The 2022-23 Â鶹´«Ã½ Ethics Bowl team and their advisor, Prof. Erin Bradfield, pose with their fourth-place-winning trophy at the National Finals of the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl® in Portland, Oregon, March 2 to 5, 2023. Photo by Erin Bradfield.
Ethics Bowl is a team-based competition consisting of debate over a wide range of complex and pressing ethical issues. Topics range from business and professional ethics to personal relationships and social and political affairs.
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Ethics Bowl Team, which is co-sponsored by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the Â鶹´«Ã½ Philosophy department, has a long history of competition in the California Regional of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics ( (IEB) and in the National IEB Tournament. Each year, Ethics Bowl puts together a competition team to travel to the California Regional in December in hopes of qualifying for Nationals in February.
Â鶹´«Ã½ has seen considerable success since its inception in 2012, with the 2017-18 team – Miles Elliot '19, Daisy Koch '18, Connor Holttum '18, and Jeff Kampfe '19 – prevailing over more than 200 other colleges and universities to win the twenty-second annual Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl championship. This was the first national championship win for Santa Clara, and it was also the first time a California team had ever won the nationals. The year prior, in 2016-17, Santa Clara’s team qualified for nationals and finished in fourth place. The team also made appearances at nationals in 2018-19, 2019-20, and hosted the California Regional Tournament during the 2020-21 season.
In the 2022-23 season, the team yet again reached the finals of the competition, placing fourth overall after just one loss at the National Tournament. That team’s members – Bailey Black ‘25, Harvey Chilcott ‘23, Daniel Hipon ‘24, Liam McBride ’24, Ariel Perlman ‘23, Kendall Schrohe ‘24, and Kailai Shen ‘24 – prepared under the guidance of Prof. Erin Bradfield, a senior lecturer in philosophy and faculty scholar at the Markkula Center.
Learn more about the 22-23 team and their journey to the APPE IEB National Tournament.
Participants in Ethics Bowl enroll in the PHIL 185 course during Fall Quarter, which is a 5-unit class that fulfills the following requirements: Philosophy Applied Ethics requirement or Upper Division Philosophy elective; Civic Engagement; and the Applied Ethics Pathway.
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Ethics Bowl team is coached by Prof. Erin Bradfield, senior lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics Center faculty scholar.
For more information on joining or supporting the team, please email ebradfield@scu.edu.
