This fall, Denison will be offering two Denison Seminars. The first is with Dr. Katy Crossley-Frolick (Political Science) and is on Wicked Problems. A Wicked Problem is one with no easy solutions and that is fluid and changing in nature making it difficult to gain deep understanding. Often wicked problems are too big or difficult to be fixed or even ameliorated by a single institution or organization. They can be so large that they are ignored by politicians and so complex that understanding them requires multiple fields of interest coming together in search of complex solutions. Good examples would be poverty or gender equity.
The second is CyberEthics, taught by Dr. Joan Krone (Computer Science), and will focus on issues related to ethical issues posed by the introduction and use of computers. For example, the protection of privacy, philosophical ethics (theory of justice), professional ethics (licensing of software engineers), online ethics (responsibility for what’s on the internet), property (laws about downloading), accountability (violence in games), intellectual property rights (plagiarism), and cyber attacks (viruses).
Both courses will challenge and engage students in real world issues of great importance.
