Our research
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Our research strategy

We span a wide range of research topics, reflecting our multidisciplinary membership.

The Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre (EAC) focuses on developing research networks, fostering new collaborations and mentoring the next generation of researchers.

Centre members can apply for funds across a range of research activities such as:

  • conducting research projects
  • running workshops
  • holding research meetings
  • inviting internationally-renowned scholars to visit the centre
  • supporting higher-degree research students.

Current centre research falls broadly into ethical and legal challenges related to technology, social justice and equity, and health and healthcare.

We have active research on a range of health topics. Some recent activities include:

  • Ebony Birchall (Law School) co-hosted a workshop with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre that brought together 25 academic, industry, and non-profit sector experts to share knowledge on health care provision within the immigration detention network. The team has plans to develop a research program focused on access to justice for immigration detainees.
  • Wendy Lipworth (Department of Philosophy) has submitted a Future Fellowship application on philosophical approaches to research integrity. The EAC is central to the application, with the centre forming the core of the new Macquarie University Research Integrity Laboratory laboratory, to be established if the project is funded.
  • Several members of the EAC (from the Law School, the Australian Institute for Health Innovation and the Department of Philosophy) are joining another application led by Wendy Lipworth, for an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence on the governance of health technology innovation.

Social justice and equity are central to research in the EAC. For example:

  • Jane Johnson (Department of Philosophy) leads work on the care of non-human animals and its impact on both animals and their human carers. In 2023 she ran a workshop with animal technicians and managers from various research organizations across Sydney examining the challenges they experience as part of their work. The workshop helped establish a new research team in the EAC who will work towards a collaborative grant application.
  • Gender equity is central to research led by Katrina Hutchison (Department of Philosophy). One of her current projects focuses on gender bias in various careers (including surgery, law, philosophy, information technology, biology, astronomy). Her team is investigating the impact of common interactions (such microaffirmations, microaggressions, microinequities) on career choices. The associated workshop attracted 35 attendees including prominent professional leaders, leading to plans for a collaborative publication.
  • A new project, ‘Towards an Indigenous-led conceptualisation of race’, led by Paul Podosky (Department of Philosophy) brings EAC members with expertise in the philosophy of race into dialogue with scholars from Indigenous studies at Macquarie University and beyond.

A series of 'technology ethics' research projects are supported by MQEARC funds, promoting interdisciplinary collaborative research. Artificial Intelligence (AI) features prominently, given its ever-growing impact. For example:

  • A workshop on ‘Generative AI, Arts and Copyright’, led by Rita Matuliontye in the Law School, explored the challenges that Generative AI is causing in the field of copyright and art sector more broadly.
  • The EAC also funded data collection for a project on Generative AI and copyright in a collaboration between members in the Business School, Department of Philosophy and Law School, with plans for publications and an ARC Discovery application.
  • A second AI workshop on ‘Grief in the Digital Age’, led by Regina Fabry (Department of Philosophy), engaged researchers from across the University, and sparked a collaborative application for a Special Issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.
  • As well as these projects in AI, the EAC funded two interdisciplinary collaborative research projects into gaming ethics. This involved EAC members from computing science, psychology and philosophy, leading to plans for a new collaboration with Tilburg University.