IDEA: The Ethics Centre turns 20

2025 marks 20 years of IDEA The Ethics Centre

Since its launch in September 2005 IDEA colleagues have taught applied ethics to thousands of students across many disciplines, equipping them with the skills to identify, analyse and respond effectively to ethical issues. IDEA has engaged in ground breaking applied research and consultancy of significant value to finance and banking, law, media and engineering, and the Centre’s academic research is influencing many areas of personal, public and professional life including love, sex and relationships, values and character, sustainability and climate change, business and leadership, journalism, artificial intelligence and robotics, medicine, health and engineering.

Join us to celebrate: A year of events

In January, we held a workshop on Human AI Relationships and our 34th Annual Healthcare Colloquium took place in Ilkley. Check out the event reports here.

In February we welcomed you to join us for an evening on Medical Ethics.

In March we hosted a workshop on the Ethics of Art/Aesthetics.

May, June and September are our busiest months….

May brings workshops on Stability and Trust in Journalism, The Political Dimensions of Trust and Trustworthiness and the Future of Intimacy.

We are also proud to host the 2025 Mangoletsi-Potts lecture series. We are delighted to welcome Professor Kristie Dotson of the University of Michigan. Kristie specializes in epistemology, metaphilosophy, and feminist philosophy (particularly, women of color and Black feminisms). These four lectures will take place over two weeks in May – dates to be confirmed.

June brings two high profile public lectures. We are delighted to welcome Gavin Esler, author, writer and broadcaster to discuss truth, lies and public discourse. His talk “Dead Cats, Strategic Lying & Truth Decay”, will take place on Tuesday 17th June in Cloth Work Hall, Leeds City Centre.

On Monday 30th June, Heather Widdows, Professor of Philosophy at University of Warwick will discuss the Value of Applied Ethics and the Contribution of IDEA. 

In July we are leading an online workshop on The Ethics of Body Disposal.  

And in September (8th-10th), our biggest event yet, our international conference on The Future of Applied Ethics.

Check out our Anniversary Events Calendar to find out more and get involved!