Civil Discourse for Citizenship
CEHV's Civil Discourse for Citizenship program supports undergraduates, staff, and faculty in the practice of civil discourse. Our program is built around the "4Cs of Civil Discourse": Be Curious, Be Charitable, Be Conscientious, and Be Constructive. Students, educators, and others are encouraged to explore our free online Scarlet Canvas course about the 4Cs. CEHV also trains Civil Discourse Fellows to plan and serve as moderators in Civil Discourse Forums featuring speakers who disagree on contentious issues. We offer a unique 3-credit course on free speech and civil discourse (ARTSSCI 2400/E), a 4-course academic certificate, a co-curricular certificate program, an Ethics Bowl team, and tailored workshops for students and staff outside the classroom. We also host a teaching endorsement for instructors called Ethical Disagreement and Civil Discourse through the Drake Institute. This work is pursued with generous support from the Derrow Family Foundation and Lee and Pat Mohan.
ETHOS: "Ethics at Ohio State"
ETHOS is CEHV's program advancing the Shared Values Initiative at Ohio State. We helped to craft the new Ohio State Shared Values framework, and we support discussion on those values through the ETHOS Fellows Program, a 6-session discussion-based introduction to the Shared Values that also incentivizes fellows to develop related programming in units across the university. We have trained 122 ETHOS Fellows since 2021 from all Ohio State campuses.
CARE - Conversations About Research Ethics
CARE fosters multidisciplinary and foundational discussion of cutting-edge ethical issues arising from research practice. Led by trained ethicists, the program hosts monthly discussion panels with external speakers and experienced Ohio State researchers on new developments in the field of research ethics. It also offers the CARE Training Program in the responsible conduct of research to support faculty, postdocs, and students in satisfying federal grant ethics guidelines.
COMPAS - Conversations on Morality, Politics, and Society
COMPAS is a year-long series of interdisciplinary events on controversial topics of public concern such as immigration, sustainability, technology, and religion. In 2023-2024 we celebrated this original CEHV program with COMPAS Directions: A Decade of Ethical Exploration. Our next program will be on the topic of "Food." The program aims to model complex and informed discussion of ethical challenges facing our society.
Distinguished Lecture in Ethics
CEHV's Distinguished Lecture in Ethics series brings to campus thinkers who have been influential outside of the academy in addition to having made groundbreaking contributions to ethics or political philosophy. Past speakers have included Amartya Sen, Danielle Allen, Miranda Fricker, and Elizabeth Anderson. Over the years we have also partnered with others to host prominent speakers including Jeffrey Sachs, JD Vance, and Kwame Anthony Appiah.
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) undergraduate major
PPE is a growing major crafted and led by CEHV steering committee members. The major trains students to combine insights from three disciplinary perspectives and introduces them to a wide range of political viewpoints. CEHV also provides financial support to the program, which now has approximately 210 majors, and works to create opportunities for students to engage visiting speakers and learn about civil discourse through our Civil Discourse for Citizenship initiative. CEHV faculty also advise the undergraduate PPE Society student organization.
Outreach Programs and Partnerships
CEHV seeks partnerships with a variety of civic and community groups through grants and programming. Currently, our main outreach effort is a Philosophy for Children program at Columbus Gifted Academy in collaboration with the PLATO Organization. We also co-sponsor the Philosophy and Critical Thinking Summer Camp hosted by the Department of Philosophy.
Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Training
Through its civil discourse, research ethics, and other public philosophy programming, CEHV has successfully trained a series of postdoctoral scholars and graduate students who have gone on to permanent positions elsewhere, including at Depauw, Cal State/Long Beach, Vanderbilt, Butler, Georgian Court University, and Harper College.
These programs rely on the volunteer efforts of our faculty steering committee, support from our advisory board and affiliated faculty, staff, and graduate students, cooperative partnerships with other centers and offices at OSU, and the dedication of a small, committed staff. Find out more about who we are.
To help advance these and related efforts, you may donate here.
To hear more, join our mailing list. If you have questions or proposals, or would like to become an affiliate of CEHV, please contact CEHV Associate Director, Aaron Yarmel.