Technology is changing how decisions are made. Trust in public institutions is shifting. And many of the choices shaping daily life — across education, health care, government, and business — raise fundamental questions about values, responsibility, and the common good.

For scholars in Michigan State University’s College of Arts & Letters, asking those kinds of questions has long been central to their work. Rooted in the humanities, ethical inquiry in Arts & Letters draws upon philosophy, rhetoric, and cultural analysis to help navigate moral complexity and understand how values shape lived experience.

With the creation of Michigan State University’s Ethics Institute in 2024 by President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., that work now has a shared home and a renewed focus on helping students, researchers, and the public navigate ethical challenges with clarity and purpose.

“MSU has a responsibility to serve the public and not just generate knowledge. We are working to translate the work that’s happening to the public by having difficult conversations around ethics and what it means to be an ethical person.”

Bree Holtz, Director of the Ethics Institute

“MSU has a responsibility to serve the public and not just generate knowledge,” said Bree Holtz, Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations and Director of the Ethics Institute. “We are working to translate the work that’s happening to the public by having difficult conversations around ethics and what it means to be an ethical person.”

The Centrality of the Humanities in Ethics-Oriented Work and Conversations

Humanistic scholarship, rooted in values-anchored work, lies at the heart of many ethics-based activities and teaching at MSU. At its best, this work not only engages in critique but also drives change, enabling values to be lived out in thoughtful, deliberate, and impactful ways.

In the College of Arts & Letters, faculty and students approach ethics not only by examining shared values, but by asking how those values can be enacted through teaching, research, dialogue, and action. That approach aligns closely with MSU’s broader commitment to civil discourse and engaged citizenship.

In an Aug. 8, 2024, letter to the MSU community, President Guskiewicz wrote: “We all have a role to play in building a more inclusive community, including by engaging in civil discourse across differences. We won’t always agree, and that’s OK. Debating ideas is part of our educational experience and better prepares us to serve as engaged citizens and stakeholders in society. What I ask of all of you is always to demonstrate empathy and intellectual humility…engage in dialogue to better understand one another and find ways to build a strong campus culture together. That includes listening actively, responding thoughtfully, and debating respectfully. And it involves understanding that disagreement need not equate to disrespect…If we can engage in civil discourse while respecting viewpoint diversity, each of us will gain immeasurable insights into ourselves, our classmates, colleagues, and the world beyond. Who, then, will venture to confront the world’s toughest challenges? I believe Spartans Will.”

“We all have a role to play in building a more inclusive community, including by engaging in civil discourse across differences…If we can engage in civil discourse while respecting viewpoint diversity, each of us will gain immeasurable insights into ourselves, our classmates, colleagues, and the world beyond.”

President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D.

Humanistic work is foundational to answering that call and to advancing the mission of the university, particularly amid today’s rapidly shifting technological, cultural, historical, and political landscape. Certainly, generative artificial intelligence is just one of the many pressing issues that require an ethics-infused viewpoint for understanding the ways in which it can and should be used and the ways in which we can best equip students for, as President Guskiewicz puts it, jobs that don’t exist yet using tools and technologies not yet on our collective horizon.

Within the College of Arts & Letters, this kind of ethical visioning is embedded in both teaching and scholarship. Faculty regularly integrate ethical reasoning into coursework that asks students to analyze complex problems, weigh competing values, and consider the human impact of innovation and change.

Unlocking Ethical Thinking in the Spartan Community

Events hosted by the Ethics Institute create space for dialogue around ethical questions shaping higher education and public life — many of them informed by College of Arts & Letters scholarship that emphasizes communication, interpretation, and critical reflection.

As part of a group charged with examining issues related to free speech and academic freedom in classroom and learning contexts, Dànielle DeVoss, Chairperson of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures and William J. Beal Distinguished Professor, participated in sessions she describes as “emblematic of the importance of ethics-infused, values-anchored work happening across the university.”

“As we’ve witnessed academic freedom and freedom of speech erode across our country,” DeVoss said, “the Ethics Institute has provided space for us to engage in dialogue and find ways to build a strong campus culture together.”

Public events like MSU’s Ethics Week offer an entry point into that work, highlighting how ethical inquiry can be applied to real-world challenges. This year, Ethics Week takes place Feb. 16-20 and features wide-ranging topics grounded in historical analysis, cultural critique, and philosophical reasoning. Many of the Ethics Week events are led by College of Arts & Letters faculty and students.

On the final day, a leadership panel including President Guskiewicz, Provost Laura Lee McIntyre, Executive Vice President for Administration Vennie Gore, Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Emily Guerrant, and Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Innovation Marcio Oliveira will discuss the impacts and outcomes of ethics and leadership on a university campus.

“As we’ve witnessed academic freedom and freedom of speech erode across our country, the Ethics Institute has provided space for us to engage in dialogue and find ways to build a strong campus culture together.”

Dànielle DeVoss, Chairperson of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Students, faculty, staff, and community members are encouraged to attend, Holtz said, noting that hybrid and virtual events make participation more accessible than ever. “You don’t have to be an ethicist to join,” she said. “You just have to be a person who’s trying to learn more and wants to be involved in this conversation.”

Undergraduate students can participate in the student-focused events such as the Ethics in the News Case Competition, where teams try to solve an ethical dilemma and compete for prize money.

Each fall, the Ethics Institute also hosts an Ethics Symposium centered on a single theme, such as sustainability, which faculty, staff, students, practitioners and community members explore together.

Shaping How Students Learn, Lead, and Collaborate

How students learn — and the choices educational institutions make — is a central focus for the Ethics Institute. As MSU adapts general education for an increasingly complex and digitally enabled world, MSU and College of Arts & Letters faculty are working to integrate ethical judgment into undergraduate learning.

For Megan Dean, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy who is also involved in modernizing the general education curriculum, the collaborative nature of the Ethics Institute is key to its impact.

“We do a lot of teaching on important ethical questions about personal, professional, and political life — like how to be a good friend, how to be a good health care provider, how to be a good citizen, and how to live a good life,” Dean said.

Those questions align with the ongoing research faculty and graduate students are pursuing in science and ethics, environmental ethics, bioethics, and ethics and technology as well as with the panel discussions featured during Ethics Week.

“It’s really valuable to share our work with the MSU community and to learn what other folks are working on around campus,” Dean said.

“We do a lot of teaching on important ethical questions about personal, professional, and political life — like how to be a good friend, how to be a good health care provider, how to be a good citizen, and how to live a good life…It’s really valuable to share our work with the MSU community and to learn what other folks are working on around campus.”

Megan Dean, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy

That campuswide dialogue is essential to identifying the shared values that ground teaching and learning at MSU, such as academic integrity, equity, and accessibility, respect for intellectual property and thoughtful consideration of social and environmental impact.

By helping ensure innovation is technically effective, principled, and human-centered, the Ethics Institute reflects MSU’s and the College of Arts & Letters’ commitment to preparing students to think critically and to lead thoughtfully, responsibly, and in service to the common good.

By Siska Lyssens and Kim Popiolek and based off the article “Meet the Spartan researchers shaping MSU’s Ethics Institute” published by MSU Today