Profile

Although I have an interest in a broad range of areas/questions, the core concern is around human relationships. My PhD thesis focused on autonomy development and socialization, and how young people acquire the rights and responsibilities of adulthood. In particular, I examined the role of others in fostering agency in children and young people.

During my PhD studies I held a studentship with the EC-funded I.Family study. This study had two main objectives: (1) To understand the interplay between barriers against and drivers towards healthy food choice; (2) Develop and disseminate strategies to induce changes that promote healthy dietary behaviour in European consumers especially adolescents and their parents. As part of my work for the study, I considered current policy and intervention strategies that aim to support adolescent decision making.

I am interested in the features and principles that underpin relationships, for example in role-relations and decision making (how and why decision making is shared with others, the balance of autonomy against best interests, and what it means to share decision making when there is epistemic imbalance between parties). I'm currently doing thinking around empathy, and how empathy gets lost in interactions between people, and also reciprocity in care.

I am also increasingly interested in academic questions about doing philosophy, having been a practitioner of philosophy and public philosopher since 2013. This extends to questions about the role of philosophy in medical education.

Web Links

I.Family Study: http://www.ifamilystudy.eu