Public Health Ethics module

Department of Health Systems and Populations, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University
Role: Lecturer and convenor
Term: 2020, Term 1
Course description: Four-week module for the unit Foundations of Public Health, which provides students with the foundations for understanding the discipline of public health. The public health ethics module introduces ethical deliberation, normative theories and practical frameworks that guide public health interventions and decision-making.
Students: Graduate

Philosophy of evolutionary biology

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University
Role: Lecturer and convenor
Term: 2019, Term 2
Course description: This unit is devoted to examining the ways in which evolutionary biology can shed light on the nature of the human mind and culture. The unit begins with an introduction to evolutionary theory and a discussion of some foundational issues concerning its nature and structure. It explains its central concepts such as natural selection, fitness, adaption, and units of selection. It will also debate current modifications to evolutionary theory, such as evolutionary developmental biology, niche construction and the so called Extended Synthesis. A substantial part of the unit, however, involves investigating extensions of evolutionary theory to the explanation of human mind and culture. In particular, recent theories of cultural and cognitive evolution such as Evolutionary Psychology, gene-culture coevolution, and cognitive-developmental niche construction will be examined in detail. Issues, such as the ambitions and limitations of evolutionary explanations of human ethical and sexual behaviour will also be discussed. No background in biology or science is assumed.
Students: Undergraduate (second years)

Philosophy of Human Nature

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University
Role: Tutor/teaching assistant
Term: 2020, Term 1; 2019, Term 1
Course description: The unit introduces the big philosophical questions about human nature, personal identity and the meaning of life. Are human beings somehow unique in nature? Do we have distinct selves that endure through time? Do we have free will? What is the relation between our identity and the things that matter to us? The main theme is whether there is such a thing as human nature at all. We begin by asking whether mind is entirely physical or could in principle survive bodily death. We also explore the links between the self, time, and memory. The remainder of the unit introduces some key thinkers of the twentieth century; and we explore their views on freedom, lived experience, and our relations to others. The unit as a whole offers a detailed introduction to controversial questions about the nature of the mind, showing how historical understanding animates current debates, and demonstrating the relevance of philosophy to live modern issues about science, human nature, and culture.
Students: Undergraduate (first years)

Introduction to Critical Thinking

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University
Role: Tutor/teaching assistant
Term: 2020, Term 1; 2019, Term 1 and 3
Course description: This unit aims to teach the fundamentals of critical thinking and reasoning. Students learn how to construct, analyse and critically evaluate arguments; how to detect common fallacies in reasoning; and how to think logically and creatively. We teach these skills by developing practical techniques for the evaluation of reasoning, and applying them to arguments from business, law, science, politics, philosophy and the media. Critical thinking skills are invaluable across all disciplines, and will benefit students in academic contexts and in life beyond university.
Students: Undergraduate (first years)

Introduction to Research Paradigms

Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University
Role: Tutor/teaching assistant
Term: 2020, Term 1
Course description: This unit provides a broad overview of the research paradigms that characterize the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Through this unit, the Faculty of Arts seeks to provide students with a constructive framework to recognise the possible contribution of diverse theoretical and disciplinary approaches. By concentrating on a core problem that crosses disciplinary boundaries in their final assessment task, demonstrating how that problem might be confronted under different paradigms, students will become conversant in a range of analytical techniques and theoretical perspectives. Students will learn to better recognise the assumptions that underwrite diverse approaches, their strengths, and their relations to each other, especially to facilitate collaboration and the exchange of ideas. Although much of scholarship today requires focused specialisation, being able to communicate our ideas, recognising the significance of new research, and building meaningful collaborations all require an understanding of the diversity of approaches available in the Arts.
Students: Graduate (first year Master of Research)

Bioethics and Biotechnology

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University
Role: Tutor/teaching assistant
Term: 2019, Term 2
Course description: This unit introduces students to a selection of the most pressing ethical questions and concerns raised by current and recent developments in the so-called ‘biotech revolution’, especially in the sphere of genetic technology. The first section of the unit provides an introduction to ethical reasoning, to issues of social justice and to the relationship between social values, scientific enquiry and research ethics in the context of biotechnology. The second section focuses on the ethics of gene technology in the spheres of human medicine and reproduction, including: genetic screening/testing; gene therapies; genetic enhancement; and human reproductive cloning. In the third section we explore the impact of biotechnologies on other aspects of human, non-human animal and environmental welfare including: genetic engineering of plants and animals (GMOs); biofortification of food; bio-prospecting; and commercial exploitation of human genetic material. The unit is an ethics unit, not a science unit, and prior scientific knowledge is not required.
Students: Graduate and Undergraduate