2016-2017: Markets and Morals

Our economic life raises a number of important ethical questions: What commodities should (and should not) be exchanged in the market? What is the relationship between a thing's price and its value? Is voluntary exchange always just? What are the moral obligations of producers and consumers? What, if anything, is owed to those who lose out in market competition? Are corporations moral agents? How does the operation of the market impact behavior and character, and is this a good or bad thing? The purpose of this year's theme is to examine these and other issues relating to "Markets and Morals."

Below is a list of upcoming theme-related events and activities. To receive information about these and other Mudd Center events, please join our mailing list.

Speakers and Events

Peter Singer Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University

Talk Title: Permitting the Sale of Meat but not Kidneys or Sex? Some Questions about Markets and Morals
Thursday, October 6, 5:00 p.m.
Lee Chapel
Watch the LiveStream Video »

George Bent Sidney Gause Childress Professor of the Arts, Washington and Lee

Talk Title: Picturing Morality in the Markets of Medieval Florence
Thursday, November 1, 12:00 p.m.
Hillel Multipurpose Room

Kimberly Krawiec Kathrine Robinson Everett Professor of Law, Duke University

Talk Title: Gifts Versus Markets or Gifts Within Markets? Taboo Trades in the Human Body
Monday, November 14, 5:00 p.m.
Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library

Nien-hê Hsieh Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University

Talk Title: The Role and Responsibilities of Business in Society: Back to Basics
Thursday, December 1, 5:00 p.m.
Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library

Susan Briante Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Literature, University of Arizona

Talk Title: The Market Wonders: On the Impossibility of (Personal) Accounting
Tuesday, January 24, 5:00 p.m.
Hillel Multipurpose Room

Jennifer Golbeck Associate Professor of Information Studies and Director of the Social Intelligence Lab, University of Maryland

Talk Title: Footprints in the Digital Dust: How Your Online Behavior Says More Than You Think
Thursday, February 2, 5:00 p.m.
Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons

Sandra Reiter Associate Professor of Business Administration, Washington and Lee

Talk Title: Can Corporations Be Morally Responsible?
Wednesday, February 15, 12:00 p.m.
Hillel Multipurpose Room

Neil Brodie Senior Research Fellow, Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford

Talk Title: Controlling the Globalized Market in Cultural Objects: Closing the Gap Between Law and Ethics
Thursday, March 2, 5:00 p.m.
Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons

Robert Reich Professor of Politics, Stanford University

Talk Title: Repugnant to the whole idea of a democratic society?: On the role of philanthropic foundations
Thursday, March 30, 5:00 p.m.
Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library