Speaker & Commentators

Speaker

Prof. Susan Wolf (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US)

Susan Wolf is the Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously, she held professorships at Harvard University, the University of Maryland and at Johns Hopkins University after graduating from Yale University. Susan Wolf’s interests range from moral psychology to value theory, to normative ethics and beyond. She made seminal contributions to questions regarding the relation between moral and non-moral values, characteristics and conditions of responsibility, and meaningfulness as a dimension of a good life. She is a long-term member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the American Philosophical Society and is a recipient of, amongst others, the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities. Most recently, she gave the 2023 John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford titled “Selves Like Us” on what makes us distinctively human.

Commentators

Prof. Carla Bagnoli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, IT)

Professor Carla Bagnoli is a Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and was previously a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after having completed her graduate studies at the University of Milan and Harvard University. Bagnoli held distinguished visiting positions at a variety of prestigious institutions at, for instance, All Souls College at the University of Oxford, the Center of Advanced Studies at LMU Munich, the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, the University of Oslo, Université Paris I, and the Central European University. Bagnoli has published extensively on, amongst others, responsibility, action theory, and moral psychology, most recently “Ethical Constructivism” (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and “Time in Action: The Temporal Structure of Rational Agency and Practical Thought” (as editor, Routledge, 2022).

Prof. Elinor Mason (University of California, Santa Barbara, US)

Professor Elinor Mason is a Professor of Philosophy at The University of California, Santa Barbara, and was previously a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh as well as a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder after having completed her PhD at the University of Reading. Mason has held prestigious visiting positions at, for instance, Dartmouth College and at the University Center of Human Values of Princeton University. Mason is a highly recognized scholar working on, amongst others, feminism and moral responsibility. Recent relevant publications are, for instance, “Feminist Philosophy: An Introduction” (Routledge, 2021) and “Ways to be Blameworthy: Rightness, Wrongness, and Responsibility” (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Dr. Leonhard Menges (University of Salzburg, AT)

Leonhard Menges is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Salzburg following graduate studies at the Humboldt University Berlin. He is Principal Investigator of the research project “The Sense of Responsibility Worth Worrying About”, also known as the Salzburg Ethics Group, funded by the Austrian Science Fund, as well as Principal Investigator of the project “The Source View on The Right to Privacy”, also funded by the Austrian Science Fund and starting in 2024. Menges has published extensively on responsibility and blame with, for instance, the first extensive German-language study of blame „Moralische Vorwürfe“ (De Gruyter, 2017), and several relevant articles in highly recognized journals.

 

Invited Discussants

Dominik Boll (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL)

Dominik Boll is a PhD student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam within a research group on "The Ethics of Cooperation". In his current research, he is beginning to develop an account of taking responsibility as well as fittingness and fairness norms governing what people should take responsibility for.

Dr. Katharina Naumann (University of Magdeburg, DE)

Katharina Naumann is a lecturer at the University of Magdeburg after having graduated from the University of Giessen. Next to research on moral ignorance and feminist perspectives on supererogation, she is currently working on a contemporary re-lecture of Susan Wolf’s essay "Moral Saints“.

Prof. Dr. Herlinde Pauer-Studer (University of Vienna, AT)

Herlinde Pauer-Studer is Professor of Practical Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Vienna. Her current research focuses on group agency, constitutivism, and relational theories of normativity.

Prof. Dr. Karoline Reinhardt (University of Passau, DE)

Karoline Reinhardt is a Juniorprofessor for Applied Ethics at the University of Passau. In her current research, she focusses on moral heroism, trust and moral responsibility.

Sean Shields (University of Nottingham, GB)

Sean Shields is a PhD student at the University of Nottingham. His doctoral research involves putting forward a reconceptualisation of skepticism about moral responsibility (in the ‘basic desert’ sense) – and then considering the practical implications of adopting such a skeptical position.

Dr. Daniel Telech (Lund University, SE)

Daniel Telech is a researcher at Lund University, as part of the Lund-Gothenburg Responsibility Project. His work addresses questions concerning the nature and norms of blame and (especially) praise, moral luck, relational normativity, and the communicative character of our responsibility practices.

Alexander Velichkov (Lund University, SE)

Alexander Velichkov is a PhD student with the Lund Gothenburg Responsibility Project at Lund University. In his doctoral thesis "Responsibility and Ambivalence“, he investigates overlooked points of tension in our responsibility practices where the appropriate attitude is one of ambivalence.

Dr. Shawn Tinghao Wang (University of Salzburg, AT)

Shawn Tinghao Wang is a postdoctoral researcher within the research project "The Sense of Responsibility Worth Worrying About" at the University of Salzburg after having graduated from the University of California, San Diego. His current research focuses on the nature of blame, moral responsibility, and moral emotions, where he argues, for instance, for a pluralist function-based account of blame.

Marta Johansson Werkmäster (Lund University, SE)

Marta Johansson Werkmäster is a PhD student with the Lund Gothenburg Responsibility Project at Lund University. Most recently, she published on a conceptualisation of blame as a sentiment, a multi-track disposition that manifests itself in various different emotions, thoughts or actions.