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 1/26/24 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:

  • Ought universities to take public positions on controversial political issues?
  • Under what conditions if any is it appropriate to prevent school-age children from access to certain literature?
  • Is it ethically appropriate for corporations or nation states to fund space exploration given the needs on our own planet?
  • A critical inquiry into any problem in ethics that you have encountered that has made you think 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 26, 2024. (MS Word or .pdf format only). 

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