The Oxford-Queen’s workshop in Political Studies, Philosophy, and Law was held at St. John’s College in Oxford on June 10th. Speakers from both Queen’s University and the University of Oxford discussed a range of topics throughout the day from “Authentic Interpretation,” to “Law and the Socialist Ideal,” and “Justifying the Right of Return.”
Emeritus Professor and Queen's Research Chair
Philosophy, Law, Medicine
Bioethics, Philosophy of Law, Disability Studies
Jerry Bickenbach's research is in disability studies, bioethics and philosophy of law. He currently holds a Queen's Research Chair, and was a previous holder of a Killam Fellowship, working on the law and policy of health systems performance assessment, including the legal and ethical aspects of summary measures of population health. Previous research included disability and environmental impact; functional limitation determination for disability pensions; qualitative methodologies for survey instrument development for functional limitation; disability and spirituality; political participation of persons with disabilities; and long term care reform evaluation. Currently, Bickenbach is one of the editors of a five volume Encyclopedia of Disability (Sage). After editing a collection of articles on quality of life, resource allocation and disability (CUP), Bickenbach is preparing a book on disability and equality.
Professor Emeritus
Philosophy
Arts and Science
My approach to philosophy
An eclectic approach to philosophical thinking and a dedication to reaching a broader audience beyond academic circles are characteristic of my work. I was trained in both analytical and Continental traditions and value them both and their complex interactions.
Special interests
Major areas of research, teaching, and ongoing research: Nineteenth-Century European Philosophy, Existentialism, Environmental Philosophy (including Ethics and Nonhuman Animals and Philosophy of Vegetarianism), Philosophy of Peace, and History of Ideas.
Teaching
I taught the above subjects (and several others) at Queen’s from 1966-2005, when I was among the last cohort subject to mandatory retirement at age 65. No one ever taught us how to teach or gave any mentorship in this regard. I was not a “born teacher,” but learned on the job, and I think I got steadily better at it. I think my classroom was a comfortable space in which students felt they were respected equals who could confidently express themselves. One thing you don’t realize until you are in the thick of things is how much you learn from your students. I am very grateful to them for what they have taught me over the years and for their friendship, and I applaud their successes in life.
Other activities/honours
Adjunct Professor of Humanities, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia (2004-25). Recipient of 8 Research Awards from University of New England (2004-14). James Martineau Memorial Lecturer, University of Tasmania (1996). Funded Visiting Fellow, Australian National University (1987). Editor/Co-Editor, Queen’s Quarterly: A Canadian Review (1976-86), Canada’s oldest general-interest intellectual journal. I have delivered papers and talks across Canada and the United States, and also in Russia, Australia, and Taiwan. In addition, I’ve done over 80 interviews and special features on TV, radio, online, and in print.
Publications
I have authored 7 books, edited/co-edited 2 others, contributed to a number of anthologies and encyclopedias, and published more than 100 articles and 50 book reviews on a wide variety of subjects.
Monographs
In Fate and Life I confront the idea of fate head on and demonstrate that the way in which we interpret and apply this concept can make it work for rather than against us. Thinking about fate teaches us about who we are, how we see the world, and our evaluation of the possibilities of life.
Fate and Life is now widely available and can be ordered from McGill-Queen's University Press in Canada or from the University of Chicago Press in the US.
It can also be found wherever quality books are sold worldwide, and at Amazon.com, where other books of mine may also be found.
I have summarized my views on fate and life in an essay published in the Australian edition of The Conversation (please click on website below).
What is fate? And how can it both limit and liberate us?
Edited collections
Other information
I have a page at LinkedIn.com and a Wikipedia entry on me can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Allen_Fox.
Professor Emerita and Hannah Chair of the History of Medicine
Philosophy, History
Arts and Science
Medical Epistemology, Concepts of Disease, History of Medicine
Jacalyn Duffin, MD, PhD, is a hematologist and historian who held the Hannah Chair of the History of Medicine at Queen’s University from 1988 to 2017. A former President of both the American Association for the History of Medicine and the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine, she is the author of nine books and many articles, holds several awards for teaching and research, and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In May 2019, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the AAHM (from historians) and was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (from physicians). A supporter of medical humanities, she has been a contributing editor of the online Literature, Arts and Medicine database since 1995.
Professor Duffin's research focuses on disease, technology, religion, and health policy. She runs an activist website for the current drug shortage problem and a collaborative translation project for the 17th-century Latin author Paolo Zacchia. Her latest book Stanley’s Dream (2019) is on the history of the Medical Expedition to Easter Island, led by Canada in 1964-65.
For more information about Professor Duffin and her research, visit her personal webpage.
Associate Professor (Retired)
Philosophy
Metaphysics, Semantics, Philosophy of Language, Marx
Henry Laycock sometimes teaches courses on Aristotle, Marx, the philosophy of language and metaphysics. He is preoccupied with issues at the intersection of semantics and metaphysics. His current research is focused on the nature of non-singularity and the semantics of non-count nouns, in relationship to the notion of an 'ideal language' or 'canonical notation'. He was a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge and is a Life Member of that College. His recent book Words without Objects is published by the Clarendon Press of Oxford University. His articles have appeared in edited books, and in journals including Synthese, Philosophy, Principia, the Philosophical Review, Humana Mente, Dialogue, the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, and the Journal of Ethics, as well as in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Into the Coast, August 2018
Emeritus Professor
Philosophy
Arts and Science
Epistemology, Descartes, Foucault, Rational Suicide, Physician-Assisted Suicide
C. G. Prado is professor emeritus of philosophy at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Born in Guatemala, C. G. Prado grew up in San Francisco, California. His interests and expertise in philosophy are evident in the titles of his published books.
Professor and Department Head
Philosophy
Arts and Science
My research examines questions in non-consequentialist ethical theory. I am especially interested in exploring the strengths and pitfalls of Scanlon’s contractualism as a systematic expression of a non-consequentialist approach to the foundations of interpersonal obligations. I also have broad interests in moral and political philosophy; in the past few years I have taught seminars on practical reasoning, moral responsibility, ethics and future generations, contractualism, and Rawls’s A Theory of Justice.
For more information about Professor Kumar's research and a complete list of his publications, see his personal website.
Professor (Law), Canada Research Chair in Public Law and Philosophy of Law
Law, Philosophy
Personal Webpage, Faculty of Law
Grégoire Webber, M.S.M., is Canada Research Chair in Public Law and Philosophy of Law at Queen’s Law and is cross-appointed to the Department of Philosophy. His research is in the areas of human rights, public law, and philosophy of law.
Professor Webber is a graduate of McGill University with bachelors of civil law and common law and of the University of Oxford with a doctorate in law, where he studied as a Trudeau scholar. He clerked for Justice Ian Binnie of the Supreme Court of Canada and, as a student, for Justice André Rochon of the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Professor Webber previously worked as a senior policy advisor with the Privy Council Office and as Legal Affairs Advisor to the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, P.C., Attorney General of Canada and Minister of Justice in the Trudeau ministry. He is currently legal agent of the Department of Justice (Canada), providing legal advice on key files. He has contributed to public debates in the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Le Devoir, and IRPP's Policy Options.
Professor Webber is joint founder and Executive Director of the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute, which provides free advocacy advice to counsel appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. In relation to his role in co-founding the Institute, he was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada for improving "access to justice for all Canadians" and for increasing "the effectiveness and the quality of advocacy before the Court".
Professor Webber is Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Villey Fellow at the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and was previously a visitor at the University of Oxford. He is joint convenor of the Queen's Colloquium in Legal and Political Philosophy and is a member of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Scientists, and Artists.
For information about Professor Webber's research, visit his Faculty of Law Webpage.
Assistant Professor (Law)
Law, Philosophy
Philosophy of Law, Ethics, Meta-Ethics
Personal Webpage, Faculty of Law
Jean Thomas is Assistant Professor at Queen’s Law. She is joint convenor of the Colloquium in Legal and Political Philosophy. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a Master of Arts in English Literature and a Juris Doctor, as well as of New York University, with a Master of Laws and a doctorate in law. Prior to joining Queen’s, Professor Thomas was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s McCoy Center for Ethics in Society and a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute.
For information about Professor Thomas' research, see her Faculty of Law Webpage.
A. V. Douglas Distinguished University Professor and Queen's Research Chair
Mathematics, Philosophy
Number Theory, Indian Philosophy, Mathematical Logic
My research focuses on number theory and allied areas. I am mainly interested in the theory of zeta and L-functions and the questions related to the distribution of prime numbers. I have also worked in related areas such as graph theory and combinatorics. For more about my research, visit my personal website.
