Conferences and Lectures

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.

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.

The first of three panel discussions at SMU on October 22, 2011, at the conference on "National Security and Civil Liberties" was concerned the basic legal and ethical controversies. 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 Joseph F. Kobylka, Associate Professor of Political Science at SMU, Robin Lovin, the Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at SMU's Perkins School of Theology, Hina Shamsi, Director director of the National Security Project for the ACLU, and Daniel Tichenor, the Philip H. Knight Professor of Social Science at the University of Oregon. 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.>

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.

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.

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.

A discussion on September 25, 2009, between John E. Jones, the federal judge who barred a Dover, Pa., public school district in 2005 from teaching "intelligent design," and Tom Mayo, director of SMU's Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.