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". Prior to joining the University of Twente in 2020, I held research and teaching positions at the European Intra-University Centre of Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice, University of California at Berkely, Maastricht University, Utrecht University, and Eindhoven University of Technology. 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, technomoral change, and the technological disruption of epistemic and moral certainty. My current research on the ways in which emerging technologies, such as ectogestative technology or care robots affect human practices and fundamental concepts, and on the role of philosophy and art in transdisciplinary research practices, is funded by the NWO gravitation programme "Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies" ( ESDiT). I am a member of the ESDiT Management Board, advisor of the Art Research Line in ESDiT and second advisor of the Human Agency and Autonomy Research Line. Together with Kornelia Konrad, I coordinate the BMS Strategic Research Theme "Emerging Technologies and Societal Transformations". I am the ethical advisor of Urimon, vice-chair of the Organisation of Ethicists in the Netherlands (VvEN) and member of the editorial board of Filosofie & Praktijk.

Organisations

My current research is embedded in the ESDiT programme, in particular in the Art and STEM Research Lines. 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 STEM Research Line, I was involved in a transdisciplinary research project in collaboration with the Responsible Sensing Lab. In this project, we investigated how a digital system steering car drivers in the smart city of Amsterdam would affect the drivers' experience of autonomy. ESDiT researchers collaborated with people from the municipality of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. One of the main outputs of this project is a report that includes recommendations for the municipality. We are currently working on a thematic analysis of the empirical data collected in this study.

My participation in the above-mentioned transdisciplinary research projects sparked my interest in transdisciplinary methods and the roles of philosophy and art in transdisciplinary collaboration, which I am currently exploring. 

A long-standing research interest of mine is the relevance of the philosophy of the later Wittgenstein for discussions in ethics and metaethics. More recently, I 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, the notion of deep moral disagreement, and the relationship between Wittgenstein's notion of certainty and his rule-following considerations. I have published a book chapter on socially disruptive technologies and moral certainty and have a paper on moral certainty, deep disagreement and disruption forthcoming in Synthese.

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

Within the PSTS-programme, I am the coordinator of MasterLab.

I am a member of the PSTS Programme Committee.

I have supervised the PSTS theses of the following students: Luuk Stellinga, Laura Lamers (second reader), Alice Wang, Chiara Wüller (second reader), Juan Muñoz (second reader), Nanou van Iersel (second reader), Lauren Challis (second reader), and Louis Hu.

I currently supervise the theses of Julian Sotschek, Mischa Ansari (second reader) en Cynthia Bors (second reader).

Affiliated study programs

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

Guest at Focus, NPO Radio 1 (about the artificial womb), 7 May 2021

Interview for David Anderson’s podcast Faith in the Flybottle (about moral certainty, competence, teaching…), 25 January 2021, available here.

Interview with science journalist Jop de Vrieze (about the artificial womb) for an article in Quest, 5 January 2021

“Moral Progress: Philip Kitcher in conversation with Julia Hermann”, organized by The Philosopher, 11 October 2021 (can be watched here).

Guest in the 4TU.Ethics and DDfV Corona/Ethics Podcast on corona, ethics and the philosophy of technology (together with Ibo van de Poel), available here.

"Julia Hermann on the artificial womb", ESDiT Podcast, 29 October 2021, available here.

Host of an episode with Jeroen Hopster on the nature of socially disruptive technologies, ESDiT Podcast, 29 October 2021, available here.

Interview about the ethics of socially disruptive technologies for the Australian radio programme Radical Philosophy, 3CR Community Radio, 22 January 2022, available here.

Podcast on the ESDiT book, The Dissenter, together with Ibo van de Poel and Jeroen Hopster, released on 30 November 2023, available here.

Podcast on ectogestative technology, The Dissenter, 20 May 2024, released on 4 November 2024, available here.

Address

University of Twente

Ravelijn (building no. 10), room 4121
Hallenweg 17
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations