Patrizia Setola

Patrizia Setola is a Lecturer in the Department of Arts at SETU, where she teaches psychology. Her academic career includes roles as a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow (UCD), Post-doctoral Research Fellow (UCD), and Lecturer/Academic Tutor (UCD from 2011–2018). She holds interdisciplinary qualifications: PhD in Philosophy (Animal Ethics, UCD), Postgraduate Diplomas in Science (AI/ML, National College of Ireland) and Applied Animal Behaviour (University of Edinburgh), and master’s degrees in Cognitive Science (UCD) and Psychology (Università degli Studi di Padova).

Her research focuses on moral philosophy, animal cognition, and environmental ethics. A current IRC-funded project, 'The Value of Sentience,' explores moral progress in human-animal relations and socio-political frameworks. She contributed to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to education and environmental sustainability. Key themes include sentience valuation, empathy in ethics, and the intersection of AI/ML with cognitive science.

Notable work includes articles on liberal environmentalism, fish cognition, and wildlife intervention ethics. Her 2025 article critiques capitalism’s growth paradigms, while her 2018 translation of 'Cosa pensano i pesci' examines fish consciousness. Earlier work (2005) explored neurolinguistics. She has organized conferences like 'The Value of Sentience' (2018) and presented on empathy in animal ethics (2025).

Awarded the 2020 Special Commendation Prize for post-doctoral research, Setola actively seeks PhD students to explore interdisciplinary ethical questions at individual and societal levels. Her grants include the IRC project and Government of Ireland Fellowship.