Research group links

• Department of Sociology and Philosophy
• Routes
• College of Social Sciences and International Studies

Research interests

I have a long standing interest in the relationships between society and individuals: In studying processes of interdependence and co-constitution, how philosophy has conceptualized them and which institutions and practices, which power structures and knowledge formations shape cultures and horizons of living in the contemporary world.

My Ph.D. dissertation analyzed Judith Butler’s and Michel Foucault’s understandings of the subject from a perspective of Critical Theory. I have a longstanding interest in and teach feminist philosophy, with a focus on intersectionality, epistemology and ethics.

My postdoctoral research encompasses empirical studies on how moral values and cultural differences affect epistemic practices. I am particularly interested in the intersection of these four axes of social practice: knowledge production, ethical and social values, bioeconomies, science policy. Over the past 20 years I have zoomed in on various aspects of the space marked by these four axes. Case studies were on genetics, genomics or stem cell research have been pbulished widely. The originality of this work lies in a perspective that is shaped by my theoretical grounding in Critical Theory and the use of empirical methods to study normative practices.

Perspectives from social-political philosophy shape my work in the philosophy of biomedicine (paternalism, gender, identity, humanitarian practice). 

Research projects

Humanitarian Ethics and Politics (see sites.exeter.ac.uk/ethicsandphilosophyofmedicine/)

Philosophy and Psychedelics (see philosophyofpsychedelics.com)

Stem Cell Science: Epistemology, history, ethics and research practices (see:  Ethical Harmonization in European Clinical Trials.)

Genetics and the Politics of Human Identity

For more Information, check my pages on research.gate

Research supervision

Please contact me via email with a project outline or a sketch of your initial  idea if you want to apply for supervision in the following subject areas: 

• Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine
• Philosophy and Psychedelics
• Feminist Philosopy
• Frankfurt School Critical Theory 
• Humanitarian Ethics
• Norms and knowledge practices
• Foucault

I hold a regular researcher seminar for PGR students. We discuss draft essays and chapters as well as readings suggested by members of the group. The seminar is open to all postgraduates and colleagues. Please contact me via email to be added to the participant email list.

Research students

Current PhD research students

Arnulfo Oxlaj "Liberating the Savage Mind: A Decolonial Vindication of Mayan Philosophy" started 2022, University of Exeter Sactuary Scholarship. 

Sarah Bosworth "On the Relationship between Societal Expectations around Emotional Expression and Gendered Disparities in Leadership?", started 2022  

Mark Juhan Schunemann "The Sacrament in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", started 2022

Johanna Sopanen "The holobiont Self as a Framework for Understanding Relationshiops between humans, bacteria and fungi", started 2021  

Louise Hayward "The Ethics of Wild-Life Monitoring Devices", started 2020

Christina Meerstern "Speech, truth and normative arguments in political theory", AHRC funded PhD studentship.

Ahmet Karakaya, "Norms and Values in British and Turkish Muslim Bioethical Debates: Exploring the Tensions in Coexisting Secular and Religious Discours", International University of Exeter studentship, started 2018.

Former PhD students:

Dr. Jack Lovell Price, "Adorno under the Spell: Utopia, praxis and the limits of critique“ AHRC-funded PhD student from 2015 to 2019.

Dr. Jaanika Puusalu, “Overconnected, Under-engaged: When Alienation Goes Online" PhD funded by an AHRC-studentship with an Estoanian Government maintenance grant, from 2014 to 2018.  

Dr. David Wyatt. 'Accomplishing Technical and Investigative Expertise in Everyday Crime Scene Investigation'. A study on the role perceptions, training and everyday routines of Crime Scene Investigators in England and Wales.
  ESRC PhD studentship, 2010-2015 

Dr
. Ayesha Ahmad. "Metaphysics in Scientific Medicine: The Making of the Human Embryo". Co-supervised by Jeffrey Bishop, Christine Hauskeller and Alan Bleakly at the Peninsula College for Medicine and Dentistry. Self-funded PhD in Medical Ethics at the Medical School.

Dr. Maren Heibges (ne Klotz).  "[K]information. Gamete Donation and the Constitution of Kinship through Knowledge Management in Britain and Germany – an Ethnographic Exploration". Maren won the Humboldt Prize 2013 for her dissertation. Supervisors: Christine Hauskeller and Stefan Beck in a Cotutelle between University of Exeter and Humboldt University Berlin.

Dr. Marco Liverani, 'European Bio-futures. Politics and Practice of Science Cooperation in the European Union’, in sociology, University of Exeter Egenis and College part-scholarship 2007 to 2010. 

Dr. Jean Louise Harrington. ‘Translational Space. An Ethnographic Study of Stem Cell Research’, ESRC-funded Ph.D. studentship 2007- 2011. 

Dr. Hristina Petkova. "How Gene Tests Travel: Bi-national Comparison of the Institutional Pathways Taken by the Diagnostic Genetic Test for Maturity onset Diabetes of the Young Through the British and the German Health Care System". 
Part-scholarship from the College at Exeter University 2005 to 2009.

Modules taught

• PHL2039 - Bioethics: DNA-technologies, Ethics and Human Identity
• PHL2040 - Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School and Communicative Capitalism
• PHL2041 - Feminist Philosophy: Gender, Race and Class
• PHL3077 - Bioethics: DNA-technologies, Ethics and Human Identity
• PHL3078 - Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School and Communicative Capitalism
• PHL3079 - Feminist Philosophy: Gender, Race and Class
• PHL3117 - Philosophy and Psychedelics
• PHLM006 - Contemporary Ethics
• PHLM013 - Philosophy and Psychedelics
• PHLM014 - Philosophy and Psychedelics

Biography

M.A. (1992) University Frankfurt on Main in Philosophy, Sociology and Psychoanalysis. MA dissertation (supervised by Axel Honneth, first class).

Ph.D. (1999) Technical University Darmstadt. Dissertation on Michel Foucault's and Judith Butler's works, entitled "The Paradoxical Subject" (published as a monograph in German as: Das paradoxe Subjekt, Unterwerfung und Widerstand bei Michel Foucault und Judith Butler, Tübingen edition diskord, 2000).

2002 I came to Exeter where I worked until 2012 in the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society as researcher and Co-Director of this Centre (2009 - 2012). 

Since 2012 I have been teaching Philosophy at Exeter.

I have been appointed member of expert Ethics Commissions and Committees, such as the BBSRC Science and Society Strategy Panel, and the German Academy of Sciences. I have served on many research funding panels, including the European Research Council from 2010 to 2019 - when I was Vice-Chair of the ERC Synergy Panel.