The Kenan Institute for Ethics has chosen two members of Duke’s 2013 graduating class for the Stephen and Janet Bear Postgraduate Fellowship in Ethics, Michaela Dwyer and Nathan Nye.

Dwyer is a Chapel Hill native whose recent studies at Duke included English, art history, documentary studies, and dance. She has recently stepped down as the editor of “Recess,” the arts section of Duke’s Chronicle newspaper.  Dwyer first became aware of the Kenan Institute for Ethics through participation in the DukeEngage: Dublin program, which focuses on migrant issues in Ireland’s capital. Nye hails from White Lake, NC, and studied English, women’s studies, and policy journalism. For the past four years, he has been a member of Team Kenan, the Institute’s student-organized program to create ethical dialog on campus. He has also acted as a leader in the pre-orientation program Project Change.

Acting Director for KIE Suzanne Shanahan shared her excitement in welcoming the two incoming fellows, whom she knows will “bring great creative energy, insight and engagement to the Institute.”

The Postgraduate Fellowship in Ethics allows recent Duke graduates the chance to partner with the Institute to develop, design and administer programs on campus, as well as promote engagement with the local community. Brianna Nofil, the first graduate to fill the position, has spent the last year working with the United Nations working group on business and human rights. As part of her fellowship, Nofil traveled to Mongolia with the working group. She discusses the impending mineral boom in that country and its human rights conflicts in her reflections on the trip.

This spring, students in Professor Ruth Grant‘s course “Challenges of Living an Ethical Life” were given the chance to evaluate the view of ethics presented in Shel Silverstein’s classic children’s tale The Giving Tree. In the tale, a boy begins a friendship with a tree by playing in its branches and eating its apples, but as he ages he becomes increasingly demanding, as the tree gives all with no questions asked.

As an option for their final assignment, students could either defend the morality of the narrative in The Giving Tree  or rewrite the story and explain their choices in an accompanying essay.

Student Lauren Hansson  chose to adapt the story by building in greater consequences for the child and increasing reciprocity between the child and the tree (illustrated at right). She wrote that Silverstein’s original “has the potential to teach children about environmental ethics and how it fits into their everyday lives, but as it stands, its message is ambiguous and presents a flawed depiction of our relationship with the environment.”

Jamie Bergstrom illustrated an adaptation titled “The Helping Tree.” Bergstrom also created a more reciprocal relationship in the narrative. She emphasizes the ethics of giving as a way to help others better themselves through beneficial relationships with mutual respect.

Grant’s course is the gateway for KIE’s Ethics Certificate, a pathway of courses meant to supplement any undergraduate course of study by infusing ethics into their daily, academic, and later professional lives. The students in this course learned to address ethical dilemmas through the lens of different cultural viewpoints, reading texts from the ancient era to modern day.

Educators can find the related case study and teaching notes on the teaching caselettes web resources page.

The Kenan Moral Purpose Award is given for the best undergraduate student essay on the role a liberal arts education plays in students’ exploration of the personal and social purposes by which to orient their future and the intellectual, emotional, and moral commitments that make for a full life. In partnership with the Parr Center for Ethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, KIE provides the winning undergraduate from each school with a cash prize.

The winning Duke student is Joy Liu, a Trinity junior majoring in public policy and biology (pictured at right). Her essay “Ambition” discusses a pivotal trip to Africa, in which a friendship with a local youth transformed her motivations. The Carolina student chosen, Elizabeth Henderson, is a senior majoring in journalism and mass communication. In “On Open-Mindedness,” she discusses the ways in which her liberal arts education has taken her out of her comfort zone and instilled in her an intellectual curiosity.

KIE Advisory Board member Joseph Harvard has just retired from his post as pastor at Durham’s First Presbyterian Church. The Herald-Sun highlights Harvard’s work in the community and his leadership in inter-religious service. Harvard is quoted saying “You know, there was been a real good spirit among the religious folk in Durham – clergy and laity – about working together.”

For more information on Harvard’s work in Durham, read the 2006 article from Duke Today.

Team Kenan senior Emily McGinty is passionate about issues of food resources. A recent Duke Today article discusses her involvement in a project to create an online information hub for food researchers across multiple universities. Emily was also one of the project leaders for the TK Food Challenge, an experiential learning event that forced undergraduate participants to realize the challenges to proper nutrition for those with fewer socio-economic resources.