Past Edward S. and A. Rita Schmidt Lectureships in Ethics
Lecture 2008–09
Organ Trafficking
Presented By
Michele Goodwin
Professor Goodwin is the Everett Fraser Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School, where she holds joint appointments in the Medical School and the School of Public Health. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School, a distinguished Meador Lecturers at the University of Alabama and a visiting scholar at the University of California Law School's Center for Law and Society. Goodwin has also been the Wicklander Chair in Ethics and Professor of Law at DePaul University where she directed the Health Law Institute.
Lecture 2007–08
Ethics.com: Watching and Being Watched in Cyberspace
Presented By
Deborah Johnson
Deborah Johnson is a leading voice in a small but growing chorus of philosophers who are adapting traditional theoretical tools to cultivate the new field of computer ethics. Her talk focused on the ethical dimensions of online communication, especially amid the increasing popularity of virtual communities such as MySpace and the continued growth of e-business, blogging and other computer applications. Johnson joined the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science last fall as the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics. Her current research interests include the ethical issues raised by virtual reality. In her spare time, she co-edits a book series on women, gender and technology and the journal Ethics and Information Technology.
Lecture 2006-07
Controversies in Reproductive Medicine: Selecting and Protecting our Children's Future
Presented By
Judith Daar
Professor Daar is a professor of law at Whittier Law School and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine. She has done extensive research on the on the legal, moral and practical implications of genetic and reproductive technologies. Professor Daar also serves as the chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Committee on Bioethics, a member of the University of California, Irvine Medical Center’s Medical Ethics Committee, and a volunteer attorney with the HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance. Her classes include bioethics, health law and reproductive technologies and the law.
Lecture 2005–06
The Dark Side of College Sports and College Life: A Look at the Ethical Concerns That Undermine and Challenge Undergraduate Education
Presented By
Murray Sperber
Murray Sperber, professor emeritus of English and American Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, delivered a lecture discussing both how many schools, particularly large research universities, shortchange their undergraduate students, providing a "fun time" centered on college sports and partying, instead of a meaningful education and how other schools, mainly small colleges that still focus on undergraduate education but are increasingly swimming against the national tide. Sperber has written extensively about the ethical challenges facing higher education. His books on college sports include: Beer & Circus: How Big-time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education; College Sports Inc.: The Athletic Department vs. the University; Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football; and Onward to Victory: The Crises That Shaped College Sports. His books have won many awards and have been included on many "Best Books of the Year" lists. In addition, Sports Illustrated placed Beer & Circus on its list of "100 Best Sports Books of All-Time" and named Shake Down the Thunder as the second best sports history book. Sperber also frequently contributes op-ed pieces to The Chronicle of Higher Education and other periodicals, including The New York Times.
Lecture 2004–05
Campaigns and Conscience: The Ethics and Craft of News Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Presented By
Lee C. Wilkins
Professor Lee C. Wilkins holds a joint appointment in the Missouri School of Journalism and the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri. She teaches classes in media ethics; mass media at both the undergraduate and graduate level; various doctoral seminars; public communication; risk communication and management. In 1998, Dr. Wilkins won one of the university's highest teaching honors, the William T. Kemper Fellowship. She also has professional experience as a reporter and editor for newspapers in Michigan, Oregon and Colorado. Wilkins has published extensively on media ethics. Her recently research on how journalists make ethical decisions will be published in a book entitled The Moral Media. She is the co-author of one of the country's best-selling college ethics texts, Media Ethics: Issues and Cases.
The Panel on Media Ethics and Politics also featured:
John M. Baer
John Baer is an award-winning columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News who writes about politics in Philadelphia, the state and nation. The National Journal calls him one of the country's top 10 political journalists outside Washington. He is a former Fellow of the American Political Science Association in Washington, D.C., under whose auspices he studied at The Brookings Institution and worked a year in Congress. Baer has won numerous national, state and regional awards for newspaper and magazine writing—including Associated Press Managing Editors Awards for both column writing and investigative reporting. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Nation, Men's Health, Newsweek, The American Journalism Review, The Columbia Journalism Review, Editor & Publisher, Philadelphia Magazine, Pittsburgh Magazine and many other publications.
Russ Eshleman
Russ Eshleman joined the Penn State University journalism faculty full time in 1999 after working for 15 years at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he ultimately served as Harrisburg Bureau chief and state political writer. His other newspaper experience includes working as a reporter and editor at the Lancaster New Era and the Gettysburg Times. While at The Inquirer, Eshleman was awarded a national Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1992. In addition to his teaching duties, Eshleman writes a weekly column on state government and politics for Capitolwire, an Internet-based news and information service based in Harrisburg. He also worked as Capitolwire's managing editor during its first full year of operation in 2000-2001.
Lecture 2003–04
Inaugural Lecture: Why Good People Make Bad Choices
Presented By
Jeffrey B. Van Duzer, J.D.
Jeffrey B. Van Duzer is the Dean and Associate Professor of Law and Ethics of the School of Business and Economics at Seattle Pacific University. Prior to his appointment he regularly taught ethics and business law courses in the School as an adjunct member of the faculty and was selected as Adjunct Faculty of the Year in 2000. Mr. Van Duzer worked more than 20 years in the private practice of law with Davis Wright Tremaine, a large international law firm where he concentrated his practice in finance, commercial transactions and environmental law. During his tenure with the law firm, Mr. Van Duzer served as the managing partner of the firm’s largest office and as a member of the firm’s executive committee. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, and B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of California at Berkeley.
