Ethics Untangled
Ethics Untangled is a series of conversations about the ethical issues that affect all of us, with academics who have spent some time thinking about them.
Ethics Untangled is also the long-form online presence of IDEA, edited by Danielle Bromwich and Luke Brunning, where we make room for longer interviews, staff and student profiles, articles and other forms of content.
Both are brought to you by IDEA, the Ethics Centre, a specialist unit for teaching, research, training and consultancy in Applied Ethics at the University of Leeds. IDEA offers Masters programmes in Healthcare Ethics and Applied and Professional Ethics, research degrees and consultancy services.
The Ethics Untangled podcast is edited by Mark Smith at Leeds Media Services.
Music is by Kate Wood.
Ethics Untangled
50. What can comics such as Heartstopper teach us about ethics? With Simon Meisch
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A really interesting conversation with Simon Meisch this week. Simon is a Senior Lecturer for Applied Ethics at the Ethics Centre of the University of Tubingen, and until recently was also a visiting scholar here at IDEA. It's an unusual episode of the podcast in that we aren't talking about a specific ethical issue. Instead, we talk about a particular way of highlighting ethical issues and encouraging discussion of them. That's through engaging with serial narratives, including comic books and TV series. We focused on one particular comic book series, which has been adapted for TV, which is Heartstopper. Aside from enlightening me about that series, Simon makes a convincing case that this is a good way to get at a range of ethical issues, in a way that is complex, subtle and grounded in recognisable situations.
Here's the Heartstopper webcomic.
Here's Simon's webpage.
And here are some other relevant links recommended by Simon:
- Ben Argon: Philosophy Comics
- Tim Smyth: Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels
- Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics
- Aaron Meskin: The Philosophy of Comics
- Aaron Meskin: Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Philosophy of Comics
Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.
As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.
Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social
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