Study Abroad, Summer 2010: Leadership Ethics in Greece, Italy & England

Now accepting applications - Deadline for priority consideration December 11, 2009. 
For more information and to apply please refer to the
Study Abroad Program

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Course LDR 4204, Ethics and Power in Leadership - Summer '10
The challenges to ethical leadership and possible answers to these challenges are not new. But your conclusions just might be! Study and learn practical leadership ethics in the places where many of the great minds wrote and taught the knowledge and wisdom that still guides our thinking and behavior of today.

Debate the proper aims of leadership, justice, and the nature of the life worth living at the site of the Academy in Athens where Plato taught Aristotle. Discuss the tradition of Natural Law morality – a tradition evident in contemporary issues such as abortion, embryonic stem cell research, birth control - at Roccasecca Castle, the birth site of Saint Thomas Aquinas south of Rome. Consider Niccolo Machiavelli’s practical as well as moral claims regarding power and self-interest at the villa where he wrote The Prince while in exile from Florence. Explore the London “haunts” of John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, the most famous Utilitarian's who envisioned a “greatest good” based on happiness and pleasure, and Thomas Hobbes, who championed social contract theory as a necessary response to our self-interested nature. Weigh counter arguments by Immanuel Kant that morality can only be found in universal, intentional respect for all persons.

Do all this, learn practical ethics and systematic moral analysis and still have generous amounts of free time to explore the art, culture and history of Athens, Rome, Florence, and London.

Apply today to join a select group of students who will explore not only the wisdom of selected philosophers and political theorists but also the locations where they lived, taught, wrote and died.

Course Description Summer '10

The study abroad version covers the same readings and seminar topics as the campus based version. However, the sequence of the topics is modified to fit class locations and free time is included so that students may plan touring options. These details are available in the Topical Outline/Itinerary for the study abroad version.

This course addresses the possibility of ethical leadership. Challenges to ethical leadership are explored and responses from leadership and moral theories and from moral psychology are reviewed. Personal moral development is emphasized. Read the Syllabus Summer '10 (.pdf) Topical Outline Summer '10 (.pdf)

For more information please refer to the Study Abroad Program offered through International Affairs.