The following profiles showcase the diverse expertise and current projects of our researchers.
Research Narrative: Morgan’s research examines the ethics of emerging technologies. This includes: the ethics of virtual actions, exploring how moral judgments apply to wrongdoing in digital environments; the ethical implications of advanced artificial intelligence, including questions about autonomy, governance, and human–AI relations; and, professional responsibilities in the face of emerging technologies such as workplace surveillance.
Representative publications:
● Luck, M., Montefiore, T. & Bartel, C. (2025). The Robo-Barbie Dilemma: How should we treat artificial moral patients? The Philosophical Quarterly, https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqaf048
● Luck, M. (2025). Freedom, AI and God: why being dominated by a friendly super-AI might not be so bad. AI & Society 40, 291–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-01863-w
● Luck, M. (2022). The Grave Resolution to the Gamer’s Dilemma: an Argument for a Moral Distinction Between Virtual Murder and Virtual Child Molestation. Philosophia 50, 1287–1308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-021-00455-y
Collaborators: Steve Clarke (CSU); Will Tuckwell (CSU); Chris Bartel (Appalachian State); Thomas Montifore (CSU, Macquarie); Daniel Cohen (CSU)
Research Narrative: Emma is an applied ethicist specialising in interdisciplinary collaboration with social work, health and human services.
Representative publications:
● Rush, E., Short, M. & Duncombe, R. (2025). Addressing Complex Ethical Decisions in Social Work and Human Services in an Unequal World. In Social Work in an Unequal World, edited by Rajendra Baikady. Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/social-work-in-an-unequal-world-9780197807538
● Dixon, E., Redshaw, S., Wulff, E., Bamberry L. & Rush, E. (2024). Precarious academia: women’s employment in Australian universities. In Gender, Feminist and Queer Studies: Power, Privilege and Inequality in a Time of Neoliberal Conservatism. Edited by Bridges, D., Lewis, C., Wulff, E., Litchfield, C. & Bamberry, L. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003316954/gender-feminist-queer-studies-donna-bridges-clifford-lewis-elizabeth-wulff-chelsea-litchfield-larissa-bamberry
● Rush, E., Redshaw, S., & Short, M. (2023). Philosophical and spiritual worldviews and professional resilience in frontline social work and human services: a scoping literature review. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 42(2), 193–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2023.2166890
Current Grants: With CSU colleague Dr Monica Short, Emma was a chief investigator on Addressing the need for effective recruitment, retention, and wellbeing of non-government organisation rural mental health staff: A pilot study ($34,995 - July 2024-June 2025), funded by NSW Health through The Peregrine Centre as part of the Rural Mental Health Partnership Grant. Outputs for industry (research translation) include:
● Dixon, E., Rush, E., Short, M., Ivory, N., Bonner, M., & Ansell, S. (2025). Recruitment, retention, wellbeing of rural mental health workers factsheet collection. https://doi.org/10.26189/c1538d42-5a8f-4ffb-9e21-51d387376587
● Short, M., Rush, E., Dixon, E., Ivory, N., Bonner, M., Ansell, S., Hemsted, J. & Cotter, C. (2025). Industry partners’ summary of research, impact and resources report: Effective recruitment, retention, and wellbeing of non-government organisation rural mental health staff: A pilot study. https://doi.org/10.26189/ff886dfc-4b4c-4531-b706-e015e01094fe
Collaborators: Monica Short, Ella Dixon, Nicola Ivory, Rohena Duncombe, Sarah Redshaw, Elizabeth Wulff, Larissa Bamberry, Katrina Gersbach, Debbie Clatworthy, Andrew Prevett
Research Narrative: Steve is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Social Work and Arts and Director of the Master of Ethics and Legal Studies. He is also a Research Associate of the Uehiro Oxford Institute, University of Oxford. He is currently a lead investigator on an ARC-funded grant on ‘The Ethics of Voluntary Assisted Dying: Promoting Constructive Debate’. He works on a broad range of topics in practical philosophy, applied ethics and bioethics.
Representative publications:
● Clarke, S. & Oakley, J. (2025). Where There’s Hope, There’s Life: On the Importance of Hope in Health Care. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 50(1), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhae037
● Clarke, S. (2025). When conspiracy theorists win. Inquiry, 68(8), 2841–2864. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2024.2371482
● Clarke, S. (2023). The sanctity of life as a sacred value. Bioethics, 37, 32–39. https://doi-org/10.1111/bioe.13094
Current Grants: Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, DP240102614: ‘The Ethics of Voluntary Assisted Dying: Promoting Constructive Debate’. Clarke, S., Savulescu, J., Kennett, J. and Symons X. $553,139-. (2024-2027)
Collaborators: Jeanette Kennett (Macquarie), Morgan Luck (CSU), Justin Oakley (Monash), Jonathan Pugh (Oxford), Julian Savulescu (NUS), Xavier Symons (Notre Dame), Will Tuckwell (CSU), Dominic Wilkinson (Oxford), Tessa Holzman (CSU)
Project Narrative: Daniel's research focuses on moral responsibility theory and applied ethics, with particular emphasis on agency, free will, and the intersection of philosophical theory with real-world policy challenges. His work spans foundational questions about responsibility and blame, empirical philosophy investigating the psychology of moral judgment, and applied ethics addressing contemporary issues including intoxication and criminal responsibility, academic integrity, and population ethics. He collaborates extensively across disciplines, particularly with psychology colleagues, to bridge theoretical insights with practical applications.
Representative publications:
● Walker, M. J., and D. B. Cohen. (2025). “ Do Intoxicated Offenders Deserve Harsher Sentences? Questioning Veritas in Vino.” Journal of Social Philosophy 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.70006.
● Saling, L., Weatherhead, S. & Cohen, D. (2025). ‘Exploratory tendencies explain task delay in procrastination.’ New Ideas in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2025.101190.
● Cohen, D., Saling, L., Lee, E. & Zagura, A. (2023). Moral, self-interested, and social motivation each predict compliance with social distancing rules: utilitarianism is an indirect positive predictor. BMC Psychology 11(85). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01093-7
Collaborators: Lauren Saling (RMIT), Mary Walker (La Trobe), Morgan Luck (CSU), Will Tuckwell (CSU), Wylie Breckenridge (UNSW)
William Tuckwell
Research Narrative: Will is a Lecturer in philosophy at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Before becoming a lecturer, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Future of the Professions Research Group at CSU. Prior to joining CSU he was a Society for Applied Philosophy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne in December 2021 where he wrote a thesis about the relationship between epistemic contextualism and power. His primary research interests are in applied ethics (especially ethics in the university), epistemology, and social and political philosophy.
Representative publications:
● Clarke, S., W. Tuckwell, and M. Luck. (2025). “ Professionals and the Ethics of Workplace Surveillance.” Journal of Social Philosophy 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.70000.
● Tuckwell, W. (2024). Presuppositional epistemic contextualism and non-ideal contexts. Inquiry, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2024.2386553
● Lawford-Smith, H., & Tuckwell, W. (2024). What is an ally? Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2024.2309050
Recent Grants: 2022 Society for Applied Philosophy Postdoctoral Scholarship
Collaborators: Mark Alfano (Macquarie) Steve Clarke (CSU), Daniel Cohen (CSU), Holly Lawford-Smith (University of Melbourne), Paul-Mikhail Catapang Podosky (Macquarie), Shang Long Yeo (NUS)
Research narrative: Tessa’s research is focused around end-of-life ethics, with a particular emphasis on ethical debate surrounding voluntary assisted dying. She is currently working with Steve Clarke on the project “The Ethics of Voluntary Assisted Dying: Promoting Constructive Debate”. Tessa has previously also been involved in projects focusing on the ethics of mitochondrial donation, and research involving stemcell-based embryo models.
Representative publications:
● Holzman, T. J. (2024). Creating a safer and better functioning system: Lessons to be learned from the Netherlands for an ethical defence of an autonomy-only approach to assisted dying. Bioethics, 38, 558–565.https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13296
● Holzman, T.J. (2021). The Final Act: An Ethical Analysis of Pia Dijkstra’s Euthanasia for a Completed Life. Bioethical Inquiry 18, 165–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-020-10084-x
Collaborators: Steve Clarke (CSU), Julian Savulescu (NUS), Madeleine Archer (QUT), Julian Koplin (Monash), Neera Bhatia (Deakin)
Research narrative: Tom’s research focuses on ethical issues concerning emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), synthetic meat, virtual reality, video games and social robots. Tom is currently a postdoctoral fellow at both Charles Sturt University (CSU), working on AI ethics, and Macquarie University, working on an ARC-funded grant investigating AI and creativity. Tom is also a team member on a project funded by Meta Platforms investigating the ethics of facial tracking technology in virtual reality applications, and a member of the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre, through which he has been funded to empirically investigate moral attitudes regarding the consumption of synthetic human meat.
Representative Publications:
● Luck, M., Montefiore, T., Bartel, C. (2025). The Robo-Barbie Dilemma. The Philosophical Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqaf048
● Montefiore, T. (2025). Unstable Preservation: Memorials in Virtual Environments. Phenomenology & the Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-025-10091-6
● Montefiore, T., Formosa, P., & Polito, V. (2024). Extending the Gamer’s Dilemma: empirically investigating the paradox of fictionally going too far across media. Philosophical Psychology, 1, 22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2024.2354432
Recent Grants: Tom is currently a CI on a Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre grant ($4000) - Empirically Investigating the Ethics of Lab-Grown Food and Drinks
Collaborators: Morgan Luck (CSU); Paul Formosa (Macquarie); Paul-Mikhail Catapang Podosky (Macquarie); Chris Bartel (Appalachian State); Vince Polito (Macquarie); John Goris (Macquarie)
Michael Shepanski
Research narrative: Michael’s research is in epistemology, the philosophy of W. V. Quine, and the intersection of zetetic epistemology with decision theory. He works on these topics as an adjunct lecturer at Charles Sturt University (CSU), and his current project is a paper on Quine’s doctrine of the inscrutability of reference, for a forthcoming volume, The Quinean Mind (Gary Kemp and Andrew Lugg, eds., Routledge).
Representative Publications:
● Shepanski, Michael. (2025) Evidence-gathering without navel-gazing. Philosophical Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-025-02366-0
● Shepanski, Michael (2023). Quine’s Epistemic Norms in Practice: Undogmatic Empiricism. Bloomsbury Academic. https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/quines-epistemic-norms-in-practice-9781350304260
● Shepanski, Michael (2023). “A review of G. R. McLean, Ethical Basics for the Caring Professions: Knowledge and Skills for Thoughtful Practice”. Monash Bioethics Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-023-00184-w
Research Narrative: Suzanne is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy in the School of Social Work and Arts. Her research addresses topics in applied philosophy, moral and political philosophy, and philosophy of law. Suzanne has worked in philosophy departments in Australia and England and has held research fellowships at the University of St. Andrews, Harvard University, and the University of Stirling. She has served as Chief Editor of the Journal of Applied Philosophy and is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Philosophy and the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Representative publications:
● Uniacke, S. In Defence of Necessity. Philosophia (2023) 5: 2317-2325. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11406-023-00677-2
● Archard, D., and Uniacke, S. The Child’s Right to a Voice. Res Publica (2021) 4: 521-536. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11158-020-09491-z
● Uniacke, S., Browne, T. K., and Shields, L. How Should We Understand Family Centred Care? Journal of Child Health Care, 22 (3) (2018): 460-469. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367493517753083
Collaborator: David Archard (Queen’s University Belfast)
Research Narrative: Graeme is an Adjunct Research Fellow whose work spans epistemology, applied ethics, and philosophy of religion.
Representative publications:
● McLean, G. R. (2022). Ethical Basics for the Caring Professions: Knowledge and Skills for Thoughtful Practice. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Ethical-Basics-for-the-Caring-Professions-Knowledge-and-Skills-for-Thoughtful-Practice/McLean/p/book/9781032009582
● McLean, G. R. (2019). The value of human life. St Mark’s Review, (248), 24-44. https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/the-value-of-human-life
● McLean, G. R. (2015). Antipathy to God. Sophia, 54(1), 13-24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-014-0414-4
