UC Riverside’s Ethics Bowl club competed in the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, which took place at Stanford University on December 7, 2024. The team competed in the regional component but did not progress to the national level; however, they have high hopes for the 2025 season.

“It was a great team,” fourth-year philosophy student Saam Mashhadi said. “We supported each other through every step by testing our arguments against each other and sharing our thoughts on them. Also, the logistics of it all were quite complicated, and being able to figure it out was a great accomplishment. We had a great support system.”

Mashhadi wanted to get UC Riverside involved in the Ethics Bowl, in which he had previously competed. The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is a statewide tournament organized by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (AAPE). Participating teams debate the ethical and philosophical issues of an assigned set of case studies. Prior to this past season, UC Riverside had never participated in this event.

Mashhadi began recruiting potential teammates within the philosophy department. Professor Agnieszka Jaworska recruited graduate student Jordan Fisher during their graduate seminar to act as the team’s coach. Fisher had participated in similar programs in the past, including debate and ethical conversations.

“There wasn’t someone able to do it in the department yet,” Fisher said, “so I just wanted to make sure that they had the opportunity to engage in this.”

With Fisher in place as the team’s coach, they could officially form a chapter: Ethics Bowl at UCR. To prepare, the club met biweekly for two hours, reviewing cases that would be presented at the competition.

“Students would give presentations, offering their takes on the various ethical dilemmas that we were tasked to deal with,” Mashhadi said. “The preparation was very extensive, very rigorous, but in the end, very much worth it. It was a great learning experience for everyone involved.”

To Mashhadi, many people empowered the team along their journey to the Ethics Bowl. Professor Jaworska and Professor Michael Nelson of the philosophy department, UCR Student Life, the people at the Ethics Bowl and Stanford University — where the event was hosted — all supported the UC Riverside team in their first year at this competition.

Those interested in joining the club can contact Saam Mashhadi at saam.nasserimashhadi@email.ucr.edu.

FEATURED PHOTO. The '24-'25 Ethics Bowl at UCR team poses for a group photo.