Each year, CEHV selects a challenging theme for its “Conversations on Morality, Politics, and Society” (COMPAS) program, inviting speakers from a variety of disciplines and perspectives to help faculty, students, and other community members think constructively about next steps for our society. Complex ethical challenges need input from different areas of expertise, and COMPAS brings these voices together for wide-ranging, problem-solving discussions.
During 2024-2025, CEHV will host a series of events on the topic of Work. We hope this year’s program – our Work COMPAS – will help people think critically about how work shapes our personal and collective lives, and constructively about how we might change things in the future. In doing so, COMPAS aims to model the civil and informed discussion that is central to the mission of a leading public university. This year’s program will be anchored by two one-day conferences on the meaning and future of work.
November 1, 2024 | March 28, 2025 |
COMPAS are free and open to the public – please mark your calendars and spread the word! These events typically emphasize moderated discussion panels rather than set-piece lectures, although short (15-20 minute) formal presentations are often useful to frame the discussion.
Autumn 2024
COMPAS Conference: The Meaning of Work
November 1, 2024:
Panel: Is some work unjust?
Panelists: Eyal Press (author of Dirty Work); Lori Watson (co-author of Debating Sex Work, Professor and Chair of Philosophy, Washington University); Moderator: Dana Howard (Division of Bioethics/Department of Philosophy, CEHV Steering Committee, Ohio State).
Panel: Is work part of a meaningful life?
Panelists: David Blustein (author of The Importance of Work in an Age of Uncertainty, Professor and the Golden Eagle Faculty Fellow in Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Boston College); Julie Rose (author of Free Time, Associate Professor of Government, Dartmouth College); Moderator: Ben McKean (Department of Political Science, Ohio State).
Keynote: Reconsidering the Puritan Work Ethic as a Moral Resource for Workers
Speaker: Elizabeth Anderson, author of Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back, and "The Struggle for Meaningful Work" in Dissent Magazine, Max Shaye Professor of Public Philosophy, John Dewey Distinguished University Professor; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, University of Michigan)
Moderator: Winston Thompson (Department of Educational Studies, CEHV Steering Committee, Ohio State)
Previous COMPAS topics include Immigration (2011-12), Public/Private (2013-14), Sustainability (2015-16), Inequality (2016-17), Religion in Public Life (2017-18), Technology (2018-19), What Is America? (2019-20), COVID-19 (2020-21), Markets and the Open Society (2021-22) and Education in Our Democracy (2022-23) and COMPAS Directions: A Decade of Ethical Exploration (2023-24).