The Kenan Instructorship in Ethics is awarded annually to an advanced graduate or professional school student proposing to design and teach an undergraduate course with a substantial ethical focus in his or her area of expertise.

The 2009-2010 recipient of the Kenan Instructorship in Ethics is Aaron Thornburg, from the department of Cultural Anthropology.

His course, offered in Spring 2010, “Anthropology and Ethics” addresses ethical issues and debates within the anthropological subdisciplines of Archaeology, Biological Anthropology (including Primatology), Cultural Anthropology/Ethnography, and Visual Athropology. By investigating anthropological ethics in its multiple (but not unrelated) manifestations, the course provides an opportunity for students to learn more about ethics through the lens of discussions and debates emanating from the holistic and ethically embattled field that have bearing on cognate disciplines and the study of the field of ethics in general.

Past courses and corresponding departments include:

“The Poetics and Ethics of Revenge: Themes of Retributive Justice in Literature,” Classical Studies.

“Imagining Immigration: The Ethics and Politics of the Border,” Political Science.

“Romancing the Law: Human Rights, Anti-colonialism, and Late 20th Century Narratives of Global Justice,” English.

“The Ethics and Practice of Altruism,” Philosophy.

“Pluralism, Relativism and Social Reform,” Philosophy.

“Freedom and Moral Responsibility,” Philosophy.

“Democratic Possibilities in a Globalized World,” Political Science.

“Sympathy, Empathy and Morality,” Philosophy.

“The Amoralist’s Challenge,” Philosophy.

“Multiculturalism and Public Policy,” Political Science.

“The Content of our Character: Civic Leadership and Participation,” Public Policy Studies.

“Art and Ethics: U.S. Culture in Context,” Literature.