2019 Winner of the Professor Cecil L. Eubanks Award for the Study of Ethics

Congratulations to Staci Shelby!

 

Ms. Staci Shelby is the 2019 recipient of the Professor Cecil L. Eubanks Award for the Study of Ethics.  Given annually, the award recognizes excellence in undergraduate research in ethics. Ms. Shelby just graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the LSU Honors College, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, with majors in Political Science and French.  The Ethics Institute award recognizes her honors thesis, which was entitled:  “#MeToo but Not You: What the Me Too Movement Owes American Prostitutes.” 

 

Staci with her mentor, Dr. T. Wayne Parent, retired Russell B. Long Professor of Political Science.

 

Her honors thesis advisor and nominator for the award, recently retired Russell B. Long Professor of Political Science, T. Wayne Parent, writes that the thesis:  “”was a tough look into what she saw as inconsistencies within the Me Too movement.” As Ms. Shelby argues in her conclusion to the study:  “In the ‘Me Too’ era where advocating for respect for women in Hollywood, office buildings, classrooms, or even hotels is more commonplace than before, it remains a challenge to advocate for those in less legitimate workplaces.”   Thus, Ms. Shelby’s study concludes that “legalization proves to be the most effective and transparent way to promote safety and reduce risk,” within the sex worker industry.

 

Staci being congratulated by Dr. Cecil L. Eubanks, Alumni Professor & Director of the LSU Ethics Institute.

 

The daughter of Michael and Sonja Shelby, Staci credits her family and Girl Scouts for instilling a strong sense of care ethics in her.  Ms. Shelby is spending the summer in New York, interning at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, LLP, through the SEO Law Fellowship Program. She will begin her postbaccalaureate studies at Harvard Law School this coming fall.