Programs
The Division of Ethics at Columbia University is at the forefront of addressing complex bioethical issues through several national and international initiatives. These programs bring together experts from diverse disciplines to tackle ethical, legal, and social implications associated with advances in biomedicine and healthcare technologies. By fostering a multidisciplinary approach, the Division aims to enrich global bioethics discourse and ensure that ethical considerations are integrated into the development and implementation of new medical technologies and policies.
CERA | ELSIhub
The Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis (CERA), launched in Fall 2019, is an interdisciplinary center with the twin goals of establishing a reliable digital platform — ELSIhub — for scientists, scholars, policymakers, journalists, and the general public to learn about research on the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) of genetics and genomics, and fostering a community of multi-disciplinary researchers focused on high priority ELSI issues.
Funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute, ELSIhub | CERA is managed by teams at Stanford and Columbia Universities in partnership with The Hastings Center and Case Western Reserve University.
The Justice Dialogues Project
The Justice Dialogues project will bring together 15-20 scholars across career stages and disciplinary backgrounds for a series of virtual discussions over the course of 2025. The primary aims focus on building capacity for the future of justice-forward bioethics research and integrating justice frameworks into scholars’ new or ongoing work in emerging biotechnologies, including but not limited to genomics, AI, and precision medicine.
Justice Dialogues is convened by Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, Shawneequa Callier, and Janet K. Shim. Our discussions will be anchored by assigned readings, featured speakers with subject matter expertise, and moderated discussions. The focus will be on different frameworks of justice, explicitly designed to reach beyond the current bioethics canon, and to consider issues of injustice and power in the development and application of biotechnologies. Dialogues will involve deep engagement with justice frameworks and group exploration of potential empirical applications and adaptations. Participants will be expected and encouraged to bring their own disciplinary perspectives and research interests to bear in each dialogue. Justice Dialogues Scholars will collaboratively develop discussion questions, reflections on possible applications of justice frameworks, and educational resources for wider circulation. Our intent is to seed a community and scholarly network that will be cultivated throughout the Justice Dialogues year, and sustained after the year has concluded.
