Supervision expertise in the School of Philosophy and Theology

  • Philosophy

    A/Prof Angus Brook:
    Aristotle
    Thomas Aquinas
    Metaphysics

    Dr Robin Dennis:
    The role of reason in Christian tradition, the origins and status of modern understandings of reason
    Attempts to ground secular reason in Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment thought
    Theories of secularisation, the relationship between Christianity and the dominate forms of secularism

    Sr Dr Mary Julian Ekman:
    The moral philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas: Thomas Aquinas on virtue and human action, Thomas Aquinas on self-knowledge and self-love, Thomas Aquinas on the passions, Thomas Aquinas on natural law, moral philosophy, transcendental good and evil

    Prof Renee Kohler-Ryan:
    Philosophical aesthetics – of art and architecture
    History of philosophy (particularly Medieval)
    Political Philosophy
    Catholic Intellectual Tradition, including literature, ethics, philosophy of culture

    Prof Sandra Lynch:
    Moral philosophy (ethics)
    Applied and Professional Ethics (healthcare ethics, legal ethics, sports ethics)
    Values education
    The constitution of the self and its emotions
    Conceptions of friendship
    Critical thinking
    "Philosophy in Schools"

    Dr Nathan Lyons:
    Thomist philosophy
    Semiotics (esp. medieval semiotics, Peircean biosemiotics)
    Philosophy of nature
    Philosophy of biology
    Continental philosophy of religion

    Dr Annette Pierdziwol:
    Moral philosophy (ethics) and moral psychology and their intersection with social and political philosophy: topics including moral cultivation, character, virtue, emotion, motivation, empathy, compassion, altruism, habit and practice
    Early modern philosophy: seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century moral philosophy, accounts of the passions, Hume, Bishop Butler, Rosseau
    Ethics education: philosophy of moral education and ethics education for the professions
    Continental philosophy: responsibility, conscience, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Levinas, continental philosophy of religion and philosophical theology

    Dr Dejan Simkovic:
    Early modern epistemology and moral philosophy (e.g., Hobbes, Locke, Cambridge Platonists, naturalists (e.g., Hutcheson, Hume and Smith, Berkeley), rationalists (e.g., Malebranche, Butler, Wollaston, Catherine Trotter Cockburn, Kant), Bentham and Mill, Nietzsche
    Early modern philosophy from the 16th to the 19th centuries (empiricists/naturalists and rationalists)
    20th century moral philosophy, especially the analytic tradition (e.g., MacIntyre, Hare, Ayer, Stevenson, Foot, Anscombe, etc.)
    Metaethics (incl. moral epistemology, moral psychology, arguments related to the Is-Ought problem)
    Applied Ethics: theses that cover debates on the moral status of animals and Artificial Intelligence. Aesthetics: early modern theories of art, e.g., Hume, Burke and Kant

    Mr Tim Smartt:
    Epistemology and ethics
    Most areas of contemporary analytic philosophy, including social and political philosophy, decision theory, logic, and the philosophy of language

  • Theology

    Rev Dr Joseph Azize:
    Early (i.e. pre-Nicene) Church history and mysticism (incl. prayer and contemplation)

    Dr Mariusz Biliniewicz:
    Theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI
    Second Vatican Council
    Liturgy and sacraments
    Post-Vatican II theology
    Ecclesiology
    Faith and reason
    General systematic theology

    Dr Doru Costache:
    Early Christian representations of reality
    Traditional interpretations of Genesis 1-3
    Experiences of holiness
    Dreams and visions
    Wellbeing
    Science and theology
    Transdisciplinarity
    General patristics/early Christian studies

    Sr Dr Moira Debono:
    Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Marriage
    Liturgy
    Ecclesiology

    Mr Peter Holmes:
    Scripture
    Biblical interpretation
    Faith and reason
    Pastoral Theology
    Masculinity
    Computer Gaming and Morality

    Sr Prof Isabell Naumann:
    Ecclesiology
    Theological anthropology
    Marian studies

    Prof Susanna Rizzo:
    Liberal Arts
    History & Philosophy of Religion
    Religion and the Construction of Identity
    Piety & Gender
    History of Philosophy (in particular Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance philosophy)
    Political Philosophy
    Biblical Studies
    Judaism of the Second Temple & Christian Origins
    Early Christianity

    Prof Tracey Rowland:
    Theological anthropology
    Political theology
    20th century European Catholic Theology
    Theology of Joseph Ratzinger
    “Faith and Culture” or “New Evangelisation” topics
    Fundamental theology

    Dr Matthew Tan:
    Theology and popular culture
    Theology and social theory
    Postmodern theology
    Theological anthropology
    Virtues and vices

    Dr Kevin Wagner:
    Patristic theology
    Early Church history
    Neo-Platonic philosophy

  • Admission to HDR programs

    View the Admission to Higher Degrees by Research flyer.

  • Research contact

    Dr Mariusz Biliniewicz
    Associate Dean (Research and Academic Development)
    Telephone: +61 (02) 8204-4179
    E-mail:  mariusz.biliniewicz@nd.edu.au