Dr Annette Pierdziwol

Head, Academic Research Development & Innovation, Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor Research

BA Hons 1 (University of Sydney), PhD in Philosophy (University of Sydney), GradCert in Higher Education (University of Sydney)

Email: annette.pierdziwol@nd.edu.au
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1195-6572

  • Biography

    Dr Annette Pierdziwol is Head of Research Development & Innovation for the Pro Vice-Chancellor Research at The University of Notre Dame Australia. Prior to this, she was Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Education, Philosophy & Theology, and Assistant Director of the Institute for Ethics & Society. Annette holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Sydney and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Chicago and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Edinburgh.

    Annette’s research is in moral philosophy, moral psychology, and early modern philosophy. She is especially interested in how we can cultivate the virtue of compassion and has published on the link between empathic concern and altruistic motivation and on motive-based approaches to sustaining compassion. Her current projects include a schools-University research collaboration: ‘Formed for flourishing: Towards a new measure of school success’.

  • Research expertise and supervision

    • Early Modern Philosophy: seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century moral philosophy, theories of the passions and their role in moral, social and political life, Hume
    • Moral Philosophy (Ethics) and Moral Psychology: moral cultivation, character, virtue, emotion, motivation, empathy, compassion, altruism, habit and practice
    • Ethics Education: philosophy of moral education, ethics education for the professions
    • Continental Philosophy: responsibility, conscience, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Levinas, continental philosophy of religion and philosophical theology

  • Research grants

    • "Developing Virtuous Character in Educational Institutions." Industry-funded research grant, The Scots College, 2020 – 2021, $19,997. With Tim Smartt and John Lippitt. Co-Chief Investigator.
    • "Developing Spiritual Care Training for Hospital Staff." Notre Dame Australia Industry-Linked Early Career Team Based Fellowship, St Vincent’s Health Australia, 2019-2021, $185,000. With Megan Best, Matthew Kearney. Investigator.
    • "Translational Research in Spiritual Care." Industry-funded research grant, St Vincent’s Health Australia, 2018 – 2019, $90,000. With Megan Best, Sandra Lynch, Matthew Kearney. Investigator.
    • "An Assessment of the Ethics by the Bedside Program." Industry-funded research grant, St Vincent’s Health Australia, 2018 – 2019, $9,860. With Sandra Lynch, Megan Best, Rosemary Hancock, Tim Smartt, Xavier Symons, Dan Fleming. Investigator.
    • "Enriching Professional Ethics Education with Virtue Ethics." Australian Research Theology Foundation, 2018 – 2019, $5,000. With Tim Smartt. Co-Chief Investigator.
    • "Applied Virtue: Revitalizing Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia (Project FSP-P000163)." Fulbright Specialist Program Grant, Australian-American Fulbright Commission, 2017. $8,000. With Sandra Lynch. Contributing author. [This grant established an international research linkage with Professor Candace Vogler (University of Chicago), which resulted in the Institute for Ethics & Society being named a partner institute on Professor Vogler’s $2.2m John Templeton Foundation Project "Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life" at the University of Chicago. In Fall 2018, I was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago (Sponsor: Professor Candace Vogler) and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Centre for German Philosophy, University of Chicago].
    • "Healthcare Ethics Education and the Catholic University: Clinical Ethics Education in the Context of the Giving Voice to Values Curriculum." Mary Philippa Brazil Foundation, 2016 – 2017, $4,500. With Sandra Lynch. Contributing author.
    • "Making a Habit of it: Early Modern Philosophical and Civic Debates about Character Formation in the Scottish Enlightenment." Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, 2012 – 2013. $11,000. Chief Investigator.

  • Book chapters

    • “Compassion as a Resource for Pluralistic Societies” in Faith and Reason: Vistas and Horizons, edited by Nigel Zimmerman and Sandra Lynch. Wipf & Stock (2021), pp.84-105.
    • “Sustaining Society” in Overcoming Political Tribalism: Responding to Rowan Williams, edited by Damien Freeman. The Kapunda Press (2020), pp. 131-142.
    • “Cultivating Empathic Concern and Altruistic Motivation: Insights from Hume and Batson” in Hume’s Moral Philosophy and Contemporary Psychology, edited by Rico Vitz and Phil Reed. Routledge (2018), pp.142-169.
    • “The 'how' of Transformation in Levinas and Coakley” in Sarah Coakley and the Future of Systematic Theology, edited by Janice McRandal. Fortress Press (2016), pp. 15-48.
    • “Extending Nature: Rousseau on the Cultivation of Moral Sensibility” in Nature versus Normativity: Contemporary Perspectives on Early Modern Philosophy, edited by Anik Waldow and Martin Lenz, New York: Springer (2013), pp.135-158.
    • “Anxious Responsibility: Derrida’s Appropriation of Kierkegaardian ‘Fear and Trembling’” in Trauma, History, Philosophy (With Feature Essays by Agnes Heller and György Márkus), edited by Matthew Sharpe, Murray Noonan, and Jason Freddi, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2007), pp. 76-101.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    • Pierdziwol, Annette. 2023. "Beyond Compassion Fatigue: Motive-Based Approaches to Sustaining Compassion in Palliative Care" Religions 14, no. 1: 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010050

  • Conference papers

    • April 2018 (accepted for presentation): “The Powerful Effects of Repetition: Butler, Hume and Gerard on the Role of Habit in Moral Education” at Habit in the History of Philosophy, British Society for the History of Philosophy Annual Conference 2018, University of Durham
    • Feb 2018: “Habit and Imagination: Nussbaum and Hume of the Cultivation of Compassion” at 2nd Australian Political Theory and Philosophy Conference, University of Sydney.
    • Dec 2017: “The Fact of Pluralism and the Work of Sympathy,” Australasian Society of Continental Philosophy annual conference, University of Tasmania.
    • Aug 2017: “Aristotle on Habituation and the Nature of our Responsibility for Cultivating Virtue” at Symposium with Candace Vogler: Ethics, Virtue and the Catholic Tradition, University of Notre Dame Australia.
    • Sep 2016: "Finding the words: The Role of Narrative and Scripting in Professional Ethics Education" at Philosophical Moorings of 'Giving Voice to Values': In Conversation with Mary C. Gentile, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney.
    • July 2016: “Hume on the Cultivation of Sympathy” at the 43rd International Hume Society Conference: Hume and Moral Psychology, Hume and Ancient and Early Modern Dialogues, University of Sydney.
    • July 2016 (presented with Renee Kohler-Ryan): “Rethinking Ethics Education in Departments of Economics: William Cavanaugh’s Novel Proposal” at Economy, Idolatry and Secularisation: In Conversation with William T. Cavanaugh, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney.
    • Jan 2016: “Aristotle on Habituation and the Nature of our Responsibility for Cultivating Virtue” at “In pursuit of wisdom: Ancient Chinese and Greek perspectives on cultivation”, International Conference at UNSW, Sydney.
    • Aug 2013: "Kierkegaard on Conscience and the World", Kierkegaard and the World Conference, Australian Catholic University and Deakin University, Melbourne
    • Feb 2013: "Hume on Sympathy's Other Role in Moral Life", panel on Manners and Styles: Cultivating Sympathy in the Enlightenment, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh
    • Jul 2012: "Commonalities of Feeling: The Other Enlightenment Response to Religious Diversity", Australasian Association of the Philosophy of Religion annual conference, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
    • Dec 2011: "Responsibility and Narrative Time: Levinas via Dostoevsky's Brother's Karamazov", Australasian Society of Continental Philosophy annual conference, La Trobe University
    • Nov 2011: Response to papers by Sebastian Gardner and Paulo Diego Bubbio, Ethics and Religion in Post-Kantian Thought (2nd Symposium of the USYD Religion & Post-Kantian Philosophy Research Cluster), University of Sydney
    • Sep 2011: "Excess and Distortion: Enlightenment Worries about the Cultivation of Moral Sensibility", Workshop on Representation and Sensibility, University of Sydney
    • Dec 2010: "Enlightenment Lessons on the Cultivation of Moral Sensibility", Australasian Society of Continental Philosophy annual conference (Sensibilité stream), University of Queensland
    • Sep 2010: "Kant and Hegel on the Ontological Proof and the Fate of Transcendence", Hegel and Religion (1st international conference of the USYD Post-Kantian philosophy of religion research cluster), University of Sydney
    • Nov 2009: "The Concept of Responsibility in Continental Philosophy", Australasian Society of Continental Philosophy annual conference, Monash University
    • Jul 2008: "Derrida on Responsibility and Religion", participants' conference of the 33rd Annual session of The Collegium Phaenomenologium (theme: Belief after Reason: Hegel, Heidegger, Derrida), Città di Castello
    • Sep 2007: "Escaping Kant's Courtroom: Heidegger on Conscience and Responsibility", Society for European Philosophy – Forum for European Philosophy annual conference, Sussex University
    • Aug 2007: "Challenging Heidegger on Conscience", Romanian Society for Phenomenology's international summer course (theme: Philosophical Concepts and Religious Metaphors: New Perspectives on Phenomenology and Theology), Sibiu
    • Jul 2007: "Introducing Ethics to Anxiety", Australasian Association of Philosophy annual conference (Kierkegaard stream), University of New England
    • Sep 2006: "Derrida's Recasting of Belief: The Importance of the Testimonial for Philosophy's Self-understanding", Centre for Theology and Philosophy annual conference (theme: Belief and Metaphysics), Granada
    • Jul 2006: "Traumatic Responsibility: Derrida, Kierkegaard, and the Sacrifice of Isaac", Australasian Society of Continental Philosophy annual conference, Deakin University

  • In the media

    “How Character Matters for Leadership”, ABC RN God Forbid, 13 September 2020.

  • Community and industry engagement

    • "Ethics in the Workplace", Australian Tertiary Education Management Professional Development Workshop on Practical Complaint and Misconduct Handling, ACU North Sydney. March 2019.

    Publications for Industry Projects

    • "Ethics at the Bedside Program Review". 19-page Executive Report with tabled set of recommendations. Commissioned by Dr Dan Fleming, Group Manager Ethics & Formation at St Vincent’s Health Australia. (With Sandra Lynch, Xavier Symons, Rosemary Hancock and Tim Smartt)
    • "Professional Ethics for Commercial Finance Broking". A series of 6 short articles produced for the Commercial Asset Finance Brokers Association of Australia. (With Xavier Symons and Tim Smartt)

  • Journal articles

    • Pierdziwol, Annette. 2023. "Beyond Compassion Fatigue: Motive-Based Approaches to Sustaining Compassion in Palliative Care" Religions 14, no. 1: 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010050