The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University is sponsoring an Undergraduate Ethics Symposium April 8-10, 2010. This conference is shaped around a series of workshops in which students present to one another their best work on a subject of ethical concern. I write to invite you to encourage your faculty to bring this event to the attention of their students. A Call for Essays and Creative Writing Projects is attached, and a tentative schedule for the symposium, which will be frequently updated, is available on our website: http://prindleinstitute.depauw.edu/programs/ethics_symposium.asp. Let me say at the outset that we hope to receive thoughtful and insightful essays and creative writing works which explore, analyze and examine ethical issues in a variety of ways. While writings on all areas of ethical concern are welcome, we encourage submissions focusing on Self-Interest, Altruism and Morality: Evolutionary, Religious and Philosophical Perspectives.
The students whose works are accepted for the symposium will benefit from the critiques and comments of their peers in the seminar, and also from the visiting scholar or creative writer who will direct the workshop. Our goal is that each student who participates in the Symposium will have a polished piece of writing which s/he can then submit in a portfolio, a graduate school application, or a job application.
This is an honors symposium, and those students whose works are received by the February 1 deadline and accepted for inclusion in the conference program by panels of DePauw faculty members will have all of their expenses paid for the conference. DePauw will cover travel expenses (up to $400), lodging and food for each conference participant. The group will be relatively small; we hope to have 20-30 students from a variety of colleges and universities. The seminars in which the works will be discussed will consist of seven to ten students each.
We would greatly appreciate your posting the attached Call for Essays and Creative Writing Projects, sharing this information with interested colleagues and, especially, encouraging students at your university to submit their work to us at the Ethics Institute.
Sincerely,
Martha Rainbolt
Coordinator, Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics