معرفی
Kathryn MacKay serves as Senior Lecturer in Bioethics and Program Director for the Master of Bioethics at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Medicine and Health, based in Sydney Health Ethics. With formal academic appointments spanning bioethics, philosophy, and public health, she maintains active research leadership through multiple ARC-funded projects and international collaborations.
Her educational background includes a BA in Philosophy from the University of Western Ontario (Canada), an MA in Philosophy from McGill University (Canada), and a PhD in Bioethics from the University of Birmingham (UK). She further holds a University of Sydney Educational Fellowship (2021).
MacKay's research integrates feminist theoretical frameworks with bioethics, specializing in public health ethics, reproductive autonomy, and virtue theory applications. Her work critically examines societal structures shaping health decisions, with current focus on institutional virtue development for public health and the ethical implications of genomic screening technologies. This feminist bioethics approach consistently centers questions of justice, autonomy, and human flourishing within health policy contexts.
Her 15 most recent publications reveal strong thematic continuity in feminist public health ethics, with increasing emphasis on institutional virtue frameworks and reproductive technology ethics. The 2022-2025 output shows particular methodological diversity, spanning theoretical philosophy, empirical social media analysis, and clinical ethics commentary.
- 2024 Visiting Fellow, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
- 2023-2024 FMH Emerging Stars Funding ($80,000)
- 2020-2025 ARC Discovery Project DP200100006 Principal Investigator
- 2017 University of Birmingham Teaching Award
- 2014-2017 Wellcome Trust Studentship
As supervisor for PhD candidate Isabella Holmes and co-investigator on the ARC TARGET project, MacKay actively mentors emerging scholars in reproductive ethics. Her $80,000 FMH Emerging Star grant (2023-2024) and ongoing ARC Discovery Project demonstrate sustained research funding success. Teaching evaluations highlight her strength in facilitating critical reflection and creating inclusive discussion environments.
MacKay leads the 'Public Health Virtue Ethics' research program within Sydney Health Ethics and contributes significantly to the ARC-funded TARGET project team examining reproductive autonomy in genomic technologies. Her Oxford Uehiro Centre affiliation (2024) extends these collaborative networks internationally.
