The Ethics of Immigration Enforcement
This Ethics Spotlight explores the ethical dimensions of immigration enforcement and detention in the United States—particularly the role of ICE under the current administration.
Calling for Applied Ethics Research Proposals
Applications for Spring 2026 Hackworth Research Grants for Applied Ethics are open for SCU faculty, staff, and students. Proposals must be received by 5 p.m. PDT Friday, May 22, 2026.
To learn more about the grant process, previous projects, and how to apply, visit our Grants for Students and Grants for Faculty/Staff webpages.
Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap
By José Roger Flahaux, Brian Patrick Green, and Ann Skeet
"Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap,” or, more briefly, the “ITEC Handbook,” offers organizations a strategic plan to enhance ethical management practices, empowering them to navigate the complex landscape of disruptive technologies such as AI, machine learning, encryption, tracking, and others while upholding strong ethical standards.
AI Ethics Literacy
A growing need, a growing list of issues, and a growing collection of resources from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
A list of AI ethics issues and relevant materials (articles and video recordings) from the Center’s website.
Seeking Participants for Venture Ethics AI Risk Research Study
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University is conducting a research study to understand which AI risks matter most to decision-makers during mergers and acquisitions, and how those risks are identified, assessed, and managed in practice through confidential interviews with senior deal professionals.
AI and the Environment: Sustaining the Common Good
On November 1, 2024 the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and Next10 cohosted a daylong conference on AI and sustainability.
All About Ethics: Perspectives From Across the Center
The questions reporters ask high-level politicians in planned settings are actual decisions. That does not mean ethical pre-review ought not to go into the question framing.
Prediction markets make it easy for people to bet on all kinds of events pertaining to finance, politics, pop culture, and sports. Young people, especially young men, are the most impacted by their surge.
Despite the ethical concerns associated with prediction markets, they’re growing rapidly and that may be, in part, based on the transactional behaviors of our leaders.
Featured Ethics Spotlights
This Ethics Spotlight explores the impact AI is having on human dignity, part of the Markkula Center’s work in the international project New Humanism in the time of Neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence (NHNAI).
This Ethics Spotlight explores the ethical dimensions of immigration enforcement and detention in the United States—particularly the role of ICE under the current administration.
Governing, as defined by Oxford Languages, is having authority to conduct the policy, actions, and affairs of a state, organization, or people. But how one goes about governing is another matter. In this Spotlight, Markkula Center staff and scholars analyze the role of compassion in the approaches used by people in power.
Center News
Alumni from Ethics Center Hackworth Fellowship and Ethics Bowl programs returned to SCU as featured panelists at World Philosophy Day hosted by the Philosophy Department in the SCU College of Arts and Sciences.
A series of two-session workshops offered by the Ethics Center are helping SCU students and staff to identify ethical issues and the decisions that accompany them.
Article published by the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences highlights the Ethics Center's collaboration regarding the experience of vulnerable communities in the context of climate adaptation with principles of environmental justice.
Teaching Note: Interview of Theranos Whistleblower, Tyler Shultz
This teaching module for business ethics, leadership and management courses includes two videos, homework assignments, and class discussion, all designed to spark conversation about ethical issues associated with whistleblowers and corporate governance.
Evaluating Culture for Ethics
Our Culture Self-Assessment Practice recommends approaches to evaluating culture for ethics within companies and other types of organizations. The materials are primarily for members of an organization’s leadership team, including human resources and legal, but designed to engage a cross-section of leaders from various disciplines.
Media Commentary
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by Penn Live.
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by Penn Live.
Don Heider, Ethics Center executive director, quoted by The Daily Beast, NewsChannel 5 Nashville, and other outlets.
Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by The Christian Science Monitor.