Professor VIKKI ENTWISTLE

Biography

I am Professor of Health Services Research and Philosophy with academic homes in both the Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation (formerly Health Services Research Unit) within the Institute of Applied Health Sciences on the University's Foresterhill campus and Philosophy (School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History) on the Old Aberdeen campus.

My research and teaching are highly interdisciplinary. Broadly speaking, I use philosophy and social research to understand and address concerns about quality, ethics and social justice in health care, public health and (more recently) funeral provision and work with the dead and bereaved. I am particularly interested in what are sometimes called person-centred approaches to service provision - you might prefer to talk about the humanity in health and social care provision. I often use feminist theorising and a relational capabilities approach to human wellbeing in my work. 

I've had the privilege of working in, and visiting, a number of universities internationally, gravitating back to the University of Aberdeen each time with an extended range of valued colleagues and learning. 

Research Overview

I use social research and practical philosophy to help understand what matters for 'good' public health, healthcare and care of the dead and bereaved, to analyse ethical issues, and to consider how policy and practice should be developed in those domains. I seek to take seriously the plurality of values, diversity of perspectives, complexity of social relationships and demands of social justice.  

Current Research

I am currently working on several projects:

'But why is that better?' explores what applied philosophy and ethics can contribute to healthcare improvement. This is a collaboration with Professor Alan Cribb and Dr Polly Mitchell of King's College London. It was funded by the Wellcome Trust until November 2024 and we are currently finalising a monograph under contract with Bloomsbury. The project webpage (including links to the project's journal outputs) is at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/but-why-is-that-better-project .

Developing the foundations for a Centre (currently 'in development') for Interdisciplinary Death Studies. This  broad project initiative builds from the collaboration and learning that for me were initiated with the ESRC funded project 'Developing practical ethics of care for the dead and bereaved' examines what we can learn from the disruption and development of funeral practices during COVID-19. One of the main outputs from that project was the Care in Funerals Casebook - an online resource to support reflection and discussion of values and practical and ethical challenges in funeral provision ( www.abdn.ac.uk/care-in-funerals-casebook ). Developmental work for the Centre, which I co-lead with Dr Arnar Árnason, includes fostering internal and external network development and supporting grant writing.  

Contributions to the Plan A project (developing a decision aid to support planning for either vaginal or caesarean birth) and the I6 initiative (to foster research to improve maternity service provision, particularly for underserved communities), both led by Dr Mairead Black. 

Collaborations

Other current collaborations include with:

Professor Alan Cribb (King's College London), including development of work on the value of healthcare relationships.

Mr Devanand ANANTHAM (PhD candidate), Dr VOO Teck Chuan (National University of Singapore). Doctoral supervision: Doctor-patient partnerships: the key to a better standard of medical advice? 

Teaching Responsibilities

For Academic Year 2024-25 my main teaching commitments are:

Lecturer for PU5056/5062 Key Concepts in Global Health (covering human rights, justice and ethics in global health)

Lecturer for PH1522 How Should One Live? (covering feminist approaches to ethics)

Lecturer for AY1505 Death! (covering Funerals and COVID-19: learning from disruption)

Lecturer for PH2542 Philosophy and Society (covering philosophy of healthcare improvement)

Supervisor for PH402D Dissertation in Philosophy

Lecturer for PH5069 Philosophy and Society (online)

Project and dissertation supervision:

I will be happy to discuss possible supervision with postgraduate students from diverse disciplinary and practitioner backgrounds who are interested in pursuing questions relating to values and ethics in healthcare and/or deathcare. I particularly welcome inquiries from people who want to work across philosophical and social research approaches, and to draw on feminist theorising and/or a capability approach.

I also contribute to the supervision of philosophy honours projects relating to ethics and/or feminist philosophy.   

Previous teaching:

For Academic Year 2023-24 my main teaching commitments were:

Lecturer for PU5056/5062 Key Concepts in Global Health (covering human rights, justice and ethics in global health)

Lecturer for PH1522 How Should One Live? (covering feminist approaches to ethics, and the capability approach)

Lecturer for AY1505 Death! (covering Funerals and COVID-19: learning from disruption)

Lecturer for PH2542 Philosophy and Society (covering philosophy of quality and philosophy healthcare improvement)

Supervisor for PH354p Philosophy Honours Research Project

Supervisor for PH402D Dissertation in Philosophy

For Academic Year 2022-23 my main teaching commitments were:

Course co-ordinator and academic lead for PU5528 – Values and Ethics in Public Health

This Masters level (level 5) course is offered as an elective for several postgraduate degrees in Applied Health Sciences.

Lecturer for PH1522: How Should We Live?

For this level 1 course, I contribute introductions to Feminist Approaches to Ethics, and the Capability Approach.  

Supervisor for PH354p: Philosophy honours research project and PH402D: Philosophy Dissertation

Lecturer for PH5066: Philosophy and society 

Lecturer for PH5568: Impact and engagement

Supervisor for PH5067: Readings in Philosophy and Society and PH5905 Philosophy and Society Dissertation

These Masters level (level 5) courses are part of the MLitt in Philosophy and Society.

For Academic Year 2021-22 my main teaching commitments were:

Lecturer for PH1522: How Should We Live?

For this level 1 course, I contribute introductions to Virtue Ethics, Feminist Approaches to Ethics, and the Capability Approach.  

Lecturer for Ph5568: Impact and engagement

This Masters level (level 5) course is part of the MLitt in Philosophy and Society.

Supervisor for PH5067 – Readings in Philosophy and Society

This Masters level (level 5) course is part of the MLitt in Philosophy and Society.

Supervisor for PH402D – Philosophy Dissertation

Academic lead for Weeks 1-6 for PU5528 – Values and Ethics in Public Health

This Masters level (level 5) course is offered as an elective for several postgraduate degrees in Applied Health Sciences. (Please note the course co-ordinator for AY2021-22 is Dr Samantha Donnelly)

For Academic Year 2020-21 my main teaching commitments were: 

Course co-ordinator for PU5528: Values and ethics in public health

This Masters level (level 5) course is offered as an elective for several postgraduate degrees in Applied Health Sciences. 

Lecturer for PH1522: how should we live? 

This level 1 course is co-ordinated by Professor Beth Lord. I contributed introductions to Virtue Ethics, Feminist Approaches to Ethics, and the Capability Approach.   

Lecturer for PH306D: contemporary research topics in philosophy

This level 3 course is co-ordinated by Dr Luca Moretti. I contributed teaching on various questions relating to Trust, and on the use of Thought Experiments to examine ethical issues.