Teaching Staff

 Dr Tsarina Doyle, BA, MA, Ph.D.

Short description of interests: Tsarina Doyle is interested in how historical approaches to epistemology, metaphysics and value intersect with contemporary debates. She is the author of Nietzsche's Metaphysics of the Will to Power: The Possibility of Value (Cambridge University Press 2018 pbk. 2020) and Nietzsche on Epistemology and Metaphysics: The World in View (Edinburgh University Press, 2009). She is also the primary editor of the Values and Identities book series published by Rowman and Littlefield International.

Current Teaching: PI2112 Themes in the History of Modern Philosophy: Empiricism and Beyond, PI247 Nietzsche and Philosophy, PI3100 Kant’s Theoretical Philosophy, PI246 American Pragmatism, PI6103 Knowledge and Value in Modernity, PI504 Philosophy seminar: participation and management. 

Departmental role: Director of Undergraduate Studies, Final Year Coordinator,  Visiting Student Coordinator (on sabbatical until Dec. 2024)

Location: Room 101, Philosophy Dept., Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353 (0)91 495473

E-mail: tsarina.doyle@universityofgalway.ie 

Dr Lucy Elvis, BA, MA, Ph.D.

Short description of interests:

Specialism: Philosophies of Art and Architecture, Aesthetics, Hermeneutics, Gadamer and Community Philosophy especially Philosophy for Children (P4C)

Current teaching:   PI207 Philosophy of Art, PI2105 Philosophical Enquiry through P4C, PI2109 Philosophy in Irish Schools (JYA only), PI2113 Topics in Ancient Philosophy, PI3104 Philosophy of Culture in Context, PI6111 Public Philosophy and Civic Education.

Departmental role: P4C Coordinator, Philosophical Dialogue Project (PDP), First-Year Coordinator

Location: Room 102, Philosophy Dept., Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353(0)91 494333

Email: lucy.elvis@universityofgalway.ie

Dr Heike Felzmann, Diploma (Counselling & Psychotherapy), Dipl. Psych. (Hamburg), MA, Dr.phil.

Short description of interests: Heike Felzmann has worked and published in a number of different fields of applied ethics, including research ethics, nursing ethics, neuroethics and ethics of psychiatry and psychotherapy (combined with her practical experience as psychologist and psychotherapists). She is currently researching primarily in the area of the ethics of information technologies, such as robot ethics, ethics of AI and value-sensitive design, with extensive experience of working in European research projects. Her work across these different subject areas focuses especially on relational aspects, narrative, governance and trust.

Specialism: Ethics of Information Technology, Bioethics, Research Ethics, Professional Ethics (especially Nursing Ethics), Moral Philosophy, Feminist Ethics

Current teaching: PI2101 Information Ethics, PI335 Moral Theory, PI6104 Research Methods, PI6110 Artificial Intelligence and Ethics, PI6104 Research Methods, CT5142 Ethics and AI, SPA459 Research Ethics, various modules in Nursing.

Departmental role: Students’ research skills development and Final Year Coordinator (semester one only).  On sabbatical in semester 2, academic year 24/25.

Location: Room 201, Philosophy Dept, Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353 (0)91 495043

Email: heike.felzmann@universityofgalway.ie

Dr Richard Hull, BA (Staffs), B.Phil. Oxon., Ph.D. (Keele)

Short description of interests: Richard Hull is the author of Deprivation and Freedom (Routledge 2007) and has published on a number of topics including disability, genetic technologies, reproductive ethics and agent intention. He served two terms on the Irish Council for Bioethics and is a member of the Irish Government’s National Advisory Committee on Bioethics. He teaches in the areas of ethics, political theory and applied philosophy.

Specialism: Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Disability, Nietzsche

Current teaching: PI108 Practical Ethics, PI310 Topics in Applied Philosophy, PI6102 Moral and Political Philosophy

Departmental role: Academic Integrity Coordinator (Semester 2)

Location: Room 104, Philosophy Dept., Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353 (0)91 493714

Email: Richard.Hull@universityofgalway.ie

Prof Felix Ó Murchadha, BA, MA, Dr. Phil. (Wuppertal) 

Short description of interests: Felix Ó Murchadha is a Phenomenologist, whose interests revolve around the disruption of human experience (both joyful and traumatic) with respect to temporality, religious experience, violence, the formation of the self, and the philosophy of nature.  He is the author of The Time of Revolution: Kairos and Chronos in Heidegger (Bloomsbury 2013), A Phenomenology of Christian Life: Glory and Night (Indiana University Press 2013) and The Formation of Modern Self: Reason, Happiness and the Passions from Montaigne to Kant (forthcoming in 2022 with Bloomsbury), along with numerous articles and book chapters in Phenomenology.

Specialism: Phenomenology, Philosophy of Time, Philosophy of Religion, Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur

Current teaching: PI2111 Themes in the History of Modern Philosophy: Rationalism, PI6101 Philosophy of Emotion, PI248 Phenomenology, PI6113 Philosophy of Nature and Technology, PI3105 Philosophy of Nature and PI6104 Research Methods.

Departmental role: Head of Discipline, Director of the M.A. in Philosophy programme, Director of PhD programmes

Location: Room 202, Philosophy Dept., Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353 (0)91 492573

Email: Felix.Omurchadha@universityofgalway.ie

Dr Orla Richardson B.A., M.A., Ph.D.

Short description of interests: Orla is one of the co-ordinators of the P4C (Philosophy for Children) project at NUIG and is a Philosophy for Children (P4C Level 1 teacher (SAPERE-approved.)   She is also an instructor on the NUIG Youth Academy programme.

Specialism: Philosophy for Children (P4C), Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Ethics

Current teaching: PI107 History of Philosophy, PI210 Moral and Political Philosophy, PI2105 Philosophical Enquiry though P4C, PI2108 Philosophy in Irish Schools (JYA only).

Departmental role: P4C Coordinator, Philosophical Dialogue Project (PDP)

Location: Room 106, Philosophy Dept., Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353 (0) 91 494332

Email: orla.richardson@universityofgalway.ie

Dr John O'Reilly, B.A., MA, Ph.D.

Short description of interests: John O’ Reilly lectures on Philosophy of Mind and the History of Irish Thought. John completed his PhD on Wilfrid Sellars on Rules of Inferences. He is presently investigating contemporary issues in the philosophy of mind, focusing on the multi-faceted connections between representational and computational properties.

Specialism: Philosophy of Mind

Current teaching:  PI315 Philosophy of Mind, PI241 History of Irish Thought

Departmental role: Undergraduate Lecturer

Location: Room 204, Philosophy Dept., Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353 (0) 91 495928

Email: john.oreilly@universityofgalway.ie

Dr Nick Tosh, M.Sci., Ph.D. (Cantab) 

Short description of interests: Nick has worked on the interpretation of probability and on methodological questions in the historiography of the sciences. Currently he is especially interested in theoretical/computational branches of the 'brain sciences'. He teaches critical thinking, formal logic and data science skills, and coordinates the Arts with Data Science BA.

Specialism: Philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of history

Current teaching: PISK1102 Critical Thinking and Logic, PI120 Philosophical Questions and Issues, PI2102 Formal Logic, PI3106 Formal Logic 2, PI129 Advanced Philosophical Text, PI3107 Philosophy of Science, various modules for BA Arts with Data Science.

Departmental role: Second Year Coordinator, Coordinator of BA Arts with Data Science, Visiting Students' coordinator (Sem 1 only)

Location: Room 203, Philosophy Dept., Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353 (0)91 495929

Email: nick.tosh@universityofgalway.ie

Dr Nora Ward, BA., MA., Ph.D.

Short description of interests: Nora’s main area of research is Environmental Ethics, with particular focus on environmental identity, ecofeminism and ecomodernism.   She is also interested in public philosophy and the role and place of philosophical work outside of academy.

Specialism: Bioethics, Environmental Ethics

Current teaching: PI120 Philosophical Questions and Issues, PI399 Extended Essay, PI240 Bioethics, PI3103 Environmental Ethics, PI6104 Research Methods

Departmental role: Tutor coordinator 

Location: Room 104, Philosophy Dept., Morrisroe House, 19 Distillery Rd

Phone: 353(0)91 493714

Email: nora.ward@universityofgalway.ie

Part-time and Temporary Teaching Staff

Part-time and Temporary Teaching Staff

Oliver Feeney, Ph.D.
Associate researcher with the Centre of Bioethical Research and Analysis, Discipline of Philosophy, University of Galway

Emeritus Staff

Prof. Paul Crowther, BA, MA, Cert. Ed., D.Phil,
Philosophy of Art & Culture, Dialectical Logic & Metaphysics, Kant's  Epistemology &  Aesthetics, Hegel's Aesthetics, Cassirer.

Prof. Paschal O'Gorman, BA, B.Sc. MA, Ph.D. (NUI) 
Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Economics, Philosophy of Religion, Epistemology.

Prof. Markus Hilmar Wörner, Dr. Phil. Habil., Lect. theol. (Bonn/Berlin), FRAS, 
Philosophy of Language (Rhetoric), Hermeneutics, Aristotle; Aquinas. 

Former Members of Staff

Mr. Joseph Mahon, BA, MA (NUI)
Introduction to Practical Ethics, Moral and Political Philosophy, Marxism and Existentialism, Culture and Society.

Fr. James Colin Garvey, OFM, MA. Doct. en Philosophie (Louv.)
Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Art, History of Medieval Philosophy.

Dr Gerald Cipriani, Cert, CertEd, PgCRM, MA, PhD
Philosophy of culture, aesthetics,  ethical phenomenology, contemporary French philosophy, dialogical philosophy East-West, East Asian philosophies.

Administrative Staff

Academic Support

Room 311 
First Floor, 
Tower 1, 
National University of Ireland Galway 
Galway, IRELAND 
 
Philosophy Admin e-mail: philosophyadmin@nuigalway.ie

School Admin e-mail:  sohap@universityofgalway.ie

Head of Years: