PhD students

Year started PhD: 2023

Supervisor/s: Severin Shroeder and David Oderberg

I became interested in music and philosophy at the same time around the age of 15 and knew from then on that I wished to explore the topic musical aesthetics formally.  My research investigates the way music is understood by listeners, outlining the processual nature of understanding, as informed by the works of Wittgenstein, and the way understanding can be constructed from previous aesthetic and life experiences. I received my BA and MA from Reading, with my MA thesis focusing on the emotional expressiveness of music. 

Year started PhD: 2023

Supervisor/s: Charlotte Newey (University of Reading) and Nigel Pleasants (University of Exeter)

My PhD research centres around animal ethics and extreme poverty. If animals deserve moral consideration, as many contemporary animal ethicists have argued, then many forms of animal agriculture may be morally impermissible. But many people living in extreme poverty depend on animal agriculture to meet their basic needs. My research seeks to address the ethical problems that arise from this apparent conflict. 

As a beneficiary of the AHRC South, West & Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (SWWDTP), I make use of the expertise and facilities provided by both the University of Exeter (my home institution) and the University of Reading (my co-institution). 

Publications:

• [Book Review] Jarvis-Campbell, J. (2024), Food, Justice, and Animals: Feeding the World Respectfully. J. Milburn, 2023. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 224 pp, £70 (hb). J Appl Philos. https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12715

Conferences:

• 2024: Graduate and Early Career Conference in Applied Ethics – University of Nottingham. Paper title: “Farming Animals Out of Necessity: A Problem for Species Egalitarians?”
• 2023: Research Ethics Conference (REC2023) – University of Bath. Paper title: “Can Animal Experimentation Be Justified if the Animals Involved Have Positive Lives?”

Year started PhD: 2022

Supervisor/s: Luke Elson (University of Reading) and Lee Walters (University of Southampton)

My philosophical interests lie at the intersection of metaphysics and ethics, encompassing topics such as personal identity over time, moral status, the ontological status of collectives, and issues related to collective responsibility. My thesis focuses on perdurantism, specifically the Worm view, and Mark Johnston's Personite problem. In particular, I am working on various potential perdurantist solutions to the problem, with a pronounced focus on exploring a collectivist approach. My PhD is supported by the South, West, and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC). Prior to my PhD, I earned a BA and MA in Philosophy from the University of Ferrara and the University of Parma, respectively. Additionally, I obtained an MA in Philosophy from the University of Italian Switzerland.

Publications: 

The Epistemic Objection Against Perdurantism' (with Emanuele Tullio), Synthese 2024: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-024-04758-x

Conferences: 

• The Responsibility Gap in Perdurantism and Collectives, APA Pacific 2024, Society for Business Ethics affiliated group session, Commentator: Kenneth Silver (Trinity College Dublin), Portland (Oregon), March 20-23, 2024
• The Personite Problem, Eternalism, and the Nature of Vanishing and Dying, with E. Tullio (Central European University), APA Pacific 2024, International Association for Philosophy of Death and Dying affiliated group session, Portland (Oregon), March 20-23, 2024
• With a Little Help from My Friends: Towards a Pluralist Solution to the Personite Problem, British Postgraduate Philosophy Association Annual Conference, University of York, October 13-14, 2023
• Perdurantism and the Epistemic Objection, with E. Tullio (Central European University), Salzburg Conference for Young Analytic Philosophy 2023, University of Salzburg, September 6-8, 2023
• Against Johnston’s Duplication Argument for the Personite Problem, Issues on the Impossible (I)X, Slovak Metaphysical Society (Bratislava), June 7-8, 2023

Year started PhD: 2021

Supervisor/s: Luke Elson and Charlotte Newey

I work on the nature of normative categories, including the right and the good, with a particular focus on fittingness. I am interested in whether fittingness can be fully explained in terms of another normative category. The aim of my PhD thesis is to show that it cannot. I have secondary interests in the interaction between different normative domains, especially the moral and the aesthetic. I received a BA in English and Philosophy from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Groningen. 

Conferences:

‘On the Irreducibility of Fittingness’, Balkan Analytic Forum: University of Belgrade, 19/10/2023