Members of the Centre
Monima Chadha
Director, Arts and Culture program
Philosophy Lecturer
Ph: 03 9905 2989
Fax: 03 9905 3206
E-mail: monima.chadha@arts.monash.edu.au
Graham Oppy
Centre Director
Professor of Philosophy
Assoc. Dean, Research
Faculty of Arts, Monash
Daniella Forster
Centre Associate
Ph: 03 9905 9132
Fax: 03 9905 3206
E-mail: cpp@arts.monash.edu.au
Kim Little
Centre Associate
Dept. of Premier & Cabinet, Victoria
Ph: 03 9905 9132
Fax: 03 9905 3206
E-mail: cpp@arts.monash.edu.au
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Justin Oakley
Centre Associate
Director, Centre for Human Bioethics
Ph: 03 9905 4277
E-mail: justin.oakley@arts.monash.edu.au
John Bigelow
Centre Associate
Professor of Philosophy
Ph: 03 9905 3201
E-mail: john.bigelow@arts.monash.edu.au
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Dirk Baltzly
Centre Associate
Philosophy Lecturer
Ph: 03 9905 1519
Fax: 03 9905 3206
E-mail: dirk.baltzly@arts.monash.edu.au
Aubrey Townsend
Centre Associate
Philosophy Lecturer
Ph: 03 9905 9132
E-mail: aubrey.townsend@arts.monash.edu.au
Jillian Craigie
Centre Associate
Neurophilosophy Research Associate
Ph:03 9905 9132
E-mail: jillian.craigie@arts.monash.edu.au
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Jeanette Kennett
Centre Associate
Philosophy Lecturer
Ph: 03 9905 9132
E-mail: jeanette.kennett@arts.monash.edu.au
More Info...
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Graham Oppy
His main interests lie in the field of philosophy of religion, and, in particular, in arguments about the existence of creative supernatural agents. He has a large collection of publications on questions from philosophy of religion in cyberspace, and is interested in all ways in which the philosophical discussion of these questions can be taken to a wider audience. Graham has recently been involved in public discussion of religious matters on film, radio, and in newspapers.
Graham also has a well-developed interest in critical thinking, and, in particular, in teaching programs which genuinely and demonstrably improve thinking skills. He is currently involved in research projects in this area with other members of the Centre.
Graham completed a PhD at Princeton in 1990, and was subsequently a Research Fellow at the ANU. He was first appointed at Monash in 1996; he was promoted to Associate Professor in January, 2000; and he has been Head of School since the beginning of 2001.
Kim Little
Kim Little is a founding member of the Monash University Centre for Public Philosophy and was the Centre's coordinator at its inception. During her time in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics, Kim ran workshops on moral philosophy and professional ethics, with a focus on the practical application of ethical principles in the fields of law, medicine, business and the media. Her research interests include moral and political philosophy, the history of moral ideas and bioethics. Kim is the recipient of the inaugural Monash Master of Arts prize for best thesis, and is a Monash Law School Supreme Court prize winner. Kim is also a former World and Australasian debating champion, and has participated in many public debates. After working in the Centre, Kim became a corporate and community lawyer, before joining the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet as a social policy advisor.
Dirk Baltzly
Dirk writes on the history of ancient Greek philosophy and its contemporary significance. He is particularly interested in 'eudaimonism' - a widely shared view among ancient philosophers that there is such a thing as an objective condition of human well-being or happiness which is the natural final goal of all our various actions. Dirk is a regular contributor to The Age, both on the letters and opinion pages. In his spare time, he makes very fine beer.
Dirk completed his Ph.D. thesis on Plato's metaphysics at Ohio State University in 1992. He subsequently worked on a research project on the philosophy of late antiquity at King's College London. He moved to Monash in 1994.
Aubrey Townsend
Aubrey is a senior lecturer in Philosophy and director of the Professional Ethics Project at Monash. The primary aim of the project is to develop inter-disciplinary subjects in professional ethics adapted to serve the needs of students in any degree program in the university. Aubrey has also been actively engaged in the development of distance education programs in philosophy, at Monash, through Open Learning and in a VCE Enhancement course. In all these areas he has been interested in exploring new pedagogic strategies, using the web and other multimedia resources.
Aubrey's principal philosophical interests are in logic, metaphysics and the history of philosophy.
Jillian Craigie
As a part of a research group with Ian Gold and Cordelia Fine, Jillian is currently working in the area of delusion, examining explanatory models and implications that research in the field has for philosophical concepts. Jillian has a BSc Hons. from Melbourne University in molecular neuroscience. Her general research interests are in the area of neurophilosophy.
Jillian is also project manager for the development of a new undergraduate course in critical reasoning, by members of the Departments of Philosophy and Computer Science and Software Engineering at Monash.
Jeanette Kennett
Jeanette has helped organise and spoken at public forums and debates on mental illness, drug abuse, homelessness, and offending. She has responded to requests for expert opinion and comment from radio, television and newspapers on a variety of issues: revenge, friendship, euthanasia to name a few. She is a contributor to the May 2002 issue of Meanjin on drugs.
Jeanette has two major, interconnected research projects, one on mental illness and the self and the other on friendship and the self. The first examines the impact of various mental disorders, such as autism, psychopathy, dissociation, delusion and depression, on the agent's self-conception, on their abilities to form and maintain relationships, on their capacities for reflection and self-control. It will explore the implications for our accounts of moral agency and moral responsibility, and for legal, health care and social welfare policy and practice. The second project focuses more closely on the relational self; it explores how the self is shaped through our relations with others, the ways in which our capacities for autonomous action require support from others and the ways in which our attachments to our friends might lead us into conflict with morality.