Steven Swartzer

Ph.D.

Steven Swartzer Ethics Fordham

Associate Director for Academic Programs and Strategic Initiatives, Fordham University Center for Ethics Education
Director, Master's Degree Program in Ethics and Society
Director, Undergraduate Bioethics Minor 

Contact:
Office: Dealy Hall 117B (Rose Hill Campus)
Email: [email protected]
Office: 718-817-0720

***To schedule a virtual appointment, please visit  https://stevenswartzer.youcanbook.me ***

Website: http://www.stevenswartzer.com
PhilPapers: https://philpeople.org/profiles/steven-swartzer-2

About:
Dr. Steven Swartzer is the Associate Director for Academic Programs and Strategic Initiatives in Fordham University’s Center for Ethics Education. In this role, he directs Fordham’s interdisciplinary Master’s Degree Program in Ethics and Society, and interdisciplinary undergraduate Bioethics minor. He is also the coach and advisor for Fordham’s Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl team.

Prior to joining the Center for Ethics Education in 2020, Dr. Swartzer was a Teaching Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Director of Outreach for the Parr Center for Ethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to that, he was a Lecturer in Philosophy and the Assistant Director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Kutak Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics.

  • B.A., University of Minnesota, Philosophy and Political Science
    Ph.D., University of Nebraska, Philosophy

  • Dr. Swartzer engages in a broad range of scholarly pursuits in research, ethics pedagogy, and developing university-facing and public-facing programs that promote ethical literacy and philosophical engagement for a variety of audiences.

    As a researcher, Dr. Swartzer’s current work focuses mainly on theoretical and practical issues related to the profound injustice (especially the profound racial injustice) within the U.S. system of mass incarceration. This work seeks to identify and better understand the moral problems within the U.S. system of racialized policing and punishment, and to demonstrate that approaches to the philosophy of punishment that are more sensitive to these underlying forms of injustice will lead to very different understandings of punishment than the standard, idealized philosophical treatments of these issues. This project lies at the intersection of ethics, social and political philosophy, and the philosophy of law, while drawing heavily on the resources provided from other areas of philosophy, history, social science, and activist work. In recognition of this work, Dr. Swartzer was awarded the 2016 Early Career Scholar Prize from the Association for Practical And Professional Ethics.

    Beyond research, Dr. Swartzer has strong interests in ethics pedagogy, and promotion of ethical literacy within and beyond the traditional college classroom. He has led and participated in numerous workshops and seminars on professional ethics, ethics in research, and ethics across the curriculum. He is also extensively involved with Ethics Bowl, at both the college and pre-college levels. Ethics Bowl is an exciting debate-like competition that promotes civil discourse about controversial issues in personal, social, and political ethics. This competition has tremendous educational value and develops important critical and ethical reasoning skills. Teams are judged on the clarity and force of their argument, on the extent to which they identify and thoroughly examine the central moral dimensions of the case at hand, and on the extent to which they demonstrate their awareness and thoughtful consideration of multiple viewpoints. Dr. Swartzer currently serves on the Advisory Committee for the National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB) program, and served on the NHSEB Executive Committee from 2013-2019. He has participated in numerous other roles for both High School, Middle School, and Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl for more than a decade--including as coach, faculty advisor, and judge. He is excited to be bringing Ethics Bowl to Fordham.

    Dr. Swartzer served on the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Pre-College Philosophy. He has also organized and/or participated in hundreds of philosophy and ethics discussions for young children, high school students, incarcerated youth, GED students, and senior citizens. His public-facing work was recognized for excellence and innovation by the American Philosophical Association and Philosophy Documentation Center.

  • Race, Ideology, and the Communicative Theory of Punishment. Philosophers’ Imprint 19(53): 1-22. (2019)

    Punishment and Democratic Rights: A Case Study in Non-Ideal Penal Theory. In M. Gardner & M. Weber (eds). The Ethics of Policing and Imprisonment. Palgrave Macmillan: 7-37. (2018)

    A Challenge for Humean Externalism. Philosophical Studies. 175(1): 23-44. (2018) 

    Review of Amy E. Lerman and Vesla M. Weaver, Arresting Citizenship: The Democratic Consequences of American Crime Control.  Ethics 126 (3): 840-845. (2016)

    Humean Externalism and the Argument from Depression.  Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 9(2): 1-16. (2015)

    Appetitive Besires and the Fuss About Fit.  Philosophical Studies 165(3): 975-988. (2013)

  • CEED/SOC/PSYC 4245: Ethics in Research (interdisciplinary, team-taught undergraduate course)

    CEED 5050: Ethics and Society: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives

    CEED 6100: Theories and Applications in Contemporary Ethics (interdisciplinary, team-taught graduate course)

    CEED 8999: Graduate Tutorial: Race, Justice, and Policing