public engagement — Eli Shupe

community bioethics

I participate in a range of projects related to bioethics here in North Texas. I am an active member of the North Texas Bioethics Network and the Tarrant County Medical Society’s Ethics Consortium. I serve on the Ethics Committees at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital and Cook Children’s. I make an effort to engage people outside the academy and members of the media on bioethics and health policy issues that are of interest to the general public. When I have the relevant expertise, I also make myself available to policymakers - recently, for example, I worked with Tarrant County legislators to develop a new indigent burial policy for county residents.

HOSPICE SERVICE LEARNING

I have worked with several hospices in Dallas-Fort Worth to provide my Introduction to Bioethics students with service learning opportunities that are directly integrated into their curriculum. During the semester, my students focus on bioethical issues at the end of life in the classroom while serving off-campus as direct care volunteers with terminally ill patients and their families. Students also have the opportunity to see bioethical decision-making in action by attending Interdisciplinary Group (IDG) meetings at the hospice. Here is a video of one of my students, Aesha Erabti, talking about her experiences.

Make Philosophy

In 2022, in collaboration with Maker Literacies Librarian Morgan Chivers and the UTA FabLab, I founded Make Philosophy, an open pedagogy project that designs 3D-printed teaching tools for philosophy and distributes the maker files for free to educators around the world. Our undergrad researchers cultivate their design and fabrication skills while helping to improve philosophy teaching at UTA and beyond. All of our student workers are compensated for their labor by UTA’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and other internal sources of funding.

PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY

How human bodies end up on dissection tables without consent. The Washington Post. January 22, 2025.

From morgue to medical school: Cadavers of the poor, Black and vulnerable can be dissected without consent. The Conversation, October 25, 2023 (syndicated in various online and print outlets, e.g., Houston Chronicle, Texas Observer, Milwaukee Independent), Oct 25, 2023.

In Texas, the cadavers of the poor are used to advance medical science, without their consent. The Dallas Morning News, Dec 14, 2021.