“Waste on the Palouse” is environmental ethics topic of Dec. 2 WSU Common Reading lecture

PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University Professor Bill Kabasenche and five students in his environmental ethics class (Philosophy 370) will discuss “Waste on the Palouse: A State of the Bioregion Health Report” at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 2, in Todd Hall 116.

Hosted by the WSU Common Reading Program, the event is free and open to the public.

“Where does that bottle, or leftover food, or old laptop go when you dispose of it at WSU?,” asks Kabasenche, an assistant professor in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs.

“Our trash is out of sight, but should it be out of mind? Or, should we consider the impact of our waste disposal on the land that makes up the Palouse and the people who live there? What are the ethical issues we should think about in disposing of our waste?”

Kabasenche’s research specialty is in the ethics of biomedical technologies, both the ethics of research and the implications of the application of such technologies. He earned his BA in philosophy and biology and his MA in theology at Wheaton College, and his PhD in philosophy at the University of Tennessee. He was the Bell Fellow in the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia before coming to WSU in 2007. He has served as co-director of the Pullman Regional Hospital Ethics Committee.

The presentation is the final event of the fall Common Reading Tuesdays expert lecture series. It exposes students and the community to variety of close-up looks into topics from the year’s Common Reading book. The series this semester has included film showings, trash excavations, and a visit to campus by Edward Humes, the author of the 2014-15 Common Reading book, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash. Many events were in partnership with other campus programs.

For more information and to see what’s lined up for spring semester 2015, visit the calendar page.