About
Professor Fiona Woollard is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton.
She has research interests in normative ethics, applied ethics, epistemically transformative experiences and the philosophy of sex and pregnancy. She has published on topics including the distinction between doing and allowing harm, climate change and the non-identity problem, the moral significance of numbers, pornography and the norm of monogamy.
Fiona’s main current research is in the Philosophy of Pregnancy, Birth and Early Motherhood. Fiona shows that pregnancy, birth and early motherhood can challenge traditional ways of thinking about morality and knowledge. Fiona also identifies ways in which philosophical mistakes in our thinking about motherhood can influence the treatment of pregnant women and mothers, often leading to harmful consequences for these vulnerable groups. Fiona has worked with the NCT and the Breastfeeding Network to produce a website and animated video drawing on her research to explore why many mothers feel judged for decisions about how to feed their babies and how we can have better conversations about infant feeding decisions.
Fiona's monograph Doing and Allowing Harm is available from Oxford University Press.
Advice and Feedback Hours
Semester 2 2021-2022: Tuesdays and Thursday 2pm-2.45pm on Microsoft Teams.