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The Ruth W. Grant Ethics Book Clubs program, named in honor of Political Science Professor Emerita and Kenan Senior Fellow Ruth W. Grant, supports Duke alumni and staff interested in engaging with ethics though books clubs.

Established in 2015 by Professor Ruth W. Grant to create a space for Duke staff to engage with ethics and further their engagement within the intellectual life of the University. Fiction was a staple in Professor Grant’s courses in political theory and ethics. Now in its fifth year, the Staff Ethics Book Clubs program is both a staple of Institute programming and a vital opportunity for staff on campus. This year the program expanded to include Alumni Ethics Books Clubs, to promote meaningful conversation and build community for Duke alumni.If you have interest in starting an alumni or staff book club, please contact Margaret Krause at margaret.krause@duke.edu for more information on support and funding.This year, the Institute is focusing on works that explore purpose in our lives.

Purpose is everywhere. Students are told to figure out their purpose and adults are trusted to have figured it out already—though it’s the rare person who never stops to wonder if they are doing what they are meant to be doing, if they are the person they are meant to be, and how else their lives could have turned out.

These books focus on questions surrounding purpose, especially characters who find, rediscover, or entirely reevaluate what they believe they are supposed to do. Characters wonder who they are and what they want out of life, whether they’ve made a wrong turn, or even whether their wrong turn made them into the person they are. The books prompt us to reflect on what it means to have a purpose, to be the kind of person that one wants to be—even if that person is not the person one might have expected.

KENAN INSTITUTE FOR ETHICS' RECOMMENDED READING ON PURPOSE (2021-2022)

KENAN INSTITUTE FOR ETHICS' RECOMMENDED READING ON RACE (2020-2021)