Social Responsibility

Dialogue about social responsibility has been increasing over the last few months. One need only think of the slogans of the Occupy movements across the globe to recognize how the question of whether individuals, societies, and even corporations have responsibility for their neighbors, fellow citizens, coworkers, and employees. University students are coming together to examine these issues both through peaceful protests and open forum discussions. In this undergraduate conference we hope to amplify the voices of our students by inviting papers that explicitly deal with the questions of social responsibility from an interdisciplinary perspective. We hope to see papers addressing the merits, demerits, and sustainability of social responsibility, as well as presentations which explicitly analyze ethical systems. Papers from various disciplines are welcome as this question has been raised throughout history from philosophers such as Plato and Marx to inspiring activists of the 1960s and 70s like Martin Luther King Jr. and Betty Friedan. We encourage papers outside of the philosophical arena which explicitly question the virtue of social responsibility and the role it plays in determining and informing class, race and gender issues, religious conflicts, economic policies as well as issues concerning today’s political climate. We would also appreciate papers which question the methods of civil disobedience and peaceful protest. Edited and reworked papers from class assignments that touch on any of these issues are encouraged as this conference hopes to promote undergraduate research, presentation, and publication.

To ask questions about the conference please contact conference coordinator, Dr. Danielle A. Layne, at [email protected].