Our people

My research interests lie in health law and ethics, particularly informed consent, doctor-patient relationship, and reproductive ethics widely considered.

Dr Milo is Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, University of Sheffield, where she leads the Health Law Research Group. Before joining Sheffield, she was College Assistant Professor and Fellow in Law at Robinson College-University of Cambridge, and previously Lecturer at the University of Exeter Law School. She holds a PhD in Health Law from Durham Law School; a MA in Bioethics and Medical Law (St Mary’s University-Twickenham); an integrated MA in Law (University of Siena, Italy); and a Diploma in Legal Studies (University of Oxford).

Academic Profile

Dr. Elif Çetin is an Associate Professor of International Relations and a Faculty member at the Department of International Relations, Yaşar University (Izmir, Turkey). Additionally, she is a Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge. Since September 2023, she has been the Head of the UNESCO Chair on International Migration at Yaşar University, which is the first and only UNESCO Chair in Turkey that specifically focuses on migration.

Dr. Çetin holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge. She was a visiting scholar at the EUI (Florence) and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) (Oxford). Her research interests include politicisation of immigration, political discourse formation, and development of immigration control policies in Europe and beyond. Her publications focus on different dimensions of migration management and control policies.

I lecture and publish in the areas of Christian moral and political theologies, interfaith relations, and conflict transformation. I have oversight of the Woolf Institute's teaching in the Cambridge Theological Federation as well as the Institute's public engagement programmes.

Dr Phillips has been at the Woolf Institute since 2022. Previously she was Lecturer in Christian Ethics and Director of Studies at Westcott House, as well as Research Fellow with the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology. She was a Visiting Scholar with the Institute for Criminology 2018-2019 and from 2016-2019 she co-convened and ethnographically researched a course on 'The Good Life and the Good Society' inside a high security prison. At Margaret Beaufort she completed Flourishing Inside, a project researching the intersections of Catholic social thought and prison chaplaincy. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Academic Profile

Publications

• Elizabeth Phillips, Apocalyptic Theopolitics: Essays and Sermons on Eschatology, Ethics, and Politics (Cascade, 2022).
• Elizabeth Phillips, Anna Rowlands and Amy Daughton (eds), T&T Clark Reader in Political Theology ( T&T Clark, 2021).
• Craig Hovey and Elizabeth Phillips (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Political Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
• Elizabeth Phillips, Political Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed (Continuum, 2012).
• Elizabeth Phillips and Ferdia Stone-Davis (eds), Catholic Social Thought and Prison Ministry (2024).

I am a human development economist, working on topics relating to poverty, inequality, aporophobia, education and indicators of human development. I have been working on the operationalisation of the capability approach and on the development of new methods of partial rankings for evaluating well-being and sustainability. I carry out a long-term (unpublished) research on moral sentiments, focusing on the links between love and human development. I am currently Professor of Business Ethics and Economics, and Dean of the IQS School of Management/Ramon Llull University in Barcelona. I have been a senior economist for the United Nations Development Programme in Brazil. I have also worked as a consultant for several UN agencies such as UNEP, ILO, UNESCO, FAO, among others. Prior to that I was a GB fellow, CTO and Director of Studies of Economics & Land Economy for St Edmund’s College for several years. I have been associated with the Von Hügel Institute since my PhD years at St Edmund’s, back in 1994. I have also lectured for Land Economy on ‘human development and ecosystem services’ for 18 years.

Flavio Comim is the Dean of the IQS School of Management, University Ramon Llull in Barcelona. He is a Professor in Business Ethics and Economics. He was senior economist for UNDP Brazil during 2008/2010 when he coordinated Brazil’s Human Development Report on ‘Human Values’. After that he coordinated Panama’s 2014 Human Development Report on ‘Childhood and the Youth’. He has also been a consultant for many international organisations such as UNEP, UNESCO, FAO, WHO, UNDP and ILO, carrying out fieldwork in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. He has also been a consultant for CSR projects of big corporations such as Natura & Co, Philips, Siemens, Petrobras, Vale, TIM, among others. He lectured for Land Economy for 18 years. In Cambridge, he is also a research associate of the Von Hügel Institute at St Edmund’s College. He has been a Coordinating Leading Author of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and has contributed to the Global Environmental Outlook 4. He has published widely in areas such as history of economic thought, economic methodology, development ethics, ecological economics and the capability approach. Among his publications, it could be mentioned the co-edited books Children and the Capability Approach (2011) with Mario Biggeri and Jerome Ballet, Capabilities, Gender, Equality with Martha Nussbaum (2014) and New Frontiers of the Capability Approach (2018) with Shailaja Fennell and PB Anand. He has published in journals such as the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Ecological Economics, Ecological Indicators, China Economic Review, Social Indicators Research, Review of Social Economy, Journal of International Development, Journal of Economic Methodology, History of Political Economy and Structural Change, and Economic Dynamics and Development among others.

My research focuses on philosophical anthropology, disability, identity, neurodiversity, interdependence, and ill-health. I am currently working on the research initiative Disability and Knowledge at the Von Hügel Institute, which explores expansively the nature of knowledge from the perspective of disability studies and disability experiences.

Professional Biography

Lidia studied philosophy at the Universities of Milan, Italy, and Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany. After receiving a postgraduate research scholarship from the Catholic University of Milan, she moved to Dresden, Germany, where she carried out her doctoral research work while working as an assistant lecturer in Philosophy of Religion. She later obtained her PhD from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, with a thesis on Edith Stein's critique of Martin Heidegger. She is currently a Research Associate at St Edmunds’ College, Cambridge, where she is also the VHI Research and Editorial Manager.

Lidia’s research background includes continental philosophy, particularly phenomenology, and philosophical anthropology. She has taught and published on dialogue, personhood, empathy, end of life, the philosophy of Edith Stein, Romano Guardini, and Martin Buber.

Key Publications

· [Forthcoming] Reflection on Parenthood and Loneliness: Loss, Time, and Presence, Journal of Moral Theology, 2025.

· (Eds with T. De Campos and P. McCosker) Special Issue: Navigating Impasses in Bioethics: End of Life, Disability, and Mental Illness, Journal of Disability and Religion, 22(3), 2018.

· Disability, Diversity, and Autism: Philosophical Perspectives on Health, The New Bioethics, 22(1), 2016, 56-70.

· Fenomenologia dell’essere umano e Analisi dell’Esserci, in A. Ales Bello - F. Alfieri - M. Shahid (eds), Edith Stein-Hedwig Conrad-Martius-Gerda Walther: Fenomenologia della Persona, della Vita e della Comunitá, Laterza: Bari, 2011.

· Being Thrown or Being Held in Existence? The Opposite Approaches to Finitude of Edith Stein and Martin Heidegger, Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society 2009, Maynooth.

My research focuses on the relationships between religious diversity, education, and social cohesion. I explore how schools, universities and local communities can better navigate religious diversity, fostering respect and understanding across diverse religious and non-religious perspectives.

Dr Peacock's publications have contributed to understanding how education plays a role in creating inclusive societies, where diversity is seen as an asset rather than a challenge. Her research outputs have also influenced social practice and policy around religious inclusion and diversity.

Publications

• Peacock, L. and Guest, M. (2024) 'Worldviews, Religious Literacy and Interfaith Readiness: Bridging the Gap Between School and University'. Coventry University and Durham University
• Aune, K., Peacock, L., Guest, M. and Law, J. (2023) University Chaplaincy as Relational Presence: Navigating Understandings of Good and Effective Chaplaincy in UK Universities, Journal of College and Character 24(3), 197-216
• Peacock, L., Guest, M., Aune, K., Rockenbach, A. N., Staples, B. A. and Mayhew, M. J. (2023) 'Building Student Relationships Across Religion and Worldview Difference'. Coventry University, Durham University, North Carolina State University and The Ohio State University
• Peacock, L. (2021) 'Contact-based Interfaith Programmes in Schools and the Changing Religious Education Landscape: Negotiating a Worldviews Curriculum'. Journal of Beliefs & Values 44(1),1-15
• Peacock, L. (2021) 'Building Closer Communities: An Evaluation Report'. Coventry University

My current research interests concern the epistemological and ethical implications of the doctrine of creation and the articulation between philosophy, the sciences and theology. In 2024, I was involved in setting up the Centre d'études et de recherche interdisciplinaire évangélique (CERIE).

After completing postgraduate studies in physics and mathematics at the University of Cologne (Germany) and in theology at the Seminary for Evangelical Theology in Vaux-sur-Seine (France), Lydia Jaeger obtained her Ph.D. in philosophy at the Sorbonne on the possible links between the concept of law of nature and religious presuppositions. She holds a permanent lectureship and is academic advisor and international relations officer at the Institut Biblique de Nogent-sur-Marne (France), and academic director of the Centre d’enseignement et de recherche interdisciplinaire évangélique en sciences, culture et théologie (CERIE). She is a research associate of St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, a Faraday Associate of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and a KLC Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology (all based in Cambridge, UK). Lydia Jaeger is the author of seven books and numerous articles on the relation between Christianity and the natural sciences. She has edited (or co-edited) nine collective volumes; among them is Lire la Bible aujourd’hui : Perspectives croisées sur les défis contemporains (Bibli’O, 2022 – English translation Zondervan Academic, 2024). Her book Ordinary Splendor: Living in God’s Creation was listed as a finalist in the 2024 Christianity Today Book Awards in the Theology (popular) category.

Academic Profile

Publications

• Lydia Jaeger, Einstein, Polanyi and the Laws of Nature, West Conshohocken (PA): Templeton Foundation Press, 2010
• Lydia Jaeger, What the Heavens Declare: Science in the Light of Creation, transl. Jonathan Vaughan, Eugene (OR), Wipf and Stock, 2012
• Lydia Jaeger, Ordinary Splendor: Living in God's Creation, Bellingham [WA], Lexham Press, 2023

Dr. Marc Neugröschel is a Research Fellow in the ISGAP-Woolf Institute Fellowship Training Programme in Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies, Discrimination, and Human Rights. A sociologist, he earned his PhD and MA from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. Prior to this, he studied at RWTH University in Aachen, Germany, his birthplace and hometown. Additionally, he has worked as a journalist for German and Israeli English-language newspapers.

Mike Brownnutt obtained his first Master’s degree (MSci in physics) and his PhD (in experimental quantum mechanics) from Imperial College London, UK. He then worked at the University of Innsbruck for eight years, writing his habilitation on his research there, which developed scalable architectures for trapped-ion quantum computers. He completed a second Master’s degree (MA in theology from the University of Chester, UK) considering how faith is understood by various parties in discourse on the relationship between Christianity and science.

He spent seven years at the University of Hong Kong, serving as Associate Director of the Faith and Science Collaborative Research Forum, and researching framings for science and religion which do not pre-suppose Modernist assumptions. He now serves as Course Director of the Faraday Institute. In his spare time, he is working on a PhD (with University of Birmingham) on non-Modern philosophy of science and religion.

My research explores intersections between neuroscience, experience and community wellbeing. Using a community-centred model, I apply evidence-based pedagogy to community learning experiences that cultivate not just knowledge, but skills and dispositions broadly in support of community wellbeing.

Dr Nancy Michael earned her doctorate degree in neuroscience from the University of Minnesota in 2012. Her doctoral studies were anchored in the field of behavioural neuroendocrinology where she explored questions of experience dependent plasticity – how experiences with the individuals and the world around us change nervous system structure and function. This curiosity led her to pursue postdoctoral studies in an adolescent development lab, further developing her ability to interrogate the ways in which experiences moderate brain structure, function and behaviour. Harnessing this background in experience dependent plasticity, Michael chose to devote her skills to undergraduate educational formation. She joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2014 to develop the newly created undergraduate program in neuroscience and behaviour. Over the years, her dedication to excellence, innovation in education and commitment to community wellness have earned her numerous teaching, advising and community awards, and currently serves as the Director of Education and Co-Director for the Neuroscience and Behaviour major at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to her work on campus, Michael partnership with multiple community organizations to develop and implement NEAR science approaches that aim to mitigate the impact of toxic stress and promote healing and resilience of individuals and communities. NEAR stands for Neuroscience, Epigenetics, Adverse childhood experiences and Resilience, and a NEAR-science approach uses a community-centred, general capacity building model to mobilize the evidence base of the NEAR sciences in support of practical skill development for individuals and community organizations.

Broadly, Dr Michael’s work collaboratively develops population-specific, NEAR-based strategies to support practical skill building for community healing and resilience efforts. Her work is published across a wide variety of platforms ranging from primary scientific journals, book chapters, to children’s books. Common themes across her writing centre around experience dependent plasticity and the critical role relationships play in human learning and well-being. In addition to her written works, Dr Michael takes a leadership role in designing and executing a wide variety of professional development opportunities to support individuals in the “helping professions” (e.g. educators, youth workers, mental health professionals, community health workers, medical professionals, etc.). Dr Michael is known for making very complex information accessible and actionable in practical contexts. The breadth of her productivity is indicative of her desire to not only participate in knowledge generation, but to support the translation of the neuroscientific knowledge base into practical skills, behaviours and habits of mind that become present in our daily living.

Academic Profile 

Publications

• Michael N, Chan-Deveare V, [Eifler and Wheeler (Eds)], Learning to Serve: A Neuroscience-informed Scaffold to Developing Students as Community Leaders, 2025, Beneath the Rage and Tumult: Promoting Radical Hospitality and Belonging in College Classrooms.
• Michael N. A Part, Not Apart: courageous curiosity reminds us of shared our shared humanity, 2024, Notre Dame Magazine
• Brown K*, Nisbet A*, Hammond R*, [Michael NA (Ed)]. No Snow Day for the Brain, 2020, Lulu publishing.
• Hollender M*, Michael NA, Short-Term Brain-Based Growth Mindset Pilot Intervention Indicates Potential of Diversion Programs for Early Offenders in the Juvenile Justice System, 2023, Internat J of Soc Sci and Human Research

I research how the moral values of love and justice can reshape institutions to foster mutual care. I’m currently working with hospitals in Chile on a scorecard that fosters spaces of encounter and enables caregivers—like mothers and health professionals—in giving and receiving loving care.

Thana C. de Campos-Rudinski is an Associate Professor at the School of Government and the Institute of Applied Ethics at the Pontifical Catholic University in Chile. She has a DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford.

Her research and teaching examine how laws and public policies impact the way we think and live the most fundamental aspects of life: love, family, friendship, the interdependence among people and countries. Her work has analysed the problems of global poverty, medical suffering, communicable diseases and pandemics, the loneliness epidemic, and grief. Her discussions draw on relational theories of justice (Aquinas and Finnis in particular), virtue ethics, and feminist ethics of care.

In The Global Health Crisis: Ethical Responsibilities (CUP, 2017) she discusses the duties of justice that we have (or do not have), as both individuals and nations, to aid those vulnerable people in remote areas afflicted by certain grave illnesses for which there is no adequate or accessible medical treatment. Her forthcoming book The Rule of Love: The Power of Presence for Reforming Health Institutions and Global Health Governance (OUP) investigates how love – together with justice – helps us revisit how we should structure our healthcare institutions at the local, national, and global levels, to foster an organizational culture of encounter, presence, and accompaniment with those suffer – without being inefficient or financially reckless. Current research projects include 'Lonely Mothers, Loving Institutions and Institutional Homemaking', which examines how the application of the philosophical concepts of love and homemaking could help us reimagine contemporary institutions, laws, and public policies such as those contemplating universal day-care and personalized perinatology (maternal-foetal medicine), in how they may impact mothers and as a consequence father, children, families, communities, and the common good more broadly.

Thana was a fellow at Princeton’s Institute for International and Regional Studies (2021) and is the co-director of the research program Dignity and Equity in Women’s Health of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights.

Academic Profile

I'm William Simpson; a philosopher and scientist. I was born in Lincoln, a cathedral city in England, but now live in Scotland (or wherever my work happens to take me). I have a doctorate in physics from St Andrews, in which I considered the macroscopic behaviour of sticky quantum mechanical forces, and I have a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge, in which I put forward an ontology of quantum mechanics inspired by Aristotle's theory of hylomorphism. In 2020, I was honoured with an Expanded Reason Award for my work in philosophy. In 2021, I was awarded the Cardinal Mercier Prize in Philosophy. I continue to think about the metaphysics of quantum mechanics, and I am interested in both the nature of consciousness and the mind-body problem. Broadly speaking, I am preoccupied with the ontology of nature, the unity of mind and nature, and the unity of nature and divine being.