dr. J.S. Hermann (Julia)

I am a philosopher and political scientist by training and received my PhD in 2011 from the European University Institute in Florence (Department of Political and Social Sciences) with a thesis entitled "Being Moral: Moral Competence and the Limits of Reasonable Doubt". I held research and teaching positions at the European Intra-University Centre of Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice, Maastricht University, Utrecht University and Eindhoven University of Technology. In the past, I have worked on topics such as moral justification, the later Wittgenstein's relevance for issues in moral philosophy, moral progress, evolutionary explanations of morality, the role of context in ethics, the ethics of citizen science, and the technological disruption of epistemic certainty. My current research on the ways in which emerging technologies, such as ectogestative technology or care robots affect human practices and fundamental concepts is funded by the NWO gravitation programme "Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies" ( ESDiT). I am a member of the ESDiT Management Board and one of the coordinators of the ESDiT Art Track. Together with Kornelia Konrad, I coordinate the BMS Strategic Research Theme "Emerging Technologies and Societal Transformations". I am the ethical advisor of Urimon, the vice-chair of the Organisation of Ethicists in the Netherlands ( VvEN) and an author of the blog Justice Everywhere.

Organisations

My current research is embedded in the ESDiT programme, in particular in the research lines "The Human Condition" and "Foundations & Synthesis". In 2021, I started a research project on the disruptive potential of ectogestative technology (better known as artificial womb technology), in collaboration with speculative designer Lisa Mandemaker, design researchers, and other ESDiT scholars. One of the outputs of this project was the installation "Monuments for Future M/Otherhood", displayed at the Dutch Design Week 2022. A chapter about ectogestative technology can be found in the ESDiT book. I am currently working on several papers related to this project.

Within the ESDiT STEM Track, I am working on a transdisciplinary research project in collaboration with the Responsible Sensing Lab. In this project, we investigate how a digital system steering car drivers in the smart city of Amsterdam would affect the drivers' experience of autonomy. ESDiT researchers collaborate with people from the municipality of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. 

Following up on a paper on technomoral resilience, co-authored with Katharina Bauer, and expanding my experience with transdisciplinary research, I am currently setting up a collaboration with the research and concept designer Rebekka Strenk, robotics researchers, and partners from the domain of elderly care. In a transdisciplinary research and design project, we want to study how care robots disrupt elderly care practices, the relationship between caregivers and the elderly, and what it means for care to be good care.

A long-standing research interest of mine is the relevance of the philosophy of the later Wittgenstein for discussions in ethics and metaethics. Recently I have started working on Wittgenstein's relevance for philosophy and ethics of technology. I am currently working on the phenomena of epistemic and moral disruption, the technological mediation of certainty, and the notion of (deep) moral disagreement.

I am in charge of the RESTS-teaching within the study programmes Health Sciences and Technical Medicine. This academic year, I will be involved in the module 2 (Health Sciences) and 11 (Technical Medicine). 

Within the PSTS-programme, I teach Ethics and Technology I (together with Maren Behresnen) and MasterLab (together with Andreas Weber).

I am a member of the PSTS Programme Committee.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2023/2024

Current projects

Finished projects

Organisations