The Ethics Center is pleased to announce the recipients of the Spring, 2023 Hackworth Research Grants for Faculty/Staff and Grants for Students. Through the grants, SCU faculty and staff can draw on the Center's resources to support their research and teaching on applied ethics and to engage with a community of scholars with an interest in ethics.
Hackworth grants are available for SCU faculty and staff doing research or creating teaching materials on applied ethics in any discipline, and are open to applicants in the fall and spring quarter each year.
The grants are provided through an endowment from Joan Hackworth and the late Michael Hackworth.
Spring 2023 Grantees
Faculty/Staff
Hallie Bodey, Program Director, Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a $450 grant for the project entitled "Student Perspectives on the Ethics of AI-Assisted and AI-based Academic Advising." This project will explore university student perspectives on the ethics of AI advising and assistance in academic advising, co-curricular advising, and experiential program advising. It will include gathering student perspectives on privacy, data gathering, and bias. Funds will be used for incentivizing participation in the research.
Pravin Jain, Adjunct Lecturer, Engineering Management & Leadership, a $3700 grant for the project entitled "Validation of Framework for Ethical Decision Making Follow-up and Course Correction." This project will seek information regarding the efficacy and validation of a framework for ethical decision making. Information gathered will then be shared, and used to update teaching materials. Funds will be used for student assistance for interviews of Silicon Valley technology leaders for ethical decision making practices.
Lawrence Nelson, Professor, Philosophy, a $3400 grant for the project entitled "A Professional Reading of ‘Cross My Heart’ and Educational Program." This project will create a recording of a dramatic play read by professional actors that explores the ethics of voluntary active euthanasia for persons with serious mental illnesses, which will be used for educational purposes. The grant funds will provide stipends to professional actors who will read the original script and to a director/manager of the recording project.
Thomas Plante, Professor, Psychology, a $1500 grant for the project entitled "Ethical Considerations in Working with Roman Catholic Seminarians and Men and Women in Religious Formation." This grant will explore the ethical and clinical best practices for mental health professionals working with Roman Catholic seminarians, applicants to religious life, and those in formation as it relates to psychological assessment, psychotherapy, and consulting. Funds will help to defray the costs of travel to and sabbatical at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College.
Mukta Sharangpani, Lecturer, Women's and Gender Studies, a $2000 grant for the project entitled "When Milk Boils Over: Adult-Sibling Dynamics around Elderly Parent Care." When parents age, managing their care can become a source of great anxiety to them and their adult children. This project explores the moral imperatives around elder care in the South Asian diaspora, particularly as voiced by adult children in their interactions with their siblings around co-care. The project aims to highlight how the ethical dilemmas around "best care practice" are expressed and resolved through the moral vernacular of rights and individualism as well as Hindu moral frameworks of (vairagya) detachment and seva (service). Grants funds will be used for conference travel expenses.
Students
Daisy Halaszyn, Accounting & Information Systems, ’25, a $2500 grant for the project entitled "Currency Use in the Developing World." This grant will explore the short-term and long-term effects of El Salvador's adoption of Bitcoin on poverty and economic opportunity, crime rates, and corruption, and how this model may help or hinder efforts towards building a more equitable society. The project will examine if this model has the potential to help other developing countries, and which parts of this model might be adapted to work on a larger, international scale.
Justin Sun, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science, ’24, a $2500 grant for the project entitled "Space Ethics." This project will examine various ethical issues related to space exploration, including but not limited to satellites & space debris, international relations in space, ethical use of space resources, and ethical issues related to the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
Congratulations to all the awardees!