معرفی
Meaghan O'Keefe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis, within the College of Letters and Science. Her work bridges religious studies, linguistics, and public ethics, focusing on how moral authority and trust are negotiated in American public discourse.
Her research interests include religious discourse in political debate, bioethics, bureaucratic language, and public health policy. She applies linguistic analysis to examine how small grammatical choices support large rhetorical goals in public argumentation, especially in ethical and policy contexts. This includes studying metaphor use in discussions of emerging biotechnologies like CRISPR-Cas9.
Dr. O'Keefe is actively engaged in public service through her role on the University of California Hospital Ethics Committee and her prior involvement with the California End of Life Option Act Task Force, where she helped support healthcare organizations in implementing physician aid-in-dying policies.
She teaches courses such as RST 10: Healthcare and Religious Belief, which explores how religious traditions frame ethical issues in medicine, and RST 140: Christian Theology, which examines historically contested theological questions and their cultural impact.
Her scientific contributions center on normative communication ethics and interdisciplinary public policy, though no specific awards or publications are listed in the available materials.
She advises students in religious studies and contributes to academic and institutional ethics initiatives, reflecting a strong commitment to both scholarly research and civic engagement.
