Introducing the Ethics at Work Podcast
In this episode, we introduce our new project, a podcast! We share the story of how each of us came to ask how our relationship with work should look, and what it means to live an excellent working life. Walter and Megan are engineers who think deeply about how technology can and should be used to build better habits and connect with others around us. Since Paul is a philosopher, we aren’t scared to dig deep into the philosophies that shape our assumptions.
We tell you how we met over breakfast on campus in the middle of the pandemic. We were all at different transition points in our careers, Walter had just received tenure, Paul was starting a job as a faculty member, and Megan was finishing her Ph.D. We realized we were approaching similar questions about work and technology from our different points of view. We talk about our research into work, technology, and ethics and how this led us to create a series of courses, a public database of resources, and a YouTube channel that we call the Ethics at Work Project.
Meet the Faculty: Paul Blaschko
Paul Blaschko, Ph.D. is an assistant teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame. He teaches God and the Good Life, a course dedicated to asking the big questions about meaning, morality, and faith. He also serves as the founding Director of the Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society, a program devoted to exploring how the humanities can help us find meaning in work. With Meghan Sullivan, he co-authored The Good Life Method (Penguin Press, 2022), a book about how philosophy can help us live better lives, which was also the basis for The Good Life Method series here on ThinkND. He is currently working on a book about the philosophy of work (under contract with Princeton University Press), and is the co-founder of a Notre Dame based tech start-up that aims to solve problems with dialogue on the internet. In his spare time, he does a good bit of philosophy on TikTok, and he used to do professional improv comedy in the Twin Cities.
Meet the Faculty: Megan Levis
Megan Levis, Ph.D. is an incoming assistant professor of the practice with Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns and with the College of Engineering. She is asking questions about how technology shapes our shared understanding of what it means to be human, how we can design digital spaces to encourage virtuous habits, and how to shape engineering curricula to build character alongside core engineering skills and competencies. She recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Notre Dame’s Technology Ethics Center (ND TEC) in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Megan teaches courses in the First-Year Engineering Program as well as a course on Technology, Self, and Society. She is currently working on a book about Catholic Social Teaching and Social Technologies.
Meet the Faculty: Walter Scheirer
Walter Scheirer, Ph.D. is the Dennis O. Doughty Collegiate Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. His research is currently concentrated in several socially relevant areas, including artificial intelligence, media forensics, and information security. As an interdisciplinary scholar, his work is not exclusively technical, and takes a serious and critical look at the human element of various technologies within these spaces. He has published over one hundred technical articles and two scholarly books, and periodically writes for a public audience in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. As a teacher, he emphasizes thought beyond the classroom, bringing students and technologists together in dialogue.
Listen to the Episode
Wednesday, June 28, 2023 8:00 am
Welcome to Ethics At Work, the podcast where Notre Dame educators discuss questions of meaning, purpose, and value in the context of our working life. Join professors Paul Blaschko, Megan Levis and Walter Scheirer of the Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society at the University of Notre Dame as they have conversations with Notre Dame faculty, alumni, and friends about work and human flourishing.
Delve into the role of community in the economy, what psychology tells us about wellness at work, and the relationship between entrepreneurship and technology ethics.
To learn more about the Ethics at Work Project you can find us at ethicsatwork.nd.edu.
View EventThe Ethics at Work Project
Walter Scheirer, Megan Levis, and Paul Blaschko — instructors at the University of Notre Dame — introduce a new project aimed at helping students thinking meaningfully about work and its various ethical dimensions.