Hannah Carnegy-Arbuthnott
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I work on topics in political, moral and feminist philosophy. Before joining the Department of Philosophy at the University of York, I held postdoctoral fellowships at the Centre de recherche en éthique in Montreal (2019 to 2020), and the Center For Ethics in Society at Stanford University (2017 to 2019). I did my MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at University College London.

Research

Overview

My current research focusses on theories of property and self-ownership, with a view to understanding the kinds of rights we have over our bodies, external objects, intellectual property or even personal data. I’m interested in the idea that self-ownership provides a useful framework for mapping the rights of individuals, even if it isn’t a fundamental natural right.

It’s useful in part because it helps us to make sense of different kinds of transactions involving the body – selling or donating bodily material, providing bodily services – as well as providing insight into reasons we might have for regulating or limiting certain kinds of bodily transactions.

My work also explores the general justificatory basis of systems of private property as well as questions of distributive justice.

Projects

• Self-ownership and its implications for the stringency and distribution of private property
• Regulation of bodily services and markets in bodily material
• Exegetical work on the Lockean concept of ‘property in the person’
• Philosophical justifications of intellectual property and ownership of personal data

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Feminist Philosophy