavirus TIME Magazine: Common Moral Questions Around Coronavirus Orhan Pamuk (New York Times): What the Great Pandemic Novels Teach Us Michiko Kakutani (New York Times): Coronavirus Notebook: Finding Solace, and Connection, in Classic Books Robert Zaretsky (TLS): Out of a Clear Blue Sky: Camus's The Plague and Coronavirus |
| LSU Libraries |
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LSU Library has compiled an annotated bibliography of interesting and useful books on ethics, at the following site: |