Moscow State University

Fall 2010

The goal of this course is to welcome Russian humanities and social sciences students into the community of environmental researchers. The readings and exercises are designed to support and empower you, assist you in meeting others, and raise your comfort level in your scholarly endeavors. The course introduces the rewards of and obstacles to research; the causes and consequences of misconduct; and the rights and obligations of professionals.

We will follow a three-step ethical method: my interests; our interests; all interests. The method will help you organize your thoughts as you move through our topics. It should also be useful long after you finish the course. When novel ethical dilemmas arise in your research, you will need not only skills of critical analysis but moral imagination as well. Our method teaches these skills.

To begin, take a minute to acquaint yourself with the three tabs to your left. Click on each one--Schedule, Modules, and Assignments--and review the menus.

Ready to proceed? Click again on Schedule, find "0.0 Intro to course," and click there.

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The course is being developed by Profs. Gary Comstock, Marina Martynova, Ruben Apressyan, Andrey Prokofiev, Andrey Sychev, and the participants of the Environmental Ethics in Teaching Social Sciences and Humanities project sponsored by ReSET-HESP, Open Society Institute, Soros Foundation; and the Model Curriculum for Land Grant Universities in Research Ethics (LANGURE) project. LANGURE is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. . Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

This site may contain information regarding policies, regulations, and rules (PRR) of your university. To the extent of any conflict between the information on this site and the actual policy, regulation, or rule, the actual PRR governs. Always check your university's PRRs because its language may differ from what is described here.

All materials used in these modules are used with permission or pursuant to the fair use provisions of Section 107 of Title 17, the United States Copyright law. Further uses may be subject to the copyright law. The materials under NC State University copyright may be used for non-profit educational purposes, if given the customary attribution and notification is sent to the LANGURE director at

Commercial use is prohibited