Professor Wendy Lipworth
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Professor Wendy Rogers
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
I work in the field of practical bioethics. My program of research is characterised by identifying practical problems, undertaking conceptual analysis of the underlying philosophical and ethical issues, and developing responses that advance knowledge and contribute to practice. This approach draws upon both my medical and philosophical training. My conceptual analysis and selection of issues is informed by my longstanding commitment to feminist bioethics.
In 2019 I received the NHMRC Ethics Award, was identified as the national research leader in the field of Bioethics by the Australian, and my research calling for retraction of unethical Chinese transplant research led to my inclusion in Nature's 10 list of people who mattered in science in 2019, and Medscape's 2019 Physicians of the year.
My current research projects include:
AI and healthcare: I am co-chair of the Safety, Quality and Ethics work program of the Australian Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (https://a
Executive board
Associate Professor Mark Alfano
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Mark Alfano uses tools and methods from philosophy, psychology, and computer science to explore topics in social epistemology, moral psychology, and digital humanities. He studies how people become and remain virtuous, how values become integrated into people's lives, and how these virtues and values are (or fail to be) manifested in their perception, thoughts, feelings, deliberations, and actions. One of the guiding themes of his work is that normative philosophy without psychological content is empty, but scientific investigation without philosophical insight is blind.
Currently an Associate Professer in Macquarie University's Department of Philosophy, Mark received a doctorate from the Philosophy Program of the City University of New York Graduate Center (CUNY GC) in 2011. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study and the Princeton University Center for Human Values, as well as assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon, asso
Associate Professor Amy Barrow
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie Law School
Amy Barrow is Associate Professor at Macquarie Law School and a member of the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre. Together with Sara Fuller (GEOP), she leads the Activism, Rights and Justice Research Stream in the Faculty of Arts.
Amy's research explores how institutional mechanisms, laws and rights activism can be used to advance equality and non-discrimination in society. In her work on these topics, Amy examines how international legal standards filter down from the macro to the micro level. Within her scholarship, Amy researches law in action by drawing on qualitative research methods to consider how international laws and policies are implemented in practice by multiple actors. Amy aims to extend theorising about the promise of law, as well as its limitations, particularly in highly context-specific situations such as in societies experiencing transition.
Amy is a member of the WILPF Academic Network, a think tank connecting academics and peace activists worki
Dr Ebony Birchall
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie Law School
Dr Ebony Birchall is a Lecturer at Macquarie Law School, Deputy Director of the BHR Access to Justice Lab (A2J Lab), Executive Board Member of Macquarie University's Ethics and Agency Research Centre, and Lawyer on Macquarie University's Ethics Committee.
Ebony runs Macquarie Law School's Strategic Litigation Clinic, which provides the opportunity for law students to design strategic litigation on a range of social justice issues, with assistance from leading Australian litigators. She convenes two law subjects: Refugee Law and The Law of Torts. She also supervises several honours and post graduate research students.
Ebony is a researcher with impact, as recognised through her success in securing several research prizes and grants, including the Macquarie University's Emerging Scholar Award for Research with Impact in 2022. Her area of research focus relates to challenging human rights abuse by powerful actors such as business and governments. Her work is motivated to strengthen legal
Professor Paul Formosa
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Professor Paul Formosa is the Head of the Department of Philosophy at Macquarie University and co-Director for the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre (previously known as CAVE). Paul has been at Macquarie since 2009, and has been a Macquarie University Research Fellow, an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, and CI on various ARC Discovery Projects and industry funded research. Paul has also been an elected member of the University Senate and the Faculty Board and previously served as Department HDR and MRes Director.
Dr Katrina Hutchison
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Katrina Hutchison is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy. Her research focuses on topics in feminist philosophy, bioethics and moral psychology. A significant strand in her research is the investigation of gender bias, including the underrepresentation of women in surgical careers and academic philosophy. She is co-editor of the book Women in Philosophy: What Needs to Change? (Oxford University Press, 2013) which has informed current efforts to improve the climate of philosophy for women. Another major strand in her research is topics in surgical ethics, including the ethics of innovative surgical procedures and implantable medical devices. She was involved in the development of the Macquarie Surgical Innovation Identification Tool (MSIIT) which has been used to inform policy on safely introducing surgical innovations. Her surgical ethics research has been published in leading bioethics and surgical journals, including Annals of Surgery, Bioethics and Journal of Medical E
Dr Jane Johnson
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
I am a field philosopher who investigates questions in science and medicine.
My current research focuses on 3 main areas. First, on animal ethics and epistemology (reconceptualizing how we think about nonhuman animals in research to improve their treatment); second on the ethics of surgical innovation (identifying ethical issues and proposing solutions to improve patient care); and finally, ethics of One Health and emerging infectious diseases (developing normative resources to support implementation of One Health approaches).
My work demonstrates a commitment to the vulnerable and to research that improves lives, whether of patients undergoing innovative surgery or animals used as part of research.
Professor Neil Levy
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Dr Rita Matulionyte
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie Law School
Rita is an international expert in technology and intellectual property law, with a recent focus on legal regulation and governance of Artificial Intelligence technologies. She acquired her PhD degree from Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg/Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law (Germany, suma cum lauda) in 2010. Since then she researched and lectured in universities in Japan, Germany, Lithuania, and Australia. To date, she published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, as well as a monograph on Applicable Law to Copyright Infringement: A Comparison of ALI and CLIP Principles. Rita is regularly invited to present in conferences in Europe, South and North America, and Asia, and has prepared reports for the European Commission, European Patent Office, and the governments of Australia, South Korea and Lithuania.
Rita has led projects on 'Government Use of Face Recognition Technologies: Legal Challenges and Solutions' (Lithuanian Research Counci
Centre members
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Faculty of Arts
Department of Management, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Innovation and Transformation (CENRIT), Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie Law School
Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie Medical School
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Centre for Workforce Futures, Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Dean of Students, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Research Centre, Macquarie Law School
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Centre for Health Informatics, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Centre for Environmental Law (CEL), Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie School of Social Sciences
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie University Centre for Reading
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie Law School
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Research Centre, School of Psychological Sciences
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Performance and Expertise Research Centre, School of Computing
Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Performance and Expertise Research Centre, School of Computing
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Ethics and Agency Research Centre, Macquarie Law School
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Department of Philosophy, Ethics and Agency Research Centre
Affiliate members
Dr Yves Saint James Aquino
School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong
Research interests
- accounts of disease
- ethics of cosmetic surgery
- ethics of healthcare artificial intelligence
Current research projects
The Algorithm Will See You Now: ethical, legal and social implications of adopting machine learning systems for diagnosis and screening.
Dr Daphne Brandenburg
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groninge
Research interests
- moral psychology
- neuroethics
- bioethics
Research interests
- criminal responsibility
- neuroscience, neurotechnology and the criminal law
- philosophy of the criminal law
- philosophy of punishment
- free will and moral responsibility
- behavioural genetics and sentencing
- neurolaw
- the future of work in light of developments in artificial intelligence
Dr Hojjat Soofi
Sydney School of Public Health
Research interests
- ethics in dementia care/research
- ethics in long-term aged care settings
Dr Mary Walker
Department of Politics, Media, and Philosophy, La Trobe University
Research interests
- emerging technology bioethics
- personal identity
- philosophy of medicine
- philosophical contributions to health and health policy
- drug policy
Contact us
- Arts Precinct
- Macquarie University NSW 2109
- E: ethics.agency@mq.edu.au
Our research
Aiming to tackle the big issues around ethics and agency
Learn about our research