Dr Rebekah Humphreys SFHEA, BA (Hons), MA, PhD

• Lecturer in Philosophy

Rebekah completed all of her degrees at Cardiff University (formerly University of Wales, Cardiff for her BA and MA).

Before teaching at UWTSD, she worked at a number of universities in Wales, including Cardiff University, University of Wales Newport, and Bangor University. She has also worked in several further education colleges in South Wales.

Qualifications

• BA (Hons), MA, PhD
• Senior Fellow of the HEA (SFHEA)
• BA Hon. in English and Philosophy
• Master of Arts in Ethics and Social Philosophy
• PhD in Philosophy

Undergraduate modules taught:

• Sustainability and Research Methods
• Philosophy of Mind
• Introduction to Philosophical Enquiry
• Study Skills
• Early Modern Philosophy
• Ancient Greek Philosophy
• Phenomenology and Existentialism
• Aesthetics
• The Dissertation
• Mind and Metaphysics
• Environmental Ethics

MA modules taught:

• Environmental Philosophy
• Philosophical Methods and Approaches
• Philosophy of Philosophy
• The Dissertation
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Self and Society

My areas of interest are normative and applied ethics (especially environmental ethics, animal ethics, and bioethics), and moral philosophy in general, including issues related to climate change, sustainable development, the common heritage of humankind / global commons, our use of animals in modern-day agricultural and commercial practices, use of the environment with regards to business practice, future being (theory and practice), the hard problem of consciousness, issues of justice, ethology and evolutionary biology as they relate to consciousness studies as well as language, cognition, and meaningful communication (particularly with regards to inter-species and intra-species forms of communications that can be deemed syntactical in an analogous way to linguistic communication – this is an area I explored in my PhD but that I wish to develop further).

My current research lies at the interface of philosophy and moral psychology, and is concerned with extreme compartmentalisation and desensitisation as mental phenomena or ‘habits of mind’ that potentially could negatively affect decision-making procedures and cause incoherencies in moral judgments. This research will focus on the moral emotions and their role in ethical-decision making, and make links between the imagination and moral emotions. The findings could be applied to a range of issues, including those related to environmental problems, global poverty, the hunger crisis, and sustainability. The findings could also be applied to different industrial and commercial practices that make use of animals and / or that pollute the environment, particularly modern agricultural practices.

Areas of specialisation:

• Applied ethics (particularly animal ethics and environmental ethics)
• Environmental philosophy

Additional areas of competence:

• Epistemology and metaphysics
• Early modern philosophy
• Ancient Greek philosophy
• Existentialism.

1. Moral Feelings, Compartmentalisation and Desensitisation in the Practice of Animal Experimentation’, forthcoming in Animals and Business Ethics, Springer 2020 or 2021.
   
   
2. ‘Philosophy, ecology and elephant equality’. Animal Sentience: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Animal Feeling, 28 (11), Mar. 25, 2020. [https://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol5/iss28/11/]
   
   
3. ‘Games, Fair-Play and a Sporting-Chance: A Conceptual Analysis of Blood-Sports’, in Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society, 2017/18: Special Edition: ‘Humans and Other Animals’ (2020). Published by Irish Philosophical Society. Ed. Noel Kavanagh.[http://www.irish-philosophical-society.ie/yearbook/]
   
   
4. ‘Suffering, Sentientism, and Sustainability: An Analysis of a Non-Anthropocentric Moral Framework for Climate Ethics’, in Climate Change Ethics and the Nonhuman World, eds. Brian G. Henning and Zack Walsh and the Non-Human World (Palgrave, 2020), pp.49-62.
   
   
5. (Co-authored with Dr Kate Watson), ‘The Killing Floor and Crime Narratives: Marking Women and Nonhuman Animals’, Tattoos in Crime and Detective Narratives: Marking and Remarking, eds Kate Waston and Katherine Cox (Manchester University Press 2019).
    
6. (Co-authored with Prof. Robin Attfield), ‘Justice and Non-Human Beings, Part II’, in Bangladesh Jrn. of Bioethics (8:1), 2017, pp.44-77. ISSN 2226-9231 (print); 2078-1458 (online). 
   
   
7. (Co-authored with Prof. Robin Attfield), ‘Justice and Non-Human Beings, Part I’, in Bangladesh Jrn. of Bioethics (7:3), 2016, pp.1-11. ISSN 2226-9231 (print); 2078-1458 (online)
   
   
8. ‘Dignity and its violation examined within the context of animal ethics’, Ethics and the Environment (21:2), Fall 2016, pp. 143-162.
   
   
9. ‘Biocentrism’, entry in Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics, Springer, online publication 2014. ISBN: 978-3-319-05544-2 (Online). Hard copy of the Encyclopedia due to be published in late 2016.
   
   
10. ‘The Argument from Existence, Blood-Sports, and ‘Sport-Slaves’’, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (published by Springer), Vol. 27, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 331-345. ISSN: 1187-7863. DOI: 10.1007/s10806-013-9466-7. *This article has been featured in the ‘Key Research Article’ section of the journal Sociology Research (www.sociologyresearch.org, 28th May 2014).
    
    
11. Review (co-authored with Robin Attfield) of Gary E. Varner, Personhood, Ethics and Animal Cognition: Situating Animals in Hare’s Two-Level Utilitarianism (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), in Philosophy (published by Cambridge University Press), Vol. 88, No. 345, July 2013. ISSN: 0031-8191.
    
    
12. ‘Rights, Interests and Moral Standing: A Critical Examination of Dialogue between Regan and Frey’, in Issues in Ethics and Animal Rights, ed. Manish Vyas (Regency Publications: Delhi, 2011). ISBN: 81-89233-68-8. ISBN: 978-81-89233-68-6.
    
    
13. ‘The Moral Status of Sentient and Non-Sentient Creatures’, in Issues in Ethics and Animal Rights, ed. Manish Vyas (Regency Publications: Delhi, 2011). ISBN: 81-89233-68-8. ISBN: 978-81-89233-68-6.
    
    
14. Review of Victoria Braithwaite, Do Fish Feel Pain? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), in Sport, Ethics and Philosophy: Journal of the British Philosophy of Sport Association (published by Routledge), Vol. 5, No. 2, May 2011, pp. 178-82. ISSN: 1751-1321.
    
    
15. Co-editor (with Dr Sophie Vlacos), Creation, Environment and Ethics (Newcastle-Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010). ISBN (10): 1-4438-2508-5, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2508-5.
    
    
16. ‘Game Birds: The Ethics of Shooting Birds for Sport’, in Sport, Ethics and Philosophy: Journal of the British Philosophy of Sport Association (published by Routledge), Vol. 4, No. 1, Apr. 2010, pp. 52-65. ISSN 1751-1321 print/1751-133X online/10/010052-14.
    
    
17. 17. ‘Animal Thoughts on Factory Farms: Michael Leahy, Language and Awareness of Death’, in Between the Species, Vol. 13, Issue 8, Aug. 2008 [cla.calopy.edu/bts].
    
    
18. ‘Contractarianism: On the Incoherence of the Exclusion of Non-Human Beings’, Percipi, 2, 21st May 2008, pp. 28-38. ISSN 1995-8307.
    
    
19. Review of James DuBois, Ethics in Mental Health Research: Principles, Guidance, and Cases (Oxford University Press, 2007). Review published by Metapsychology Online, Jun. 17th 2008, Volume 12, Issue 25.
    
    
20. Review of Richard Seager, Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism (London: University of California Press, 2006). Review published by Metapsychology Online, Jul. 10th 2007, Volume 11, Number 28.

For access to any of these items, visit the UWTSD Repository

They can also be accessed via the Diversity Reading List

• Organised the ‘Ethics, Creation and Environment’ conference, Cardiff University, 23^rd July 2009.
• Organised the 'Mind and Morals' College Conference, UWTSD, Lampeter Campus, Jan. 2018.
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy