CAUCUS OF CONCERNED SCHOLARS, COMMITTEE ON ETHICS
AND MORALITY
At its mid-winter meeting on January 14, 2005, the Governing Council of the International Society
of Political Psychology authorized the establishment of the Caucus of Concerned Scholars, Committee
on Ethics and Morality. Kristen Monroe will head this caucus, which is authorized for three years,
with the option of renewal at the end of this period, pending approval by the Governing Council.
The Caucus is authorized to hold two sessions at the annual ISPP meetings and will issue an annual report to
the Governing Council on its activities. Its mission is to:
- encourage and conduct research on the foundations of ethical action, ranging from
altruism and cooperation at one end of a moral continuum to tolerance, bystander behavior
and prejudice, discrimination, ethnic violence, and genocide at the other end, with
special emphasis to the psychological mechanisms and origins of all forms of behavior
having to do with ethics and morality,
- convene workshops and seminars on this general topic,
- develop curricula and collect syllabi for the teaching of related courses, to students
ranging from elementary and secondary students to college and graduate students,
- establish a website to publicize substantive findings and work in this area,
- collect names of respected scholars doing research in this field and to provide
these names to legitimate media outlets and community groups interested in scholarly
speakers,
- collaborate with other relevant agencies interested in the subject, such as
Holocaust Museums, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Southern Poverty
Center, and academic institutes such as UCI’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific
Study of Ethics and Morality, and
- facilitate the generation and coordination of grant proposals to advance scholarly
work in the field, including both educational grants dedicated to teaching students and
research grants for original research.
UPDATE, 8/25/08:
The Caucus held two productive
sessions at the
2007 meeting: one organized by Sam McFarland focused
on diverse measurements of the altruistic perspective. The second, organized by
Catarina Kinnvall focused
on gender issues.
At the
2008 meeting
in Paris, the Caucus held a special roundtable to launch a
new program designed to combat genocide,
in cooperation with important NGOs such as the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Paris.
The Caucus
has completed its first book,
edited by Catarina Kinnvall, Sarah Scuzzarello, and Kristen Monroe, and has just
recently signed a contract with Oxford University Press for publication. Stay
tuned!
The Caucus is in the process of creating a list of
members willing to be contacted by the press about the psychological foundation
of ethics and morality and willing to give public talks on their work. People
who wish to be included should contact Kristen Monroe at
krmonroe@uci.edu. (Some Caucus members may not wish to have their
information made public so we will not list anyone’s information or name without
explicit approval.)
ISPP Members interested in the
Caucus or its activities should contact Kristen Renwick Monroe at
krmonroe@uci.edu or at the
UCI Inter-disciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality,
Social Science Plaza A, Irvine, University of California at Irvine, California
92697 USA. |