Phillips Family Award in Ethics

The Phillips Family Award in Ethics is presented annually to an undergraduate student from Dartmouth College who has successfully demonstrated strength and interest in applied and professional ethics. Work may be in specific areas, such as medical or legal ethics, or in the broader arena of ethics applied to public life. A prize of $1000 is awarded to each recipient of the winning paper or papers.

The prize was established in 1990 by Gerald Phillips ('47), (Tuck '47) and Howard Phillips ('51), (Tuck '52) to honor their parents and by Stacy Phillips ('80) to honor her grandparents, Helen and Louis Phillips.

Papers due May 31, 2026 by midnight

2025-2026 Guidelines

Essays/papers or projects must be completed during the past calendar year (Spring '25 term through the Spring '26 term).
Deadline for submission is May 31, 2026 by midnight. Papers or projects must be typed, single-spaced, with all citations and references clearly noted.
Suggested minimum page length (12 point font): 10 pages. (shorter papers will be considered for the prize)
Theses or final papers for courses may be submitted for consideration.
One paper may be submitted per student.
Include a brief cover letter with submission that includes your particular interests in applied and professional ethics, previous related work experiences and courses.
Your name may appear on the cover page only. Our office will remove your cover and put a numerical code on your paper. Submissions will be judged anonymously.
Previous winners are not eligible to apply again.
The winning essay/paper or project report may be reproduced, in whole or in part, on the Ethics Institute's website.
Apply here.

Congratulations to the 2025 Winner, Jared Pugh '25

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Read Jared's senior thesis "Revitalizing the Eighth Amendment in the Contemporary Age
of American Punishment" here.

Past Winners

2024 Winner: Skylar Wiseman's paper A Revolution of Reason: What Political Liberalism Implies for
Obergefell v. Hodges, Same-Sex Marriage Jurisprudence, and Marriage Law here.

2024 Winner: Riya Ganpati's paper Rehabilitating the Privacy Defense: Expressive Privacy and Freedom of Identity here.

2023 Winner: William Dowling's paper Aristotle on Animals: Teleology and Ethics here.

2023 winner Jingyi Zhang's paper Critical Interests and Advance Directives of People with Dementia, Read here.

2022, winner Dhwani Kharel' paper Caring Across National Boundaries: State Responsibility in Transnational Care Economy. Read here.

2021 Noah Campbell. Noah Campbell's senior thesis, Search for the New Land: Necropolitics, Agonism, and Black Dissociation

2021 winner: Delphine Jrolf's senior thesis, Social Expertise: Understanding the Knowledge, Influence, and Power That Explain American Inequality

2020 winner, Jonah Hirsch's paper.

2019 winner, Ezekiel Vergara's paper.

2018 winner, Samantha Koreman's paper.

2017 winner, Peter Schroen's paper.

2016 winner, Carly Schnitzler's paper.

2015 winner, Iris Liu's paper.