Poynter Center Roundtables
The Poynter Center hosts a series of roundtables to highlight creative work and research by IU Bloomington faculty in ethics and democratic life and culture.
Spring 2013
Dr. Doug Adams
Poynter Fellow, Spring 2013
The Road Well Traveled: Criminology and the Responsible Conduct of Research
Tuesday, March 19, 4:00-5:30
Doug Adams will present on his work on the significance of using a criminological framework to look at the conduct of research. He is currently collaborating with the Poynter Center's Ken Pimple on a book on this topic.
Douglas Adams, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Arkansas (UA). His interests include research ethics, and using twenty-first century technology to enhance teaching and student engagement. He currently serves as the Chair of the UA Institutional Review Board (IRB). His most recent article, “The Issues and Challenges of Research Ethics Education in the University, Particularly in the Area of the Social Sciences” was published in volume 12 (2) in the Spring 2012 issue of Teaching Ethics. Dr. Adams provided a commentary on “The Co-Production of Deterrence” in the March 2009 Newsletter of the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). In 2007, Dr. Adams provided the Keynote Speech – “Research Misconduct: Determinants and Deterrence” – for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s Bioethics Colloquium. “Research Misconduct and Crime” (with Kenneth D. Pimple) - their first collaborative work that links the discipline of Criminology to Research Ethics and Responsible Conduct - was published in volume 12 (3) in the 2005 issue of Accountability in Research.
Dr. Eden Medina
Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile
Tuesday, February 19, 4:00-5:30
International geopolitics can color how we view the ethics of a computer system. For example, designers may try to build values consistent with a political project in the design of a technological system. Ethical evaluations of that system may therefore be inseparable from the dynamics of its political context. Eden Medina, Associate Professor of Informatics and Computing, explores these issues using material from her recent book Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile (MIT Press). She will present a technological history set in Chile during the Cold War to explore the challenges of building an ethical computer system during a controversial political moment. Discussion will focus on the interpretive malleability of technological systems and brings to light the ways that ethical judgments are intertwined with the nuances of national and international politics.
Eden Medina is Associate Professor of Informatics and Computing, Adjunct Associate Professor of History, and Co-Director of the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics at Indiana University, Bloomington. Medina received her Ph.D. in 2005 from MIT in the History and Social Study of Science and Technology. She also holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and a Certificate in Women’s Studies from Princeton University. She is a Fulbright Senior Specialist in the area of engineering education. Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile received the 2012 Edelstein Prize for outstanding book in the history of technology and the 2012 Computer History Museum Prize for outstanding book in the history of computing. Read more here: http://www.cyberneticrevolutionaries.com/.
Dr. Aurelian Craiutu
"A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830"
Thursday, January 31, 4:00-5:30
Political moderation is the touchstone of democracy, which could not function without compromise and bargaining, yet it is one of the most understudied concepts in political theory. How can we explain this striking paradox? Why do we often underestimate the virtue of moderation? Aurelian Craiutu, Professor of Political Science at IUB, explores these questions through an examination of moderation in modern French political thought, and sheds light on the French Revolution and its legacy, in his recent book, A VIRTUE FOR COURAGEOUS MINDS: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830. Tracing the evolution of the concept from Classical thinkers through to its modern rebirth as part of the intellectual foundation of government, Craiutu's work demonstrates how moderation navigates between political extremes, and he challenges the common notion that moderation is an essentially conservative virtue, stressing instead its eclectic nature.
Aurelian Craiutu is associate professor of political science at Indiana University, Bloomington. His previous books include “Liberalism under Siege: The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaires” and (with Jeremy Jennings) “Tocqueville on America after 1840: Letters and Other Writings.”
This Roundtable will be an opportunity for open discussion with the author. Please RSVP to eayoung@indiana.edu to attend. Registered participants will receive complimentary access to one chapter of the book.