Undergraduate Spotlight: Ursula Neuner

Ursula Neuner is a senior studying Symbolic Systems.  Her primary interest is applied ethics, particularly the intersection of ethics and law. On campus, Ursula is co-captain of the Ethics Bowl team, President of the Stanford Practical Ethics Club, and an oral communication tutor at the Hume Center. She enjoys making matcha every morning, listening to the Beatles, and running!

Why did you choose to participate in the Honors Program in Ethics in Society?

I developed a love for dissecting complex ethical dilemmas through Ethics Bowl. In each competition, we receive 12 to 15 challenging cases and present a 10-minute philosophical framework. The Honors Program gave me the chance to focus on one topic of my choosing in much greater depth. I was also drawn to the program's mentorship and community. Overall, it has been one of the most demanding yet rewarding experiences of my time at Stanford!

What was the most rewarding aspect of your experience in the Honor’s program?

The most rewarding aspect of writing this thesis has been developing my own normative framework. This project is the first time I feel that I have made a genuine contribution to the existing literature on a topic by identifying a gap in current theories and proposing a new framework to address it. 

How would you describe your thesis research? 

My thesis focuses on the use of risk assessment algorithms in criminal sentencing. These algorithms take characteristics about an individual, like their criminal history, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and age, and estimate an individual's likelihood of reoffending. The overarching question of my thesis is: what risk factors ought the algorithm incorporate? I argue that existing normative theories of punishment--utilitarianism and retributivism--do not provide a satisfying answer to this question. I developed an ethical framework called Tiers of Normative Scrutiny, inspired by the Supreme Court's Tiers of Scrutiny. This framework establishes retributivism as a moral baseline and argues that any risk factors that fail to meet this baseline must be evaluated by weighing the retributive moral harm against their consequential benefits.

What opportunities would you like to pursue within the next five years?

Next year, I will serve as the JusticeCorps fellow in San Mateo County, helping to serve self-represented litigants in family law cases. After this year of service, my plan is to go to law school. Ultimately, I see myself practicing public interest litigation or constitutional law.