A Community of Scholars, Focused on Ethics
As their research addresses some of the world’s most pressing issues related to human health, technology, human flourishing and more, many Baylor professors are engaged in collaborative groups that facilitate a focus on ethics in their work: the Baylor Ethics Initiative (BEI) is a community of scholars across campus who engage in purposeful conversation to consider trans-disciplinary ethical issues and to elevate the role of ethics in their research and teaching.
Five groups comprise the initiative: bioethics, data ethics, ethics in the professions, global ethics and the science of human flourishing. BEI groups grew from Illuminate, the University’s strategic plan. Collectively and individually, the groups seek to grow ethics-related research opportunities and to develop programming or curriculum around needs within these areas. Conversations are rooted in foundational ethical principles, infused by Christian faith and focused on timely issues.
“Three goals drive what we do: Support the highest quality research in ethics, cultivate ethical literacy across our faculty and utilize those to train our undergraduates,” Paul Martens, Ph.D., associate professor of ethics, Baylor Ethics Initiative acting director and convener of the Global Ethics Research Group, said. “Together, the Baylor Ethics Initiative allows us to gather across disciplines and to cultivate multiple levels of conversation across campus that have similar interests and concerns but reach different audiences.”