Undergraduate Certificate Program in Values and Public Life

CERTIFICATE REQUIREMENTS: 
Students admitted to the certificate program in Values and Public Life will be required to complete three core courses, two thematic courses, and complete independent work as described below.

Core Courses (3 courses):

Students must take:

(1) PHI 202  Introduction to Moral Philosophy (also CHV 202);

(2) either WWS 307 Ethics and Public Policy (also CHV 301, POL 308) or POL 307 The Just Society;

3) a designated junior/senior seminar in values and public life (two to four seminars will be designated each year), or if necessary, another seminar on normative issues approved by the program director. 

Note: the following junior/senior seminars are being offered in spring 2012:

  • POL 417/CHV 417: Indigenous People and Historic Injustice (Professor Anna Stilz)
  • CHV 391/PHI 391: Morals, Markets, and Health (Professor Kristi Olson)
  • PHI 380/CHV 380: Explaining Values (Professor Victoria McGeer)

 

Note: the following junior/senior seminars are being offered in fall 2012:

  • REL 366 / CHV 366 - Thomas Merton & Martin Luther King, Jr: Religion and Social Justice (Professor Albert Raboteau)
  • PHI 380/CHV 380: Explaining Values (Professor Victoria McGeer)
  • POL 416 / CHV 416: Moral Conflicts in Public and Private Life (Professor Stephen Macedo)

 

 

Thematic Courses (2 courses):

Students must identify an area of focus and take 2 courses with an explicit values component related to it, chosen by the student in consultation with the program director.  Some illustrative focus areas (or “themes”) are:

  • Bioethics
  • Cognitive psychology, ethics, and public policy
  • Democracy in theory and practice
  • Global justice and human rights
  • Constitutionalism and the rule of law
  • History of thought about political justice, human rights, or some other core concept in public morality
  • Public dilemmas in literature
  • Ethics, religion, and theology

Independent Work

Students will write a senior thesis (or, in exceptional circumstances, another substantial piece of independent work) on a normative topic approved by both the director of the program and the normal procedures of the student’s department of concentration. The thesis will be written in and according to the department regulations of the student’s concentration. Students will be expected to participate in a non-credit-bearing senior thesis colloquium convened by the program.

Note: No more than two of the courses used to satisfy the course requirements for the student’s concentration may also be counted toward satisfaction of the course requirements for the values and public life program certificate. In addition, no course counted toward the certificate may be taken P/D/F.

 


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