Earn a Master of Arts or a Master of Science in Applied Ethics

There is a significant need for people who can make sound decisions about the moral and ethical issues facing the workplace, the community, and the larger world.  YOU can be one of those people. 

OSU’s Masters in Applied Ethics program is designed to develop your moral reasoning and critical thinking skills in service of an engaged life. Through coursework, a real-world practicum, and a culminating research project (thesis or non-thesis), you’ll learn how to identify, analyze, and resolve ethical issues, mentored by faculty who are actively involved in ethics research across a wide array of disciplines. 

Consistent with Oregon State University’s Signature Areas of Distinction, students in our program consider the many ethical issues connected with Advancing the Science of Sustainable Earth Systems, Improving Human Health and Wellness, and Promoting Economic Growth and Social Progress.

Engaged ethics at OSU begins with transforming our discipline. We take seriously our responsibilities to create a diverse and welcoming philosophical community, dedicated to social justice. Members of historically under-represented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

Our faculty have research strength in Social and Political Philosophy, Power, Environmental Philosophy and Environmental Justice, Biomedical Ethics and Biomedicine, Religion, and Philosophies of Art. 

For more and detailed information about the program, please see our Graduate Student Handbook.

Graduate Learning Outcomes for the two Master Degrees in Applied Ethics are as follows:

Master of Arts in Applied Ethics

  1. Conduct research or produce some other form of creative work
  2. Demonstrate mastery of subject material
  3. Conduct scholarly or professional activities in an ethical manner
  4. Address ethical theory and practice together
  5. Communicate ideas about ethics

Master of Science in Applied Ethics

  1. Conduct research or produce some other form of creative work
  2. Demonstrate mastery of subject material
  3. Conduct scholarly or professional activities in an ethical manner
  4. Address ethical theory and practice together
  5. Communicate ideas about ethics
  6. Demonstrate how final research project substantially intersects with the epistemological methodologies employed in the natural and/or social sciences

Our faculty include:

Dr. Geoffrey Barstow – Buddhist history and thought, contemporary Tibetan Buddhism, vegetarianism and Buddhism.

Dr. Courtney Campbell ethical decision-making, professionalism, ethics committees, ethics consultation, genetic technologies, end-of-life care, public policy, narrative ethics, religion and ethics

Dr. Sharyn Clough –  values and science (especially biomedicine), peace literacy and science policy, feminism and science, pragmatism, social epistemology

Dr. Robert Figueroa – environmental philosophy, critical race/ethnic studies, environmental identity and environmental heritage, science-technology-society studies, climate refugees, indigenous studies, environmental policy, social-political philosophy, justice theory, ethics (normative, value theory, practical ethics), critical disability studies and the environment, critical geography, political ecology

Dr. Stephanie Jenkinsmoral considerability, disability studies, critical animal studies, feminist theory, bioethics, engaged/public philosophy, ethics pedagogy, continental philosophy 

Dr. Jonathan Kaplan – critical race theory, biomedical ethics and the social determinants of health, human behavior genetics (violence, addiction, cognition), economic justice

Dr. Amy Koehlinger – North American religious history, American Catholicism, ethnographic methods in historical research and writing

Dr. Joseph Orosco – democratic theory, social movements, Latino/a and Latin American thought, utopian theory, peace and nonviolence, global and social justice, human rights, immigration, American Pragmatism

Alicia Patterson - ethics of technology, AI ethics, data ethics, social epistemology, and feminist philosophy

Dr. Stuart Sarbacker – contemplative practices, spirituality and ecology, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, Indian philosophy, comparative study of religion

Dr. Allen Thompson – novel ecosystems, climate change mitigation and adaptation, conservation, environmental virtue ethics, stewardship, future generations, geoengineering, ecosystem management, metaethical and normative ethical theory, social and political philosophy, practical reason