Robert Hunt Sprinkle, MD, PhD, FAAFP, FAAP, works at the intersection of politics and the life sciences. He studied history at Dartmouth College and medicine at the University of Cincinnati and trained clinically at the University of Virginia and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas. He is a diplomate of both the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Pediatrics and a fellow of the respective clinical academies; he maintains certification in both specialties and medical licensure in four states. He earned his second doctorate, the PhD, at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, where for two years he was supported by a MacArthur Foundation Social Science Research Council Fellowship in International Peace and Security; his first graduate-school summer he spent as a refugee-camp physician on the Thai-Cambodian border. In 1995 he joined the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, where he is now a tenured associate professor; during a 2007-2008 sabbatical year at Dartmouth he held visiting positions in ethics, in public policy, and in pediatrics. He is the author or coauthor of papers and chapters in clinical medicine, bioethics, health policy, bioengineering, environmental policy, environmental health, political theory, policy history, and biosecurity. He is the author of one book, PROFESSION OF CONSCIENCE: THE MAKING AND MEANING OF LIFE-SCIENCES LIBERALISM (Princeton University Press, 1994), an intellectual history of political-ethical thought in the life sciences. From 2001 to 2008 he was Editor-in-Chief of POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES and from July 2015 through December 2016 Acting Editor-in-Chief. From 2009 to 2015 he was Chair of the Council of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences; in 2014 he negotiated entry of the Association’s journal, POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES, into Cambridge University Press and the Cambridge Consortium, and in 2016 he recruited a new editorial team for the journal’s future expansion. At Maryland he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses across the range of his interests, was founding co-director of the University of Maryland Sustainability Minor, and within the School of Public Policy heads the Health Policy Specialization.
Focuses on the theoretical and normative underpinnings of contemporary political philosophy, particularly theories of the legitimacy and proper function of nation states and global institutions. What role should ethics play in public policy formation and implementation? We will give special attention to ideals and institutions of national and global justice and how they are and should be related to ideals and institutions of democracy. What are the merits and demerits of democratic institutions in comparison with authoritarian ones? Do prosperous, liberal democratic states have reason to promote economic and political development in other countries and, if so, what are the best ways to do so? Key readings: Hobbes, Ober, Rawls, the Capability Approach (Robeyns), D. Bell, and Deveaux.
Schedule of Classes
Reviews the major human physiological systems and their integrated toxicological functions; considers key bodily defenses; and discusses classic, emerging, and ambiguous risks; in all ecological context. Applies to scientific controversy, the methods of policy formation, such as risk analysis, social-cost analysis, "outcomes" analysis, and decision analysis, all in political-economic context.
Schedule of Classes
