SMU Associate Professor Alida Liberman, Ph.D., delivered the 2021 Maguire Public Scholar Lecture on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.

Her lecture addresses whether exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandates (e.g., from an employer or university) should be accommodated as conscientious objections, understood as penalty-free exemptions to a law or policy based on moral or religious disagreement with the policy. Liberman develops a framework for assessing the legitimacy of conscientious objection claims by determining whether they violate the basic competencies needed to be a minimally decent member of a profession or community. In the case of vaccine mandates, these include epistemic competencies (such as avoiding relying on factual misunderstandings when making community-impacting decisions), relational competencies (such as avoiding free-riding and refraining from harming others in the exercise of your liberties), and normative competencies (which require having an accurate understanding of what you are responsible for and how your actions affect others). Liberman argues many vaccine refusals violate one or more of these competencies, and accordingly should not be permitted as a matter of conscientious objection.

Renowned scholar Professor Charles E. Curran is the Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values and author of the chapter "Christian Ethics, the University, and the Broader Human Society" in the new publication Ethics at the Heart of Higher Education. A pillar in the field of theology for over 40 years, Curran was the first recipient of the John Courtney Murray Award of the Catholic Theological Society of America for distinguished achievement in theology and the winner of the American Publishers Award for Professional Scholarly Excellence in Theology and Religious Studies (PROSE). Professor Rita Kirk is an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and the William F. May Endowed Director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

Please visit smu.edu/ethics for more information on the Maguire Ethics Center.

Professor Robert Howell is an SMU Dedman Family Distinguished Professor, Philosophy Department Chair and author of the chapter "Should Ethics Be Taught? Ethics in the Secular University" in the new publication "Ethics at the Heart of Higher Education." Professor Rita Kirk is an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and the William F. May Endowed Director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

Wm. Thomas Mayo is an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and Professor of Law in the SMU Dedman Law School and author of "Using the Humanities to Explore Professionalism in Medical and Law Schools," a chapter in the newly released book Ethics at the Heart of Higher Education. Rita Kirk, an editor and author of the book, serves as the William F. May Endowed Director of SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

"On the one hand, we assume students already have some sense of ethics before they arrive, which is why we hold them accountable for their behavior from their first day on campus … on the other hand, we also assume that students should reflect on ethics across the curriculum, and that assumes that ethics needs to and can be taught. How do we make sense of both these assumptions?” -excerpt from Ethics at the Heart of Higher Education

Grab a cup of coffee, pop on your headphones and join us for an engaging, live conversation between Professors Rita Kirk and Steve Long. The topic: can ethics be taught in today’s colleges and universities?

D. Stephen Long, Ph.D., is the Maguire Chair in Ethics and author of “Can Ethics Be Taught? Connecting the Classroom to Everyday Life,” a chapter in the newly released book Ethics at the Heart of Higher Education. Rita Kirk, Ph.D., an editor and author of the book, serves as the William F. May Endowed Director of SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

BONUS EPISODE

Preparing for the Engaged Learning Symposium (or any oral presentation) and need some help getting started? This short guide outlines some tips and tricks for organizing your ideas to make your presentation the best it can be.

Always remember to reach out to your program's organizer or specialist if you have specific questions.

Ep. 2 - Restorative Justice

Dr. Ann Batenburg, clinical associate professor of Gifted Education in the SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development, talks with Dr. Steve Long, Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at SMU's Perkins School of Theology. Drs. Batenburg and Long discuss the definition and concept of restorative justice and how its principles might be relevant for students of all disciplines.

Books, films or concepts discussed in the episode:

• The Little Book of Restorative Justice (The Little Books of Justice & Peacebuilding) by Howard Zehr

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

• 13th, Netflix documentary directed by Ava DuVernay

• Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces by Radley Balko

• Inner White Girl sketch, Saturday Night Live (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSSLZpl-Vg)

• A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes

• Brene Brown, blog entry on shame vs guilt (https://brenebrown.com/blog/2013/01/14/shame-v-guilt/)

• The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom) by Friedrich Nietzsche

• Dead Man Walking, directed by Tim Robbins

For more information on the Maguire Ethics Center, please visit smu.edu/ethics.

Ep. 1 - Dr. Theo Walker, Jr. delivers the 2018 Maguire Public Scholar Lecture "Don't Call King A Civil Rights Leader: Toward Abolishing Poverty and War by Correcting our Fatally Inadequate Remembering of MLK, Jr." The lecture was delivered February 7th and followed by a Q&A.

For more information on the Maguire Ethics Center, please visit smu.edu/ethics.