KIE launches new experiential pathway for Ethics Certificate
This fall, KIE’s Ethics Certificate Program will be the first to include a new pathway that combines the curricular with the co-curricular. In addition to course work that includes a Gateway introductory course, two half-credit Discussions in Ethics seminars (in which students meet with faculty and visiting non-academics to discuss ethics outside the classroom), and a final Capstone course, students can craft a comprehensive track unique to their fields of study that includes two experiential components.
One of these components must be a research project, and the other must be a community engagement experience. For the independent research project, the student and faculty advisor will choose a topic related to one of KIE’s core program areas: Human Rights, Global Migration, Rethinking Regulation, Moral Attitudes and Decision-Making, or Religions and Public Life. These projects could take many forms, such as an art exhibition, performance, or traditional academic paper. For the community engagement project, students will use an area of interest as a springboard to explore what living an ethical life means to them personally. Students could spend a summer examining the ethics of international adoption and attend a conference for adoptees, spend time in Greenland evaluating the effects of global warming and globalization on the local population, or intern at a pharmaceutical company or banking firm, all while keeping written reflections of the ethical questions they are exploring.
Proposals for the experiential pathway must be worked on in consultation with faculty, and faculty-student mentoring will continue throughout the experiential process. While other certificate programs are looking to add experiential components, the Ethics Certificate is the first do so. Students from all fields of study are encouraged to participate in this program, which students must declare by the end of the drop/add period of their junior year. Anyone interested may visit the ECP page or contact Mekisha Mebane, mekisha.mebane@duke.edu, for more information.
