Details for the conference, together with the Call for Papers (in ethics), can be found here.  Paper submission deadline is August 1, with the conference taking place October 19-20.

Monday, April 29

BH 262

11:30 Matt Grose, “Searching for Value” (Faculty Respondent: Natalie Alexander; Thesis Director: Chad Mohler)

Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities
Program in Biomedical Ethics
School of Medicine
University of Virginia

2013 Summer Biomedical Ethics Internship

The Program in Biomedical Ethics at the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Virginia School of Medicine invites applications for the 2013 summer Biomedical Ethics Internship Program.  Interns will have the opportunity to work closely with the Program’s multidisciplinary faculty on a wide range of topics in clinical, research, and health policy ethics. These include, but are not limited to issues in organ transplant and allocation, reproductive health, compensation for research injury, ethical issues at the end of life, policy approaches to substance abuse and chemical dependency, and the emerging use of biotechnology.

Interns will work directly with a faculty mentor on projects of mutual interest or pre-established projects. Additional opportunities, such as observation of clinical ethics consultation and participation in weekly Ethics Consult Service meetings are available. The internships are seven weeks duration, beginning June 10 and ending July 29.

Stipends

The Summer Internship can provide stipends of $2,800 for two students. Students who do not need financial support are also invited to apply. Housing and benefits are not provided.

Requirements

Applicants should be rising 3rd or 4th year undergraduates, or recent college graduates with course work or related experience in bioethics. They should have an interest in biomedical ethics, and concrete career goals to which the study of biomedical ethics applies. Applicants should demonstrate interest in biomedical ethics through coursework, independent study, scholarship or clinical experience.

Applicants must submit: an application form, a letter of intent outlining his/her interest in the field of bioethics, a writing sample such as a paper written for a course, a letter of recommendation from a former professor/mentor, and a current transcript. The deadline for applications for the 2013 summer program is May 15. Applicants will be chosen based on demonstrated interest in the field of biomedical ethics; scholarly aptitude based on course work, writing samples, and recommendations by mentors/professors; and their ability to contribute to the intellectual community of the Program in Biomedical Ethics of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities.

Inquiries and completed applications/documents should be sent via email to Mary Faith Marshall at mfm@virginia.edu.

Monday, April 22

BH 262:

10:30-11 Sophia Allen:  The Third Way: Jesus as a Nonviolent Person” (Faculty Respondent: Jennifer Jesse; Thesis Director: Mike Ashcraft)

c. 11-11:30 Benjamin Batzer: “Finding the Death-of-God in Kenotic Theology” (Faculty Respondent: Jennifer Jesse; Thesis Director: Mark Appold)

c. 11:30-12 Jasmine Johnson: “The Lord is There: Crusade Jihad, and the Myth of Jerusalem” (Faculty Director: Dereck Daschke; Thesis Director: Mark Appold)

BH 346:

4:30 Kyle Goff: “Video Games as Religion” (Faculty Respondent: Jay Self; Thesis Director: Dereck Daschke)

c. 5:00 Samantha Wickham: “Bridging Fundamental Gaps in Moral High Ground” (Faculty Respondent: Lloyd Pflueger; Mike Ashcraft)

Tuesday, April 24

BH 262

9 am Rachel Marx: “Please Be Not Silent” (Faculty Respondent: Betty McLane-Iles; Thesis Advisor: Dereck Daschke)

Wednesday, April 24

BH 262:

10:30 Amy Johnson (Faculty Respondent: Ding-hwa Hsieh; Thesis Director: Mark Appold)

11:30 Matt Grose (Faculty Respondent: Natalie Alexander; Thesis Director: Chad Mohler)

BH 346

3:30 Evan Richardson, “Identifying the “We” in I and Thou”

(Faculty Respondent: Rodney Taylor; Thesis Directors: James Cianciola, David Murphy)

Thursday, April 25

BH 346

3:00 Carrie Weber, “Pro-Choice Christianity: A Feminist Theological Reclamation of the Sanctity of Life”

Friday, April 26

BH 262

10:30 am  Sean Collins, “A Reconciliation of Sharia and Civil Law” (Faculty Respondent: Tom Zoumaras; Thesis Director: Mark Appold)

MC 212

3 pm:  Matthew Helis, “Bushido, the Heritage and Legacy of the Samurai” (Faculty Respondent: Lloyd Pflueger; Thesis Director: Ding-hwa Hsieh)

3:30 pm:  Ryan Nely, “Faith, Conflict, and the Quest for a More Perfect Union: Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election”

Taking place in BH 346, Wednesday, April 17:

• 3:30: Evan Richardson:    “Identifying the “We” in I and Thou
• 4:00: Christian Grandon:  “Catholicism and Religion in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings”
• 4:30: Keenan Schott:          “Masculine Embodiment in a World without Bodies: Penises, Phalluses, Power and Porn in the Information Age”

Taking place in BH 352, Friday, April 19:

• 11:30: Alison Stagner:       “He Conceives and Gives Birth: Plato and Pregnancy”

Taking place in BH 262, Monday, April 15:

10:30 Phoebe Davis– “Snakes on a James?  (Re)Considering Mystical Experience in the Snake-Handling Tradition”

Taking place in BH 262, Friday, April 12:

10:30 Johnathan Walker , “Dissolving Divorce: Healing for the Hard-Hearted”
11:00 Bryan Neff, “Homosexuality and Christianity”

Hi, PHRE majors and minors.

Some of you may already know that the Philosophy and Religion Department has been granted permission to advertise for a one-year temporary professor position in ethics and other value areas of philosophy. The person appointed to that position will be joining our PHRE faculty for the next academic year.

This week and next, the Department will be hosting visits by two candidates for that position. As part of those visits, each candidate will be giving a “teaching demo.”

We on the PHRE faculty would like to encourage you to attend one or the other (or both) of those teaching demos (which I believe will be on some topic in ethics). The demos are a great opportunity for you to “weigh in” on the candidate to be hired by Truman. Students in attendance will be able to fill out a feedback form about the teaching demo.

Here is the schedule for those demos:

• Wednesday, April 10, 2:30-3:30 p.m., Baldwin 350: Jason Wyckhoff
• Monday, April 15, 2:30-3:30 p.m., Baldwin 350: Evan Williams

Hope you might be able to attend one or the other of these sessions.

— Prof. Mohler

Here is a message from one of our PHRE majors, Sophia Allen, about an interesting PHRE-related event she is coordinating this Friday:

This Friday, April 5 from 10:00am-3:00pm in the SUB Activities Room I am putting on an event called The Human Library (http://humanlibrary.org/). This is an event designed to promote conversation and understanding and to minimize (and idealistically eliminate) prejudice. I will have “books” (students acting as representatives of their people groups) throughout the day for individuals to come and have approximately 20-30 minute conversations about their culture and beliefs. Some titles are: Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Nepalese Buddhist, Catholic, Mormon, and Jewish. Some of these are directly related to philosophy and religion. This is a great opportunity to learn about other cultures or other belief systems as well as about other people.

Dear PHRE majors and minors,

My PHRE 476 seminar on William Blake’s religious thought is open for registration for Fall semester. The open course listing for PHRE courses does not include the name of the seminar but if you click on the “476 seminar” listing, you’ll find the correct information for the class. Here’s a description:

PHRE 476: Seminar in Philosophy and Religion: William Blake’s Religious Thought

This course takes an interdisciplinary religion, literature, and aesthetics approach to selected works of the English Romantic poet, painter, and engraver William Blake (1757-1827). We will attend to both the visual and verbal dimensions of his works, focusing specifically on their theological aspects. This is a seminar course designed for majors and minors in PHRE, English Literature, Art, or Art History. There will be very little lecture; the majority of our time together will be spent on individual presentations and seminar discussions based on the assigned passages. Requirements include active class participation, and an interpretive research project presented orally and in writing.

We’ll meet on Mondays from 6:00 to 8:50 p.m.

If you have any questions about the course, just drop me an email!

Prof. Jesse