Jerome and Hazel Tobis Fellows
The Jerome and Hazel Tobis Fellows were established in 2010 to honor the professional integrity, concern for social justice, and humanitarianism of Jerome Tobis, a founding member of the Ethics Center. Tobis Fellows will be awarded to young scholars including untenured junior faculty, post-doctoral students, and post-baccalaureate students -- who are beginning their careers and are concerned with moral issues as they construct their own professional lives. The honorific fellowships offer an intellectual community, involvement in scholarly projects with other Ethics Center faculty, and professional mentoring for those interested in ethical concerns in any of the fields represented at the Ethics Center. Interested applicants should contact Kristen Monroe, Director at 949-824-6092 for details, including information on how to apply for the Tobis Fellowships. Contributions may be made via the e-giving link (at left on website) or directly to Sandra Cushman, Center Manager, Social Science Plaza A, UCI, Irvine, CA 92697.
2011 Fellows
NICHOLAS LAMPROS
Nicholas Lampros graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in the spring of 2008 with high honors (3.831 GPA) and Phi Beta Kappa in English and creative writing. As a Tobis Fellow, Nicholas has collaborated on several academic articles focusing on the intersection of personal, professional, and ethical lives; two of these articles are included in the edited volume Science, Ethics, and Politics: Conversations and Investigations, currently in press at Paradigm Press and due for release in 2011. Most recently, Nicholas helped produce a short book, Of Ethics and Economics: Conversations with Kenneth Arrow, a book that attempts to dig into the ethical side of economics and make sense of the economic collapse of the 2008 and the ensuing political upheaval. As a fellow at the Ethics center, Nik will continue his work on Of Ethics and Economics, helping to take it to the final steps of publication. He also will continue his own personal work, including the completion of several short fiction stories that include complex ethical issues. Nik hopes to combine in a more meaningful way his creative work with his academic interests, examining what exactly constitutes fiction in an increasingly virtual world, and what psychological and ethical impulses drive some to virtual worlds and artificial social networks while others remain more rooted in the “real world” (whatever that means). He will examine the existing literature on the psychology of fiction and the anthropology of virtual worlds, a project he hopes will result in a combination of creative work and analysis.
If you are interested in Nicholas’s work, or in supporting it in any way, please contact him at nlampros@gmail.com.
ANDRADA STEFANIA COSTOIU
Andrada Stefania coutoiu is a Romanian student, raised in Bucharest during the days of the dictator, Nicholas Cseausescu. After emigrating to the United States, Andrada studied at the University of Illinois. Now Andrada a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, Andrada is working on a dissertation that addresses Eastern European immigration and political participation. Her thesis advisor at the University of Illinois is Doris Graber. While at the Ethics Center, Andrada will be working with Professor Monroe on this topic and on a project on altruism which explores the cross-cultural roots of altruism and asks how culture and political institutions influences our basic drive to help others.Andrada’s CV is attached. If you are interested in Andrada’s work, or in supporting it in any way, please contact her at acosto1@uci.edu.
JAMES VAN SLYKE
James is a Research Assistant Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. He is working on the neuroscience of virtuous behavior and ethics and will be organizing several conferences. His background is in philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. His primary area of experise is in science and religion, but his research has broadened to iinclude virtue ethics, psychology of religion, and philosophy of religion. He received a grant from the University of Oxford to further his dissertation research and is currently publishing a book based on his dissertation entitled The Cognitive Science of Religion with Ashgate Press that should be on the shelf in the fall of 2011.
