First meeting Engaged Philosophy and Ethics working group

Academic activism and researcher positionality

Hosted by  ESPhil and DRIFT

Ethics of Resilience project 

Engaged research is becoming more popular as a collaborative alternative or supplement to more traditional research approaches. As such, more philosophers practice an engaged philosophy and ethics approach in their research and education, perhaps as a kind of return to its Socratic roots. 

This workshop invites philosophers and engaged researchers to reflect together on academic activism and researcher positionality. What does it mean to conduct research that is normatively committed, socially embedded, and politically relevant? How do our institutional roles, values, and identities shape the questions we ask, the methods we use, and the relationships we form? And how are we, in turn, positioned by those with whom we collaborate?

This first workshop of the newly formed Engaged Philosophy and Ethics working group creates space to share experiences, tensions, and inspirations—across theory, conceptual work, methods, teaching, and practice, aspiring to be an open and collegial forum for exchange. 

Joining us in this conversation are Anders Hylmö, Associate senior Lecturer Halmstad University, Eugenia Perez Vico,  Associate professor in innovation science at Halmstad University, and Constanze Binder, full professor of political philosophy and economic ethics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Anders has worked on how researchers justify and navigate roles and concepts of the science-society boundary in relation to climate activism. Euginia has contributed to understanding the roles of researchers, incumbents, and public organizations in driving or resisting transformative change, informed by both scholarly inquiry and national and international policy experience. Her current work covers academic engagement and activism, research relevance and utilisation, and the dynamics of publicly owned utilities in sustainability transitions, particularly in the energy sector. Constanze’s research covers, among other areas, academic freedom and ethical questions related to collaboration between universities and corporate partners. She was a member of the expert committee that developed guidelines for cooperation with the fossil industry at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

The Engaged Philosophy and Ethics working group aims to meet three times a year, to exchange experiences of engaged philosophy and ethics, and discuss practical and theoretical challenges of doing engaged research. 

Registration

You can sign up via the following link: Registration: Academic activism and researcher positionality