This course is part of HF's PhD week, and is worth 1 ECTS.
Course content
Scholarship is a systematic pursuit of truth and understanding in an ethically sound way. But what does “ethically sound” mean? In this course we consider how to interpret and apply the concept of ethically sound research in the context of today’s PhD students.
Some questions to be addressed are these:
- Are there inherently unethical research topics?
- Is there knowledge that is so risky to bring forth that it should not be pursued?
- What do today’s PhD student actually find ethically challenging, and how do they respond to such challenges?
- How do we account for uncertainty in our ethical deliberations?
- Is there irredeemably tainted scholarship, i.e., science with results that we cannot employ irrespective of truth value, because of the ethical corruption of the methodological framework or social context of the original investigation?
- How might cultural vulnerabilities, historical injustice, and inequities of power, constrain scholarly method and interpretative scope in the humanities – or even restrict the rights to generate knowledge and interpretive narratives in certain areas and on certain topics?
- How do new technologies such as AI pose challenges for research ethics?
By exploring cases that test the limits of ethics, we aim to clarify our sense of how competing values may be reasonably balanced, and what integrity in research actually requires of us.
Course preparations
Reading
Course participants will read some selected literature, and in addition identify and compile an individual reading list that sheds light on the particular dilemmas or concerns that arise within the research topic/project that discussed in your course paper. You will also read short essays by the participants in your own (assigned) collaboration group.
Writing
You will submit a short paper (2-3 pages) where you present pros, cons, and conditions, for going ahead with a specific scholarly project. You may choose a case from a list of proposed topics (will be published in Canvas), or present one from (or near) your own research or research tradition. The paper should be uploaded to Canvas (deadline will be announced later).
Language
The course language is English, including reading responses and essays.
Registration
Registration opens at noon on February 25.
Course convenor
Professor Anna Smajdor, Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas.