The Mudd Center
- About the Mudd Center
- People
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Programs and Events
- 2025-2026: Taking Place: Land Use and Environmental Impact
- 2024-2025: How We Live and Die: Stories, Values, and Communities
- 2023-2024: Ethics of Design
- 2022-2023: Beneficence: Practicing an Ethics of Care
- 2021-2022: Daily Ethics: How Individual Choices and Habits Express Our Values and Shape Our World
- 2020-2021: Global Ethics in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities
- 2019-2020: The Ethics of Technology
- 2018-2019: The Ethics of Identity
- 2017-2018: Equality and Difference
- 2016-2017: Markets and Morals
- 2015-2016: The Ethics of Citizenship
- 2014-2015: Race and Justice in America
- Leadership Lab
- Mudd Undergraduate Journal of Ethics
- Annual Reports
- Mudd Center Fellows Program
- Get Involved
The Roger Mudd Center for Ethics advances dialogue, teaching, and research about issues of public and professional ethics across all three of the University’s schools - the College, the Williams School, and the School of Law.
Yearly Ethics Theme
Taking Place: Land Use and Environmental Impact
The Mudd Center’s 2025-26 multi-disciplinary program will investigate the complex interplay between land use and the environment, with a particular focus on issues related to green technologies, biodiversity, and health. Through a lecture series, symposium, photographic exhibition, documentary viewing and community engagements, the Mudd Center will analyze various meanings of “taking place” and the ethics of how we use and manage the natural environment and land resources. Central to our investigation are guiding questions that explore environmental ethics and their applications, such as: Can seemingly competing interests and values, such as economic gain and environmental justice, be reconciled? What responsibilities and ethical challenges emerge when humans intervene to restore ecosystems? And, perhaps most importantly, how might we bring conversations about environmental conservation and land use into a non-partisan arena even when there may be deep ideological divisions?
Upcoming Public Events
The Mudd Center
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Washington and Lee University
209 Mattingly House
Lexington, VA 24450
Dr. Daphne Miller is the Next Speaker in the Mudd Lecture Series
The physician and clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco will give a lecture on March 19 in Stackhouse Theater.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg to Speak at W&L
As part of the Mudd Center’s Leadership Lab, Goldberg and W&L’s Eric Deggans will discuss journalism, ethics and leadership in the modern age on March 17.
Mudd Lecture Series to Explore Conservation Practice of Rewilding
The day-long symposium will take place on Feb. 12 and feature talks by faculty and community members.
Benjamin Lee is the Next Speaker in the Mudd Lecture Series
The professor of electrical and systems engineering and of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania will give a lecture on Jan. 22 in Stackhouse Theater.
W&L’s Mudd Center Announces Next Leadership Lab
Judge Michael Luttig ’76, P’14 and Lewis Powell III ’74, P’18, P’20 will lead a discussion on power and accountability on Nov. 13.
Benjamin Backer is the Next Speaker in the Mudd Lecture Series
Backer, founder and CEO of Nature is Nonpartisan, will give a lecture on Oct. 28 in Stackhouse Theater.
W&L’s Mudd Center Presents Screening of ‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’
The Sept. 30 screening features the work of Edward Burtynsky, whose solo exhibition is on view at the Reeves Museum of Ceramics.
A Natural Segue
“Ralph commented when he made his gift that he hopes it will inspire others to follow suit.”
W&L’s Mudd Center Announces 2025-26 Lecture Series
“Taking Place: Land Use and Environmental Impact” kicks off Sept. 11 with a keynote address by political scientist Thea Riofrancos.
Melissa Kerin Quoted in ProPublica Article
The professor of art history and director of the Mudd Center for Ethics offered her opinion on the nuances of the return of a Buddha sculpture by the Art Institute of Chicago to the Government of Nepal.
W&L’s Mudd Center Announces Leadership Lab Initiative
The public lecture series kicks off May 7 with an inaugural talk by Kenneth Ruscio ’76.
Connecting a Global Movement
Students in W&L’s Bonner Program spent the last year creating a digital map of health care networks for people experiencing homelessness worldwide.