British-born philosopher and scholar of women's studies
Samantha J. Brennan is a British-born
philosopher and scholar of
women's studies who is currently dean of the College of Arts and faculty member in the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Guelph.[1] She was previously a professor in the Department of Women's Studies and Feminist Research at
Western University, Canada.[2][3][4] She remains a member of Western's Rotman Institute of Philosophy and the graduate faculty of the Departments of Political Science and of Philosophy. Brennan was Department Chair of Philosophy at Western from 2002 to 2007, and 2008–2011. She is a past president of the
Canadian Philosophical Association (2017–18).[2][5][failed verification]
Education and career
Brennan received her
BA in philosophy from
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and her
PhD from the
University of Illinois at Chicago, where she wrote her dissertation, Thresholds for Rights, under the supervision of
Shelly Kagan.[6][7] Brennan grew up on the east coast of Canada, living in Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. She was born in Lancashire, England.[8][9]
In 2018 Brennan began a new position as Dean of the College of Arts at the
University of Guelph.[16]
Research interests
Brennan's research focuses on contemporary normative
ethics,
applied ethics,
political philosophy, and
feminist philosophy.[8][17][18][19] In work on
children's rights and family justice, Brennan argues that adults should enter into parenting contracts rather than marriage contracts.[20][21] In normative ethics, Brennan has developed a moderate deontological account according to which rights can be overridden on the basis of the amount of good that can be brought about by doing so.[22][23] Brennan has also published on the topics of
gender identity and
fashion, bioethics,
philosophy of sport, the moral significance of death, and on feminist approaches to fitness.[24][25][26]
^Rice, Eugene (2004). "Resolving Human Rights Conflicts: Evaluating Judith Jarvis Thomson's High-Threshold Thesis". The Journal of Value Inquiry. 38 (2): 203–216.
doi:
10.1007/s10790-004-4303-x.
ISSN0022-5363.
S2CID145189631.