معرفی
Katrina Sifferd is Professor of Philosophy at Elmhurst University, where she holds the Genevieve Staudt Endowed Chair and serves as Interim Associate Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of London, King's College and a Juris Doctorate, creating a unique interdisciplinary foundation for her work at the intersection of philosophy and law.
Dr. Sifferd's research focuses on moral and criminal responsibility, examining how neuroscientific findings inform legal concepts of culpability. Her work spans neuroethics, neurolaw, punishment theory, and the philosophical foundations of criminal justice. She argues that responsibility is grounded in the brain's prefrontal executive processes, developing what she calls an 'executive theory of responsibility' that bridges folk-psychological concepts of the law with neuroscientific findings.
She is best known as co-author of the influential book Responsible Brains: Neuroscience, Law, and Human Culpability (MIT Press, 2018), which has shaped interdisciplinary conversations at the intersection of philosophy, law, and neuroscience. Her scholarly output includes numerous articles in top journals such as Criminal Law & Philosophy, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, and The Monist, covering topics from reckless rape cases to juvenile responsibility to the moral dimensions of rape judgments.
Before pursuing philosophy, Dr. Sifferd worked as a senior research analyst on criminal justice projects for the U.S. National Institute of Justice, bringing practical legal experience to her theoretical inquiries. Following her Ph.D., she held a post-doctoral position as Rockefeller Fellow in Law and Public Policy and Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College.
