Lodestar Releases Fall 2025 Issue

Lodestar, the student-led ethics journal, has just released its fall issue. Led by Editors-in-chief Claire Cherill ’26, Liv Peters ’26, and Kara Hoang ’27, the Lodestar staff solicited submissions, selected articles, edited them, and formatted student work into a 60-page academic journal for the community. 

There are four main sections in this year’s journal: AI & STEM, Society & Culture, Bioethics, and Middle School submissions. There are two case studies, with two opposing responses, as well. 

Topics in this issue range from the ethics of making “bodyoids,” or human bodies created in a lab without consciousness or the ability to feel pain, to the ethical impacts of AI’s effect on the environment and from the ethics of medicalizing menopause to regulating the press at the Pentagon. Student art complements the written pieces. 

“This year we had more voices contributing, and it was exciting to help lead a bigger Lodestar team,” says Kara. “The entries pushed us to think about ethics in everyday moments, and I’m proud that we didn’t shy away from difficult questions but instead used them to open up real conversation and reflection throughout the journal. I hope readers feel that same curiosity and openness when they move through our fall Lodestar issue.” 

The group is looking ahead to a spring issue. 

“I’m really thrilled about the content in Lodestar this year,” says Anna Conti, Associate Director of the Ethics Institute, who oversees the journal. “The caliber of submissions was impressive. The types of conversations we’re hearing in class discussions come to life in these pages, and I’m excited for others to see our students’ ethical thinking.” 

“I’m so impressed with the scholarship of our students, not only in the topics selected for consideration, but also in their ethical analysis of some of the most compelling issues facing our society today,” says Karen Rezach, Director of the Ethics Institute. “Congratulations to the entire Lodestar staff!”