Course : Universality and Cosmopolitanism vs. Locality

Course Syllabus

Course Objectives/Goals

Instructional Methods

This course employs a dynamic blend of instructional methods to ensure a comprehensive learning experience. With a focus on engagement and flexibility, the instructional approach comprises 75% face-to-face teaching, fostering direct interaction between instructors and students in a traditional classroom setting. Additionally, 25% of the course involves distant teaching, which can be delivered either synchronously or asynchronously. This remote component allows students to access course materials, participate in discussions, and engage with learning activities at their own pace, leveraging online platforms and resources. By combining face-to-face interaction with remote learning opportunities, the course aims to cater to diverse learning styles and preferences, facilitating deeper understanding and collaboration among students while accommodating individual schedules and needs.

Assessment Methods

• 30%: Participation
• 70%: Written assignment

Prerequisites/Prior Knowledge

This module has no prerequisites in the curriculum or prior knowledge requirements.

Instructors

Miltiadis Vantsos was born in Istanbul and studied theology at the Faculty of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he obtained his Postgraduate (Master’s Degree) and his Doctorate Diploma (PhD) in Christian Ethics. He has worked as a Scientific Collaborator and Scientific Assistant at the Chair of Systematic Theology of the Department of Orthodox Theology at the University of Munich, where he taught courses in Christian Ethics. He is Professor of Christian Ethics and Bioethics at the Faculty of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has also been a visiting professor at the Universities of Munich and Basel. His research interests focus on bioethics, environmental ethics, and social ethics. He has written the following books: Ethical Consideration of Abortion (in Greek), Thessaloniki 2009, p. 280; The Sanctity of Human Life. Presentation and Evaluation of the Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on Bioethics from the Point of View of Orthodox Ethics (in Greek), Thessaloniki 2010, p. 452; Living Organ and Tissue Transplantation: the Medical and Ethical View (in Greek, in collaboration with Dr. Emmanuel Nikolousis), Thessaloniki 2016, p. 280; The Scientifically Feasible and the Ethically Correct. Views of Orthodox Bioethics (in Greek), Thessaloniki 2016, p. 290; The Commercialisation of the Human Body. An Ethical Approach to Slavery and Prostitution, (in Greek), Thessaloniki 2019; Surrogate Motherhood. The moral reflection on the mother, the child, and the family. Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary Workshop in memory of Prof. Christos Vantsos (in Greek), Cosmos: Annals 1, Thessaloniki 2020 (edited in collaboration with D. Kaklamanos and E. Pepes). He is a member of the Bioethics Committee of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and of the Greek Unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics. He has participated in several conferences in Greece and abroad and has published more than fifty articles in Greek and international scientific journals.

E-mail: mvantsos@past.auth.gr ♦ ORCID iD: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1630-5071

Kaveh Dastooreh is an Assistant Professor at the University of Sulemani in Kurdistan, Iraq. He holds a PhD in social theory at Université Paris 5, René Descartes – Sorbonne. He is a member at the AISLF (Association international des sociologies de langue française), member of the scientific committee of GT 18 (Devenir et être sociologue – being and becoming sociologist). At a personal level, he is working on a project entitled “The history of the culture of the self.” The starting point of this investigation begins by assuming that the “culture of self” is an indispensable part of the modern subject and the development of European modernity. This culture turns around “ethics,” “the art of existence,” “aestheticisation of oneself,” “self-evaluation,” and any sort of “relationships to oneself.” It is therefore necessary to conduct critical research to show the growing place of morality, including then, “the place” of codes, laws, norms, and what we can bring together under the name of the culture of “right” in Kurdistan as well as in Middle Eastern countries.

E-mail: kaveh.husain@univsul.edu.iq ♦ ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9955-4748

Sucharita Sen is an Associate Professor at the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O. P. Jindal Global University, India, where she teaches political science and South Asian history. She received an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Cambridge in July 2013. Her dissertation was on Nehru’s views on religion and morality expressed through his writings, socio-political engagements and policy formulations. In 2012 she completed her M.A. in International Relations from Jadavpur University, Calcutta. She received her B.A. (Honours) degree in Political Science from Presidency College, Calcutta in 2010. She completed her PhD. research at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in 2020. Her thesis was aimed at exploring alternative narratives of the Bengal partition (1947), particularly through the United Bengal Movement. Her first book, entitled Theorising a Bengali Nation: Abul Hashim and the United Bengal Movement 1937-47, was published by Routledge, UK in June 2024. The book builds on some of her doctoral findings and contributes to larger theoretical discourses on nationalism. Her areas of interest are the study of community-based demands, identity politics, transnational border studies, and nationalism studies. 

E-mail: suchasen@gmail.com ♦ ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6589-1215

Kostas Koukouzelis has studied law at the University of Athens and holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of London. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Crete. He also serves as the Director of the Centre for Bioethics, University of Crete and the Joint Postgraduate Program in Bioethics, University of Crete and University of Athens. He was a member of the National Ethics Committee for Clinical Trials from 2010 to 2023. His research interests lie in political philosophy and philosophy of law, global justice, especially human rights, and migration, Kant, and bioethics, with a special focus on environmental sustainability, climate change, and intergenerational justice. Some of his publications have appeared in Ethics, Politics and Society: A Journal in Moral and Political Philosophy, Globalizations, Journal of Global Ethics, Philosophy & Social Criticism, Synthesis Philosophica, Public Reason: A Journal of Political & Moral Philosophy, Politics in Central Europe, and Theory, Culture & Society. His latest book is published under the title War and Peace: Classical Thinkers from Thucydides to J.S. Mill, Kallipos Open Academic Publications, 2024.

E-mail: koukouze@uoc.gr ♦ ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1904-9975

Textbooks

To be added soon.

Bibliography

• Hugo Tristram Engelhardt (ed.), Global bioethics: the collapse of consensus, Salem, MA: M & M Scrivener Press, 2006.
• Manfred Steger, Globalization. A Very Short Introduction (5. edition), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020
• Peter Singer, Πρακτική Ηθική (Αθήνα-Λευκωσία: Broken Hill, 2022).
• Rachels James - Rachels Stuart (ed.), The Elements of Moral Philosophy (7. edition), New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012.
• Ricardo Rozzi u.a., (ed.), Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2015.
• Wanda Teays - John-Stewart Gordon - Alison Dundes Renteln (ed.), Global bioethics and human rights: contemporary issues, Lanham [u.a.]: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.