Ethics Between the Lines
The Center for the Study of Ethics in Society is hosting a series of book clubs during the Fall 2023 semester. Participants will purchase and read the books on their own, then join the discussion leaders for lively conversations. Participants will receive information about the meetings about one week before the first meeting. The first 10 sign-ups receive a free book.
Students who attend all scheduled meetings of their book club earn Signature credit.
All groups are open to everyone.
Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard by Douglas Tallamy. The book explores ways that we can address wildlife decline at the individual level regardless of government policy. And the principal answer, that we should plant more native species, is a way to engage with environmental ethics that cuts across the political divide. The book gives specific suggestions for creating conservation corridors in your back yard. Discussions led by Jonathan Milgrim, faculty specialist, and Fritz Allhoff, professor, both in the Department of Philosophy. Meetings will be 6-7:30 p.m. Thursdays Sept 28, October 12 and 26 in person at this is a bookstore/Bookbug, 3019 Oakland Drive.
Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. This book was reissued in 2021 on the 60th anniversary of its publication with a new introduction by Cornel West. It has been a central text for interrogating racism and colonialism and their harmful impacts, including violence, trauma and mental illness. Fanon’s text covers the means of struggling against those who profit from racism and colonialism, as well as the obstacles to creating alternative forms of knowledge and social relations. Discussions led by William Santiago-Valles, retired associate professor emeritus of Africana Studies. Meetings will be 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesdays Oct. 4, 11, 18 and 25 online on Webex.
The Idea of Prison Abolition by Tommie Shelby, Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University. Some reformers advocate for the end of prisons, given the prevalence of inhumane conditions, the devastating costs of mass incarceration for Black communities, and other ethical problems. Shelby examines the case for prison abolition, building on the work of Angela Davis and other Black activists and prison reformers. Shelby concludes that we can greatly reduce incarceration by attending to the structural injustices that contribute to crime and the harms it causes even if prisons remain. Discussions led by Ashley Atkins, associate professor of philosophy. Meetings will be 5-6:30 p.m. Mondays November 13, 27, and December 4, in person in 2401 Sangren Hall in preparation for a lecture by Shelby on December 8.