Professor Fiona Woollard

Professor Fiona Woollard

Professor of Philosophy

Research interests

  • Philosophy of Pregnancy, Birth and Motherhood/ Parenthood
  • Normative Ethics.
  • Applied Ethics.

More research

Accepting applications from PhD students.

Connect with Fiona

About

Professor Fiona Woollard is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton. 

She has research interests in normative ethics, applied ethics, epistemically transformative experiences and the philosophy of sex and pregnancy. She has published on topics including the distinction between doing and allowing harm, climate change and the non-identity problem, the moral significance of numbers, pornography and the norm of monogamy.

Fiona’s main current research is in the Philosophy of Pregnancy, Birth and Early Motherhood/ Parenthood. Fiona shows that pregnancy, birth and early motherhood/ parenthood can challenge traditional ways of thinking about morality and knowledge. Fiona also identifies ways in which philosophical mistakes in our thinking about motherhood can influence the treatment of pregnant people and mothers, and those seen as mothers, often leading to harmful consequences for these vulnerable groups.  Fiona has worked with the NCT and the Breastfeeding Network to produce a website and animated video drawing on her research to explore why many mothers feel judged for decisions about how to feed their babies and how we can have better conversations about infant feeding decisions.

Fiona's monograph Doing and Allowing Harm is available from Oxford University Press.

Advice and Feedback Hours 

Tuesdays 10am-11am (in person or online via Microsoft Teams- with some exception); Thursday 2pm-3pm (in person or online via Microsoft Teams -  with some exceptions).

There will be no Advice and Feedback hour on Tuesday of week 10.

The following A&F sessions will be online only: Thursday of consultation week, Tuesday of week 11, Tuesday and Thursday of week 12.