Beginning in 2014, the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, will be convening a regular works-in-progress series for scholars working in normative business ethics (NBE).
Workshop Objectives:
The series is part of an effort to foster, and increase the prominence of, normative business ethics in the academy and the public sphere. This particular initiative has two key objectives: First, it endeavors to provide a regular forum for scholars working on business ethics from a normative perspective. The community of such scholars is relatively small, and dispersed across numerous institutions, and there are few opportunities for these individuals to convene and share work. This series is an effort to connect these scholars, and enrich their shared intellectual life. Second, the series aims to be especially valuable to junior faculty, by privileging their submissions when it comes to selecting papers for the workshop, and by providing them with feedback from, and opportunities to interact with, more established members of the normative business ethics community.
Workshop Format:
The workshop will meet roughly once a month over the academic year, for a total of 6-8 sessions per year. Anyone with an interest in normative business ethics is invited to attend the sessions. Faculty interested in having their paper discussed at the workshop should submit an abstract and list, in order of preference, the date(s) they could present from those listed below. (Further information about submission can be found under the “Call for Abstracts” below.) Two draft papers will be selected for each session, with priority given to junior faculty such that, where possible, at least one of the two papers for a session will have an untenured author. Complete draft papers will be circulated at least one week in advance of each session and participants will be expected to have read them carefully, and to arrive at the workshop prepared to offer constructive feedback.
The sessions will be structured so as to maximize the opportunity for paper improvement through the comments of a community of scholars committed to normative business ethics. To that end, authors will not present at the session for which their paper has been assigned. Instead, those gathered will go around the table and each will offer a few points of feedback on the paper.
An author whose paper is selected for presentation in a given academic year will bear an obligation to attend as many sessions as she can, or to send feedback via email to the authors whose papers are presented at any session that she is unable to attend. In this way, each author will be assured of a good number of responses to her paper.
The Zicklin Center will provide the room and refreshments for each session. Attendees will be asked to pay for their own travel expenses, though we invite requests for travel funding for those in need.
For Spring 2014, the workshop will be held on the following dates:
Friday, January 17, 2014, 1:30-4:30 PM.
Friday, March 7, 2014, 1:30-4:30 PM.
Friday, May 2, 2014, 1:30-4:30 PM.
Call for Abstracts
We invite individuals interested in workshopping a paper in normative business ethics to submit a paper abstract. The abstract should be a maximum of 500 words, and the accompanying email should indicate preferred dates of presentation from those listed above. Please send these to Lauretta Tomasco, tomascol@wharton.upenn.edu, by December 1, 2013. Individuals will be notified about whether their paper has been selected for presentation by December 17.
Please address all questions to Amy Sepinwall, sepin@wharton.upenn.edu.