Conferences and Lectures

Shelly Kagan Lecture: Why is Death Bad For You? - 

The Maguire Ethics Center and the SMU Philosophy Department hosted Yale Scholar Shelly Kagan on Friday, March 1, 2013.  Kagan is the Clark Professor of Philosophy and is considered one of the outstanding moral philosophers of our time, who writes extensively on the nature of human well-being and harm. The lecture, “Why is Death Bad for You?,” opened an animated dialogue on why we regard death as a bad thing for a person to undergo. The event was held at SMU on Friday, March 1, 2013 at 3pm – 5pm.

From Your Block to the Boardroom: Why High Quality Education is Our Ethical Responsibility - 

National Security and Civil Liberties: Luncheon Debate with John Yoo and Joe "Chip" Pitts - 

A luncheon debate at the October 22, 2011, conference on "National Security and Civil Liberties," sponsored by SMU's John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies and the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility. The debate was moderated by Seyom Brown, the John Goodwin Tower Distinguished Chair for International Politics & National Security; participants were John Yoo, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law, and Joe "Chip" Pitts, Lecturer, Stanford Law. The day-long conference stimulated dialogue, scholarship, andreflection in the academy and wider community about the need to effectively and ethically pursue U.S. national security imperatives without undermining the country's historic commitment to civil liberties.

National Security and Civil Liberties: The Basic Legal and Ethical Controversies- 

National Security and Civil Liberties: Treatment of Detainees- 

The second of three panel discussions at SMU on October 22, 2011, at the conference on "National Security and Civil Liberties" was concerned the treatment of detainees. The conference was sponsored by SMU's John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies and the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility. The panel was chaired by Rick Halperin, Director of the Embrey Human Rights Program at SMU, and included Mike Marchand, President of The Center for American and International Law, Robert Chesney, the Charles I. Francis Professor in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and Kathleen Clark, Professor of Law at Washington University Law. The day-long conference stimulated dialogue, scholarship, andreflection in the academy and wider community about the need to effectively and ethically pursue U.S. national security imperatives without undermining the country's historic commitment to civil liberties. 

National Security and Civil Liberties: Individual Rights- 

The third of three panel discussions at SMU on October 22, 2011, at the conference on "National Security and Civil Liberties" was concerned individual rights. The conference was sponsored by SMU's John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies and the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility. The panel was chaired by journalist Lee Cullum and included Jeffrey Kahn, Associate Professor of Law in SMU Dedman School of Law, Jeffrey Bellin, Assistant Professor of Law in SMU Dedman School of Law, and Becky Gregory, former U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Texas. The day-long conference stimulated dialogue, scholarship, and reflection in the academy and wider community about the need to effectively and ethically pursue U.S. national security imperatives without undermining the country's historic commitment to civil liberties.

At Issue: Ethics, Trust and Transparency - "Trust Barometer" - Keynote Address by Matthew J. Harrington - 

Opening keynote remarks by Matthew J. Harrington, CEO of Edelman, at the conference on "Ethics, Trust & Transparency: Business, Government and the Case for Voter Concern," presented by the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility in collaboration with the SMU Cox School of Business on November 2, 2011.

At Issue: Ethics, Trust and Transparency - Tell It Like It: The Ethics of Financial Transparency - 

At Issue: Ethics, Trust and Transparency - Responsible Business Leadership - 

At Issue: Ethics, Trust and Transparency - Ethical Leadership in Government - 

At Issue: Ethics, Trust and Transparency - "Earning Trust: A Demand for Ethical Leadership" - Keynote by John Allison - 

Intelligent Design in the Courtroom - 

The Making of NOVA's Film, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" - 

On Sept. 24, 2009, a panel at SMU discussed the legal, ethical and journalistic issues surrounding the making of NOVA's documentary film, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial." Participants include John E. Jones, the federal judge who barred a Dover, Pa., public school district in 2005 from teaching "intelligent design"; Paula Apsell and Melanie Wallace, NOVA producers of the documentary; plaintiff's council Eric Rothschild; and Laurie Lebo, author of The Devil in Dover.

29th Annual Conference of the Professions

The 29th Conference of the Professions’ topic, “Supersizing the Professions: Ethical Issues Facing Mega-Churches, Law Firms and Medical Practices” was presented April 17, 2015. Social ethicist and scholar of American religions Jonathan L. Walton of Harvard gave the opening keynote on the mega-church phenomenon.

27th Annual Conference of the Professions - Shortcuts and High Roads: Everyday Morality and the Professions - 

26th Annual Conference of the Professions - Professional Ethics and Social Media: Like? - 

The 26th Annual Conference of the Professions examined the issues surrounding social media and took a sophisticated look at its effects on law, medicine and the clergy. The goal was not to teach professionals how to use social media, but rather to look at the more serious issues of its use. For nearly three decades, the Conference of Professions has brought together members of law, medicine, and theology in the Dallas area to discuss common challenges - ethical and otherwise - facing these professions. 

The Downturn and the Professions: Stories of Successful Service, Part 1 - 

The 24th Annual Conference of the Professions focuses on focuses on how the medical, legal and clerical professions have and can respond effectively to those they serve in time of economic crisis. This is part one which contains the keynote speakers sharing their thoughts.

Conference of the Professions: Professor William F. May - 

Professor William F. May speaks at the Conference of the Professions March 30, 2006.

Robert Howell: Google Morals - 

SMU philosophy professor and Maguire Public Scholar Robert Howell wonders this: If Google were to create an app called 'Google Morals,' to help us solve ethical questions, would it work? Using research from his 2012 paper, "Google Morals, Virtue and the Asymmetry of Deference," Howell discusses moral deference.

Ryszard Stroynowski: Understanding the "God Particle" and the "Big Bang" - 

SMU physics professor Ryszard Stroynowski, who participated in the discovery of the Higgs boson "God particle" that helps explain the "Big Bang" start of the universe, was the featured speaker at the Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility Public Scholar Lecture at SMU on April 4, 2013.

Dennis Simon: The Politics of Memory and the Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement - 

William Abraham: Haunted Memories and Complex Loyalties - 

Wayne Shaw:  Ethics and Business: An Inherent Conflict? - 

Tony Pederson: Reporter Privilege-A Con Job or an Essential Part of Democracy? - 

SMU Journalism Professor Tony Pederson delivers lecture on reporter privilege as a part of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics's Public Scholar lecture series.

Mark McPhail: Confessions of an Expert Witness - 

Professor Mark Lawrence McPhail delivers a lecture about racism and silence in the face of genocide titled, "Confessions of an Expert Witness: Rhetoric, Politics and Ethics at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda" sponsored by the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

Marshall Terry: The Founding and Defining of a University - 

Jenia Turner: Ethical Dilemmas of International Criminal Defense Attorneys - 

Professor Jenia Turner, Associate Professor, SMU/Dedman School of Law.

Robin Lovin: Politics in Religious Perspective - 

Dr. Robin Lovin gives the Maguire Public Scholar Lecture in the Umphrey Lee Ballroom on September 24, 2008. The lecture, Politics and Religious Perspective: Temptation, Tool or Task, was sponsored by SMU's Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

15th Annual J. Erik Jonsson Award Presented to Walter J. Humann - 

The SMU Campus Conversation with Rita Kirk - 

Dr. Rita Kirk is committed to making ethics a continuing conversation on the SMU campus. A professor in the division of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs in the Meadows School of the Arts, Kirk will become director of SMU's Cary C. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility Jan. 1, 2011.