Postgraduate Research Students

PhD

Name	Lynne Bowyer
Degree	PhD
140 Character research description	Calling Autonomy into Question
Three sentence research description	In my thesis I take a phenomenological approach to autonomy, deconstructing the liberal idea of autonomy that is implicated in western institutional practices. I maintain that individual autonomy is dependent upon being embedded in a form-of-life (culture) which gives belongingness, the generative ground that sustains the individual in ways that make autonomy possible.
Research interests	Phenomenological approaches to bioethical issues
Supervisor	Grant Gillett
Non-academic interest	Tramping
Contact	email

Name	Taryn Knox
Degree	PhD
140 Character research description	My thesis aims to a) establish a value-free definition of mental illness, and b) consider what, if anything, this tells us about the treatment of mental illness.
Three sentence research description	Can so-called mental illnesses be diseases? Does a naturalistic definition of disease tell us anything about treatment? What factors might override the presumption of treating disease medically?
Research interests	Philosophy of medicine, philosophy (including ethics) of mental illness, philosophy of biology
Supervisors	Neil Pickering
Non-academic interest	Pottering in the kitchen, eating the products of my pottering, then trying (in vain) to burn off the calories at the pool.
Contact	email

Name	Victoria Koszowski
Degree	PhD
140 Character research description	Analysis of retention strategies used to combat the flight of human capital. Is physician satisfaction is linked to better quality of care?
Three sentence research description	As the flight of human capital impacts the globe, the retention strategies must be explored for their ethical significance, so I am conducting an ethical analysis on the retention strategies used to discourage the 'flight of human capital' or 'brain drain'. I am analyzing the World Health Organization global policy recommendations in an effort to provide an ethical perspective, hopefully resulting in more robust and just guidelines for future revisions. Additionally, I am doing a case study in Fiji and Tonga, using qualitative methods, such as interviews with stakeholders (policy makers, hospital administrators, etc.) and focus groups with patients.
Research interests	Global Health Policy (International Standardization of Best Health Practices), Brain Drain, Health Care Professional Exchange Programs, Business Ethics, Corporate Philanthropy
Supervisors	Jing-Bao Nie Robin Gauld (Department of Preventive and Social Medicine)
Non-academic interest	Photography
Contact	email, Linked In, Travel Blog

Name	Kathryn McAuley
Degree	PhD
140 Character research description	Are judges entering into moral decision-making in end-of-life cases? Moral principles are used to show how they are making these decisions.
Three sentence research description	Commonwealth Courts as End-of-Life-Decision Makers: Have judges in these cases departed from interpreting and applying the law to enter the realm of ethical decision-making? There is little doubt the answer to this is yes, that they are making ethical decisions, so we need to assess how they are doing so, and if they are doing this job well.
Research interests	End-of-life issues, Stem Cell research
Supervisors	Neil Pickering Colin Gavaghan (Faculty of Law) Peter Skegg (Faculty of Law)
Non-academic interest	Vampires
Contact	email

Name	Kristen Steslow
Degree	PhD
140 Character research description	George Fox—founder of the Quakers—heard God's voice in a field. So did Mr. Roberts, on Ward 9B. What's the difference?
Three sentence research description	The study of mental disorder is historically riddled with the inflammatory suspicion that psychosis cohabits with sacred experience. Are the revelations and voices which characterize the great spiritual leaders and innovators no different from the religiously themed delusions and hallucinations of the psychotically ill? I begin a Wittgensteinian approach to this dilemma by questioning the question, by revealing what is already implicated in its framework.
Research interests	Wittgenstein; language & metaphor; the mind & mental disorder; religion & madness; psychosis; the role of the humanities in medicine
Supervisors	Grant Gillett Richard Mullen (Department of Psychological Medicine)
Non-academic interest	Cooking Mexican food
Contact	email

Name	Simon Walker
Degree	PhD
140 Character research description	How being good means being healthier
Three sentence research description	It has long been thought that there is a relationship between the way that we live and the way that experience and respond to illness, to the extent that some people speak of 'dying well', as if one could maintain a kind of wellness whilst being gravely ill. I have sought to understand this relationship through the work of three moral theorists: Kant, Korsgaard (a contemporary neo-Kantian), and Spinoza. I have concluded that Spinoza's theory fits much better with existing attempts to describe this relationship, and is generally very helpful.
Research interests	Spinoza, Kant, Wittgenstein, theories of value, theories of health
Supervisors	Neil Pickering Grant Gillett Rod MacLeod (University of Auckland)
Non-academic interest	Landscaping
Contact	email

Masters in Health Science
 

Name	Nicola Collie
Degree	Masters in Health Science
140 Character research description	I'm exploring an alternative model for addressing the ethical conflicts which may arise when human tissue is used in scientific research.
Three sentence research description	The current ethical model for using human tissue in scientific research is based on a combination of clinical ethics and the ethics of research using human participants. These models work well when applied to issues involving patients or participants in research but fail to capture all of the subtleties of the use of excised tissue in research, resulting in conflicts which hinder research to the detriment of all of us. I'm exploring the idea of considering tissue as property as a supplementary or alternative ethical model that might help us resolve some of these conflicts.
Research interests	Ethics of scientific research and communication of science; Patient participation in medical care; Animal welfare; Environmental ethics; Philosophy of science
Supervisors	Gareth Jones
Non-academic interest	Hanging out with my pet chickens
Contact	email

Name	James Thornton
Degree	Masters in Health Science
140 Character research description	I'm trying to investigate how we ought to think about the logical space that is occupied by terms such as mental disorder, madness, insanity.
Three sentence research description	There seems to be a problem with trying to draw a line between what is considered to be a normal mental life, one that is healthy/good, albeit with periods where things don't go well, and a mental life that is considered sick or disordered. As a consequence of this lack of a full presence (what is mental illness?), the practical question of whether it is expedient for someone to seek help from the medical profession (I'm pathological), or whether they ought rather to see the village priest (I'm lost), becomes problematic. I hope to say something that will help towards making these difficulties less difficult.
Research interests	Pragmatism (Post-metaphysical philosophy), Virtue Ethics, Mental Health.
Supervisors	Neil Pickering
Non-academic interest	The mountains
Contact	email

Name	Samuel Ujewe
Degree	Masters in Health Science
140 Character research description	Explores the limitations of the principle of autonomy in contemporary African healthcare and devises a scheme for its adaptation in Africa.
Three sentence research description	The research shall explore the dynamics, nature and orientation of the principle of autonomy in regard to the various limitations it poses to efficiency in African healthcare. It shall put in perspective the communitarian nature of the African society and relevant ethical issues in healthcare that are peculiar to African people. Consequently, it shall formulate a scheme by which this principle would be reconfigured in accordance with the dynamics of the African communitarian culture.
Research interests	African Bioethics; Cross-Cultural Bioethics
Supervisors	Jing-Bao Nie (Bioethics Centre)
Non-academic interest	Music (flute)
Contact	email, facebook