PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH THE CENTRE FOR ETHICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. February 28, 2005

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1 I. Summary of the proposed unit PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH THE CENTRE FOR ETHICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO February 28, 2005 The creation of a Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto will foster new collaborative research among our excellent ethics scholars and provide a magnet for the world s best scholars to advance their research during a sojourn here. Our core strengths in traditional areas of ethics, added to our distinctive strengths in intercultural and international ethics, will position the Centre for Ethics as a world leader in ethics research. The Centre will provide a stimulating learning environment for undergraduate and graduate students, including them directly in the Centre s research activities. The Centre will integrate every stage of learning from undergraduate students through senior researchers, providing a place where our understandings of the philosophical foundations and historical origins of our varied traditions of ethics are enriched through encounters with contemporary practical challenges and dialogue across cultural boundaries. The Centre will link the University to the broader community through policy-relevant research, direct collaboration with community-based organizations and public events that shed light on pressing ethical concerns. The proposed Centre has already generated considerable enthusiasm in the University. Our Founding Partners have embraced the initiative and have made support significant commitments of scarce resources. These partners include: Trinity College, site of the excellent undergraduate program in Ethics, Society and Law, which will provide the Centre s physical home; the Munk Centre for International Studies; the Faculty of Law; the Departments of Philosophy, Political Science and Religious Studies; the Rotman School of Management; OISE/UT; the Joint Centre for Bioethics; the nascent School for Public Policy and Governance; and the Institute for Women s Studies and Gender Studies. We were identified as the top priority for new academic initiatives in the Faculty of Arts and Science Stepping Up plan, and were among the first round of successful applicants to the Provost s Academic Initiative Fund. II. Description of the unit A. Intellectual Mission The academic mission of the Centre for Ethics rests on three pillars: 1. Foundations of Ethics Ethics research and teaching depends upon ongoing work on foundational questions in ethics (e.g., the justification of moral judgments; the relationship between rights and duties; the idea of the human good; virtue and vice; justice) and on the history of ethics. Serious reflection on these core topics is essential for insight into practical and political ethics. 2. Ethics in Action Different domains of human practice often raise distinctive ethical challenges that require specialized study. The Ethics Centre will enable a lively dialogue between scholars whose main focus is on 1

2 theoretical ethics and those whose research is focused on a particular domain of practical or applied ethics. The Ethics Centre will contribute to the latter not only through the work of individual faculty members but also through partnerships with units that sponsor specialized research in applied ethics, notably: A. Bioethics, through partnership with the Joint Centre for Bioethics; B. Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility, through partnership with the Rotman School of Management; and C. Ethics and the Public Sphere, through partnership with the proposed School of Public Policy and Governance. The Ethics in Action pillar will also comprise community outreach and policy-relevant programs and events. 3. Ethics in Translation We live in an era of growing social and cultural diversity, proliferating linkages across the boundaries of territorial states and increasing global inequality. The need for innovative thinking about ethics in the international context has never been greater, while cross-cultural ethical dialogue is essential to the health of multicultural societies such as Canada. Toronto s multiculturalism provides a uniquely advantageous setting for encouraging such dialogue; a defining part of the Centre s mission will be to foster research, teaching and public outreach on international and cross-cultural ethics. This will be a distinctive strength of the U of T Centre in comparison with even the most excellent ethics centres at other universities. B. The Centre for Ethics and Stepping UP The Centre for Ethics also clearly addresses each of the five priorities of the Stepping UP plan: Enhancing the student experience. The Centre will enhance the experience of undergraduates and graduate students by: increasing the teaching resources available to the Ethics, Society and Law undergraduate program; encouraging interdisciplinary teaching collaboration among faculty; establishing graduate fellowships; building research opportunities for undergraduates; and establishing connections between students and the broader community. The location of the Centre at Trinity College is a vital condition for enhancing the undergraduate program there. For further detail on student-oriented initiatives, see sections 5.1 and below. Enhancing interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, interdivisional and cross-campus collaborations. The Ethics Centre initiative has already begun to build strong interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, and interdivisional collaborations with its founding partners on the St. George campus. Our seminar series, conferences, collaborative research grant proposals, graduate fellowships, and visiting fellowships will all generate and consolidate interdisciplinary collaborations. Because of its location at Trinity College rather than in a disciplinary or divisional unit, the Centre will be well-positioned to foster interdisciplinary collaboration without triggering turf battles among partners. We also envision building future partnerships with other units, including the Centre for Culture, Communication and Information Technology at UTM. Bringing together undergraduate and graduate activities with research opportunities. The Centre s Research Assistant program and Community Research Partnerships aim directly to increase undergraduates involvement both in faculty research and in research projects of their own. Its Graduate Fellowships will support doctoral research and involve graduate students in collaborative research projects. Connecting the University with the broader community in terms of public policy and outreach. A primary goal of the Centre is to foster and disseminate policy-relevant research and to stimulate public reflection on pressing ethical issues. Indeed, this is the principal goal of the proposed annual lecture on Ethics and the Public Sphere. Our Community Research Partnerships 2

3 will connect the university with public sector and civil society organizations in Toronto and more broadly. Improving equity and diversity. The Ethics in Translation pillar of the Centre s mission responds directly to the cultural and religious diversity that characterizes Toronto, Canada, and the University s student body. In the short term, the conferences, seminars, and research projects will enhance intellectual engagement with issues of multiculturalism, migration, and internationalism. Moreover, gender is a central category of analysis in each of the Centre s three pillars, and our partnership with IWSGS will help the Centre maintain a steady focus on questions of gender equality across the range of its activities. Community Research Partnerships will include relationships with organizations dedicated to the challenges facing immigrants and women. Over time, one goal of the Ethics in Translation pillar is to enable curricular diversification. Currently, for example, the undergraduate curriculum in political philosophy focuses almost exclusively on Western traditions of political thought. By fostering dialogue between Western and non-western (Aboriginal; East Asian; South Asian; African) ethical traditions, we hope to encourage collaborative teaching that adopts a comparative approach to ethical questions. C. Specific Initiatives C.1 Enhancing the Undergraduate Experience: The Program in Ethics, Society and Law The Ethics, Society and Law undergraduate program at Trinity College is already a strong program. It attracts some of our best undergraduates and has healthy enrolments. But the current program is heavily dependent on course offerings from other units; it also involves primarily course work and does not directly enable student engagement in research. The Ethics Centre will enhance this program in several ways: New Teaching Resources. The Centre seeks one new faculty line, cross-appointed between the Centre and one of the participating Departments or Faculties, to anchor the undergraduate program and enable a 300-level course to complete the current series of required courses. Philosophy and Political Science have both expressed support for a cross-appointment with the Centre. Senior Visiting Fellows will be asked to participate in teaching the program s capstone seminars; Postdoctoral Fellows will teach one half-course per semester as part of their fellowships. Undergraduate Research Assistantships. The Centre will match undergraduates seeking research experience with affiliated faculty members and Senior Visiting Fellows who need research assistance. Community Research Partnerships. As part of its Ethics in Action pillar, the Centre will work with a limited number of community organizations, public sector agencies, and NGOs to ascertain research needs they cannot meet from their own resources. It will match student interests to organizations and recruit faculty supervisors. Visiting Fellows and Guest Speakers will be asked to hold special colloquia for undergraduates as a complement to their public lectures and seminar presentations of their scholarly work. Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Teaching Initiatives will be among the Centre s goals. C.2 The Fellows Programs Well-resourced fellows programs presuppose a research model wherein a limited number of the best researchers are provided with the nurturing environment that fosters productivity at the highest levels of intellectual inquiry. This cannot be achieved through one or two researchers working together; it requires a critical mass of scholars who are working intensively on their own projects but who have the time to interact closely with colleagues to produce a dynamic of reciprocal exchange and synergy. This energy benefits not only the fellows but also those who interact with them in public lectures, colloquia, conferences, classrooms, and individual conversations. It stimulates the host institution s faculty and students and consolidates intellectual community. It generates new research agendas, both through 3

4 conscious design and through the serendipitous connections that emerge from close interdisciplinary dialogue. Scholars carry this energy, their new intellectual connections, and their inspiration for research and teaching with them wherever they go. Successful fellows programs depend on certain background conditions: that there is a sufficient base of interdisciplinary faculty strength in the research area to provide continuity from year to year, and that faculty are sufficiently well-recognized in their fields to attract the best outside scholars to the university. Ethics is an area in which U of T meets these conditions and stands to benefit from robust Fellows Programs, which are a defining and indispensable feature of this proposal. In part, this is because the most successful programs elsewhere have established fellowships as a best practice for fostering ethics research. It will be difficult to establish ourselves as a peer institution without a comparable program. U of T has well-known faculty, the best ethics graduate students in Canada, the advantages of a great research university and library, and the appeal of a cosmopolitan and multicultural city. Our emphasis on intercultural and international ethics will draw international fellows who will find a wealth of interlocutors here. For these reasons, we will be able to attract the world s best ethics researchers to Toronto, whence they will spread the word about what we have to offer. There is no more effective way of raising the international profile of our research. All fellows will be selected on the basis of academic merit by an interdisciplinary committee drawn from the teaching faculty of the participating units. Membership on selection committees will rotate on a regular basis to ensure well-rounded programs and the appropriate distribution of fellows across fields. Because of their interdisciplinarity and the multitude of participating units, the Fellows Programs will be a university-wide public good: everyone stands to benefit. Over time, our hope and expectation is that they will be fully funded by external donations to endowment. C.2.1 Senior Visiting Fellows Program The Centre s vibrant intellectual environment will attract talented international scholars for a year in residence. By providing a space for intensive research and discussion, the Fellows will be an essential source of the intellectual energy and excitement that the Centre provides for the University and the broader community. Fellows will undertake collaborative and independent research, and will develop strong interdisciplinary intellectual networks as a result of their time here. They will participate actively in Centre events and in undergraduate teaching. The vital importance of the Visiting Fellows program stems from its contributions to teaching, to existing scholars at U of T, and to the University s leadership role in ethics research in Canada and internationally. C.2.2 Graduate Fellows The Centre will sponsor 2-4 resident Graduate Fellowships for the University s very best doctoral candidates engaged in ethics research across the disciplines. They will receive intensive critical feedback on their research as well as career mentoring from the Centre s senior scholars. Full funding will enable them to complete their dissertations to the highest possible standard. C.2.3 Postdoctoral Fellows The Centre will host two Postdoctoral Fellowships for talented ethics scholars who have recently completed the Ph.D., selected from an international candidate pool. They will participate as peers in faculty colloquia and in collaborative research, conferences and seminars at the Centre, and teach one undergraduate course per term. The Faculty of Arts and Science has allocated one of its prestigious twoyear Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships to the Department of Political Science; we will involve this Fellow in the Centre s formation. C.3 Setting the Ethics Research Agenda: Framing Conferences and Publications 4

5 Beginning in , the Centre will seek to host a series of annual conferences to identify some parameters for the ethics research it will pursue in the coming decades and to give content to its intellectual agenda. We will seek publication by an internationally recognized university press for the volumes that result from these conferences, subject to peer review standards. C.4 Building Intellectual Community: Speaker Series The Centre will sponsor an annual seminar series involving both U of T colleagues and invited speakers across the three pillars of our intellectual mission and across disciplinary and divisional boundaries. C.5 Ethics and the Public Sphere: The Annual Public Lecture The Ethics Centre will establish an annual public lecture by a leading scholar or public figure on a defining issue of ethics and public policy. These lectures will be aimed at a broad public audience and will aim to draw media attention in order to enhance public debate on issues of ethics. III. Establishment As noted above, the Centre for Ethics has received significant support (including financial support) from its Founding Partners (see Budget, below). The Faculty of Arts and Science put the Centre at the top of its list of priorities for new interdisciplinary initiatives in its Stepping UP plan. It received a significant proportion of its requested funding in the first round of the AIF applications, which were approved by the University s Governing Council in its meeting of February 7, The proposal to create the Centre has been touted as a model for new interdisciplinary initiatives. The Centre has already been the recipient of a significant donation of services from the private sector, and we are hopeful that it will raise considerable interest in the donor community. Trinity College s generous provision of space for the Centre in the second floor of the Larkin building was approved by its governing bodies in the fall of Should the General Committee approve this proposal in its meeting of March 7, 2005, we expect that the Centre for Ethics will begin its operations in April Its program activities, including an Inaugural Public Lecture and a speaker series, will commence in September Its full operation, including its Fellows programs, will commence with the completion of the Trinity College renovations in Fall IV. Director The Dean of Arts and Science will strike a Committee to recommend a Director of the Centre for Ethics. This Committee will be created in accordance with the University s Policy on Appointment of Academic Administrators (para. 36). The Director will take up his or her duties as of July 1, The responsibilities of the Director shall include the general operational and financial management of the Centre, including its Fellows program, its coordination with the undergraduate program in Ethics, Society and Law, its annual public lecture, its conferences, its publication program, public relations, and community liaison. V. Organization, Reporting Authority and Governance 5

6 The Director will report directly to the Dean of Arts and Science, who will constitute an Advisory Committee including the Provost of Trinity College and the Deans, Academic Directors and Chairs of the Centre s Founding Patners (or their delegates). The Director will consult regularly with the academic leaders of its partner units to coordinate program planning and will submit the Centre s annual report for their review and comment. The Advisory Committee constituted by the Dean will be responsible for the formal review of the Centre and its Director on a five-year cycle. The internal governance of the Centre will be led by the Director. The Centre will have an Associate Director who also serves as Director of the undergraduate program in Ethics, Society and Law and who will ensure that the Centre s activities redound to the advantage of undergraduate students enrolled in this program. The operation of the Centre will be guided by its Executive Committee, which will comprise the Director, the Associate Director, and the Dean of Arts of Trinity College as ex officio members, together with up to six members of the University of Toronto faculty drawn from among its partner units. Members of the Centre will include faculty from across the University. Membership will be by application, but will be open to all University of Toronto faculty. The benefits of membership will include notification of Centre events, participation in such efforts as the T-Space project (which will make Members scholarship available online through the Centre s web site), and participation in program planning. Responsibilities of membership will include regular participation in Centre events. VI. Teaching/Programs As an EDU:2, the Centre for Ethics will not directly register students. However, it will include important undergraduate and graduate teaching missions. Visiting Faculty Fellows will participate in the Ethics, Society and Law undergraduate program and will provide mentorship for Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows. We also propose the creation of a new faculty position, to be cross-appointed between the Centre and one of its Founding Partner units. The individual who fills this position will contribute teaching to the Ethics, Society and Law program. As noted above, the Centre will also establish community research partnerships matching the knowledge needs of public interest civil society organizations as well as public sector institutions with the research interests of undergraduate students and the academic supervision of a faculty member. This program will enable students to develop their research skills while earning academic credit and serving the broader community. The Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellowships will foster the research of talented young scholars and provide them with regular forums in which to present their work. They will thus receive guidance on their work from both Visiting Faculty Fellows and faculty Members of the Centre. VII. Research How should we understand the relationship between law and morality? What standards of ethical conduct should apply to significant social roles in the professions, in public office, and among business leaders? Each day s newspaper presents us with variations on these enduring themes. 6

7 Other challenges flow from the distinctive dynamics of our age. We live in an era of globalization, which has brought massive population flows as well as flows of wealth that are increasingly unbound from the regulatory power of existing states. Human migration on a massive scale has increased our consciousness of cultural and religious pluralism and requires new thinking about toleration, immigration policies and citizenship rights, and ethical differences across cultures. The rise of international and multilateral institutions, both in the sphere of economics and in the sphere of international criminal law and human rights, presses us to rethink the relationship between the norms of territorially bounded political communities and cosmopolitan principles, and between equity and efficiency. Contemporary challenges to the concept of the sovereign nation-state also inform novel understandings of the moral claims of indigenous peoples. New information technologies and biotechnologies; environmental change and resource depletion; humanitarian emergencies; increasing inequalities of wealth around the globe: these are among the many sources of the peculiar ethical dilemmas of our time. The Centre for Ethics will advance research on such questions across the disciplinary domains of philosophy, law, political science, religious studies, medicine, business and management, and public policy. The coherence and integrity of its research agenda will be sustained by constant reference to the three pillars noted above: the foundations of ethics, ethics in action, and the challenges of ethical reasoning across cultural boundaries and in the international context. Our Fellows and Members will constitute an interdisciplinary body of researchers who will engage in both individual and collaborative research in dialogue with one another. VIII. Faculty Appointments As an EDU:2, the Centre for Ethics will not make primary faculty appointments. However, we do intend a faculty cross-appointment with an affiliated Department or other unit. The faculty member s research and teaching will focus on ethics, broadly defined, and will provide teaching to the Ethics, Society and Law Program. IX. Budget and Budgetary Authority The proposed budget for the full realization of the Centre (attached as Appendix A) has two components: one-time-only costs for renovation of the Trinity College space and operating costs. For the former, we have a commitment of funding from the AIF. For the latter, our funding comes from both the AIF and our Founding Partners (as indicated). We will seek to close the gap between our anticipated needs and our existing funding through applications for external funding (for example, conference and research grants through SSHRC; foundation programs for research and faculty enhancement, etc.) and advancement. Attached as Appendix B is a budget sketch for the Stepping UP years, which shows the number of fellowships we expect to be able to sponsor given current funding levels, but also assumes that the Centre will engage in fund-raising activity, including applications for research and conference grants, in order to cover the difference between our anticipated costs and our existing levels of funding. Actual expenditures, of course, will be kept within the limits of real funding commitments to the Centre. The Director will have authority for the Centre s day-to-day budgetary operation, but ultimate budgetary authority will rest with the Dean of Arts and Science. The space and facility requirements of the Centre are detailed under Section XI, below. 7

8 X. Reviews In accordance with the Guidelines for Review of Academic Programs and Units, a formal review of the Centre will take place at the end of the Director s term, i.e., every five years. This review will be commissioned by the Dean of Arts and Science and will involve the academic leaders of the Centre s Founding Partners. The Centre s success in achieving our goals and priorities will be measured by the following quantitative and qualitative criteria: The quality of the applicant pool for our graduate, postdoctoral and senior visiting fellowships. Relevant indicators will include track record, originality and significance of proposed research, and international breadth; The emergence of new interdisciplinary research collaborations among fellows and affiliates of the Centre, which attract external funding; Publication of research sponsored by the Centre in top venues, including highly regarded refereed journals and university presses; Engagement of undergraduate students in research; Formation of community partnerships for ethics research and dialogue; Successful career trajectories for Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellows; Collaborative interdisciplinary teaching in ethics; Robust interdisciplinary attendance at Centre-sponsored seminars, lectures and conferences; Public media recognition of Ethics Centre activities and of affiliates contributions to public discourse on ethics. More specifically, our goals for the first year of the Centre s operation ( ) include: An Inaugural Public Lecture in Fall 2005 to launch the Centre s activities A robust speaker series, organized in consultation with our Founding Partners and addressing all of our three intellectual pillars The formation of community research partnerships The design, advertisement, and adjudication of our Fellows Programs Applications for external conference funding Advancement activity XI. Space and Facility Needs Once it is in full operation, the Centre will require a total of seventeen offices, a seminar room, and a library/lounge. The offices will be allocated among the Director (1), Associate Director (1), Appointed Faculty (1), Visiting Faculty Fellows (6), Postdoctoral Fellows (2), Graduate Fellows (4), and Administrative Staff (2). Trinity College has dedicated space on the second floor of its Larkin Building to house the Centre for Ethics. Renovation plans for this space are under way, and construction will be complete by Fall 2006 (in time to house our first cohort of Fellows). Faculty office and classroom space that will be displaced by the Centre will be relocated elsewhere in Trinity College. These secondary effects of the Centre s creation are being addressed in conjunction with the renovation plans. The 8

9 operating costs for the Centre s space are provided for in its operating budget. Construction of the space will be subject to AFD approval, in accordance with the Policy on Capital Planning & Capital Projects. Until the space is ready for occupancy, and for events larger than can be accommodated in the Centre s seminar room, the Centre will book its events in its Founding Partners available spaces and in other University venues. XII. Library The Centre s creation will not have any direct implications for Library resources. However, the Library has generously offered to include the Centre as a pilot project in its application for AIF funding to develop its T-Space program. This program will make Members scholarship available on the internet through the Centre s web page. If funded, this will be a tremendous benefit to the profile of the Centre and its Members and Fellows research. The Librarian of Trinity College has also generously expressed interest in working with the Centre to develop its collection in such a way as to support the Centre s research agenda. 9