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John M. Rezendes Ethics Initiative
Thanks to a extremely generous gift from Dennis and Beau Rezendes, each year the University is able to host the John M. Rezendes Visiting Scholar in Ethics and to offer the John M. Rezendes Ethics Essay Competition. The Visiting Scholar in Ethics is chosen by students in the Honors College from nominations solicited from the campus community. This committee selects, invites, and coordinates the visit of a scholar who can address ethical issues of national importance. During her/his stay, the visitor is asked to conduct a seminar with selected Honors College students, conduct a seminar with selected students in a department or college related to the visitor's field of interest, and present the John M. Rezendes Ethics Lecture to the University community and the public.
The Rezendes Ethics Essay Competition is an opportunity for undergraduate students to compose an essay on the theme of "Ethics in the Public Domain." The essays are to address a topical of ethical importance to the public and should describe a problem and the ethical issues at stake, presenting a carefully reasoned and informed argument about how the problem should be approached and resolved while responding to serious objections that might be offered to the author's point of view. The submissions are judged by a panel of faculty members from the University, and the winning essayist is presented with a $2500 award and an original engraved sculpture.
For the first three years of this initiative, it was administrated by the Department of Philosophy. Coinciding with the inauguration of the Honors College, the initiative was relocated there for the 2002-03 academic year. We are exceedingly grateful to Beau and Dennis Rezendes for their generosity which enables us to bring these visitors to The University of Maine and provide these opportunities for all students at The University of Maine.
The John M. Rezendes Visiting Scholar in Ethics
2005-06
Lily Yeh, Professor of Art and Art History at the University of the Arts,
Philadelphia
Co-founder and emeritus Executive Director of The Village of
Arts and Humanities
Beauty, Ethics, and
Community Building
19 April 2006
Reception: 4:00 pm Minsky Recital Hall, Class of 1944 Building
Talk: 4:30 pm Minsky
Recital Hall, Class of 1944 Building
2006-07
Christopher Hedges,
(19 April 2006)
2005-06
Lily Yeh, Professor of Art and Art History at the University of the Arts,
Philadelphia
Beauty, Ethics, and Community Building
(19 April 2006)
2004-05
Dr. Eric Meslin, Director of the
Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Lessons from Dolly, Stem Cells and Biobanking (18 April 2005)
2003-04
Professor Lijun Yuan, Texas State
University - San Marcos
The Ethics of Care and Social
Policies: A Dialogue on Gender Across China and the U.S. (22 April 2004)
2002-03
Professor Sut Jhally, University
of Massachusetts, Amherst
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised
Land: News Bias in the Israeli/Palestinian Crisis (10 April 2003)
The John M. Rezendes Ethics Essay Competition winners:
Links are to Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) versions of the winning essays. If you do not have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer, you can download it here
.
2007
2006
Anne Mathieson (Philosophy)
The Language of Social
Relations and Exploring Truth Therein
2005
Dylan Montgomery '07 (Chemistry)
A State of Equality: The Legislation
of Same-Sex Marriage in Maine
2004
Aimee Hoffmann (Business)
The Beauty Ideal: Unveiling
Harmful Effects of Media Exposure to Children
2003
John Bell (New Media)
Legalization of Physician Assisted Suicide
2002
Hunter Tzovarras '02 (Philosophy)
Why We Ought Not to Execute Criminals
2001
Nicholas Robertson '03
(Philosophy)
Wittgenstein, Education, and the Value
of Literature