Troy Moore Undergraduate Ethics Essay Contest

Troy Moore Undergraduate Ethics Essay Contest.

Annual Troy Moore Undergraduate Ethics Essay Contest

Each year, the Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics sponsors an ethics essay contest, open to all GSU undergraduates. The contest commemorates Orbun Troy Moore III, who attended GSU in the 1990s. His life was tragically cut short in an automobile accident before he graduated. He was awarded his degree posthumously. The annual Troy Moore Undergraduate Ethics Essay contest is made possible through the generosity of the Moore family. They honor the memory of the young man they called “Buddy.” He had inspired his family and friends by transforming himself as a student and a person with a GSU humanities education. The annual contest in his name offers undergraduates the opportunity to grow with careful research about themes in ethics.

Sponsored by the Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics

Prizes: First $250, Second $150, Third $100

Entries due Friday 1/27/23 at Noon ET.

The Troy Moore essay contest is an annual competition that challenges Georgia State University undergraduates to analyze the urgent ethical issues confronting them in today’s complex world. Students are encouraged to write thought-provoking and well-informed essays that address ethical questions in a reasoned and rigorous way.

This year’s suggested topics:

  • What forms of protest, if any, are appropriate in light of the concerns about climate change?
  • Reflect on whether and how we may ethically separate art from the ethics and politics of the artists who produce it.
  • What forms of content moderation are ethically appropriate for social media?
  • If the owners of a private company disagrees with its home state’s policies about women’s or reproductive health care, how ought they to respond?
  • Some people claim our world is increasingly and dangerously polarized. Does this mean mutual acceptance is more important that truth or justice?
  • Martin Luther King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  Critically consider what sort of evidence there is for or against King’s claim.
  • Carefully examine the ethical aspects or implications of a major literary work, a film, or significant piece of art.
  • Articulate with clarity an ethical problem or puzzle you have encountered and analyze what it has taught you about ethics, yourself, or the world.

In writing their essays, students are also encouraged to draw upon scholarly work in a field relevant to their topic.  For example, an essay might discuss and critically assess the competing views of two or three philosophers, political theorists, or legal scholars.

Essays are due to Donna C. Hardaway at [email protected] by Noon ET on Friday, January 27, 2023. (MS Word or .pdf format only). 

Please read the rules carefully: http://ethics.gsu.edu/students/troymoorerules/