PhD Courses in Denmark

Date and time: 28 - 30 August from 9:00 to 17:00

This course introduces and discusses a select variety of disciplinary conceptions of/approaches to ‘the moral’/’the ethical’. Morality is a matter of interest to scholars from a whole variety of disciplines. Moral philosophers of course, but also moral anthropologists and sociologists or psychologists whose research focus, for example, on moral emotions, moral imaginaries, moral injury. This course emerges from an interest in being better able to articulate (not least across disciplines and beyond academia) what we mean when we say that we study something ‘moral’ or ‘ethical’.

During the course, PhD students will hear, meet, and discuss with an interdisciplinary group of established scholars who are all actively engaged in research projects exploring and questioning the meaning of ‘the moral’ in a variety of contexts. The course concludes with a moderated virtual panel debate with internationally leading scholars (whose writings are represented in the course literature). 

We welcome PhD students concerned with ‘the moral’ or ‘the ethical’ as such as well as PhD students with a project focusing on a more specific topic, such as moral injury, moral repair, moral remainders, or the like.

Academic Aim

- To strengthen the participants ability to account for their scholarly approach to and understanding of the moral/ethical.
- To facilitate mutual comprehension in interdisciplinary conversations about the meaning of the moral/ethical in moral philosophy, moral anthropology, sociology, psychology, and other fields and disciplines.
- To support networking between colleagues and peers with a scholarly interest in moral matters. 

Target group
PhD students from philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology (or the humanities and social sciences in general) working with issues related to morality or ethics, studies in moral philosophy, moral anthropology, the sociology of morals, psychology of moral injury, or the like. 

Course lecturers

- Birgitte S. Johansen, Associate Professor, UCPH.
- Astrid K. Trolle, Adjunct Professor, UCPH.
- Thomas Brudholm, Associate Professor, UCPH.
- Iben Damgaard, Associate Professor, UCPH
- Lotte B. Segal, Lecturer, Edinburgh University
- Johannes Lang, Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies

International expert panel (via Zoom):

- Didier Fassin (Professor of Social Science, Princeton & Chair of Moral Questions and Social Issues at the Collège de France)
- Margaret Walker (Donald J. Schuenke Chair Emerita in Philosophy, Marquette University)
- Owen Abbott (Lecturer in Social Sciences, Cardiff University).

Course organizer: Associate Professor Thomas Brudholm and PhD student Marie Leine.

The PhD Course is related to the HumPraxis research project After Thoughts: An Anthropological-Philosophical Investigation of the Ethical Aspects of Victims' Responses to Wrongdoing,funded by the Velux Foundations (PI, Thomas Brudholm), cf.: https://ccrs.ku.dk/research/centres-and-projects/afterthoughts/

Programme
Day 1
09:00: Welcome; introduction (TB), programme, and participants.
10:00: Lecture/discussion of readings: Conceptions of the moral in philosophy (TB with ID)
12:00: Lunch.
13:00: Lecture/discussion of readings: Conceptions of the moral in anthropology (LB)
15:00: Comparing perspectives considered during the day.
16:00: End of day 1.
18:00: Dinner (funded by ToRS).

Day 2
10:00: Lecture/discussion of readings: Conceptions of the moral in sociology (BJ, AT)
12:00: Lunch.
13:00: Lecture/discussion of readings: Conceptions of the moral in psychology (JL)
15:00: Walk and talk in groups.
16:00: Reflection: Comparing perspectives considered during the day(s).
17:00: Reception (funded Velux-project).

Day 3
09:00: Seminar: paper presentations and discussion with feedback and engagement by fellow PhD students and the course lecturers.
12:00: Lunch
13:00: Seminar: as above, continued.
15:00: Moderated zoom panel debate with leading international scholars (tba).
16:30: Concluding observations and farewell.
17:00: End of course.   

Registration: Please register via the link in the box no later than 15 June 2024.

Language: English

ECTS: 4.5

Max. numbers of participants: 15

Course fee: DKK 2.500 per ECTS for PhD students from CBS.

Preparation
No later than 15 August 2024, participating PhD students are required to submit a 2–3-page account of how they employ and conceive of ‘the moral’ (or ‘the ethical’) in their own research project. The paper provides the basis of a presentation during the course. The paper must be submitted by e-mail to phd@hrsc.ku.dk.

Further information: For more information about the PhD course, please contact the PhD Administration (phd@hrsc.ku.dk).

Literature
The literature comprises readings from the four disciplinary fields represented in the course, that is: philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. The following is a tentative list (max 200 pages per field):

Sociology
Abott, Owen 2020. The Self, Relational Sociology, and Morality in Practice, Palgrave MacMillan, excerpts. 
Bauman, Zygmunt 2007(1989). Modernity and the Holocaust, Oxford: Polity Press, excerpts.
Campbell, Bradley & Jason Manning 2018. The Rise of Victimhood Culture. Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars, Palgrave MacMillan, excerpts. 
Woodhead, Linda 2022. “Truth and Deceit in Institutions”. Studies in Christian Ethics 35(1): 87-103.

Philosophy
DeNicola, Daniel 2018. "Ethical Theory, Moral Concerns", in Moral Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction, Broadview Press.
Hämäläinen, Nora 2016. Descriptive Ethics: What does Moral Philosophy Know about Morality? Springer (excerpts).
Walker, Margaret 2007. "The Subject of Moral Philosophy" and "Peripheral Visions, Critical Practice", in Moral Understandings, Oxford University Press.
Kierkegaard, Søren. 1987. Either-Or part II. Kierkegaard’s Writings IV, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong & Edna H. Hong, Princeton: Princeton University Press, p.157-180; p. 214-224; p. 262-265.

Psychology/psychiatry
Bandura, Albert 1999. “Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities,” Personality and Social Psychology Review.
Haidt, Jonathan 2001. “The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment,” Psychological Review.
Lang, Johannes and Robin May Schott 2023. “The moral challenges of moral injury,” Moral Injury and the Humanities. New York: Routledge.
Litz, Brett T. 2009. “Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy,” Clinical Psychology Review.

Anthropology
Fassin, Didier. 2015. Troubled waters. At the confluence of ethics and politics - Didier Fassin. In: M. Lambek, V. Das, D. Fassin, & W. Keane (Eds.) 2015. Four Lectures on Ethics (pp. 175-210). Hawoo Publishing Comp
Mattingly, Cherryl. 2014. Moral laboratories : family peril and the struggle for a good life. University of California Press, selected chapters
Veena, Das. 2020. Textures of the Ordinary: Doing Anthropology after Wittgenstein (1st ed.). Fordham University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11991fx, selected chapters