Dr Denise Gamble

Biography/ Background

Denise obtained a BA with First Class Honours in Philosophy and a Ph.D (1988) from the University of Sydney.  During her Ph.D candidature she spent a year as a visiting graduate student at MIT in Boston, (Ma).  From 1989-91 she  lived in New York City whilst first a research fellow at Rutgers University (NJ) on an Eleanor Sophia Wood travelling postdoctoral fellowship (for 6 months), and then  remaining at Rutgers as a "Visiting professor", giving courses in Medical ethics, Business ethics, and Aesthetics of film. Denise joined the Philosophy Department at University of Adelaide in 1992.  

Denise's research interests have shifted and broadened: from philosophy of mind and cognitive science (the area of her Ph.D), and analytical philosophy of language, to encompass Kant's moral philosophy, applied ethics, philosophy of film, and philosophy of criminal law.  Denise remains firmly in the analytical philosophy tradition but seeks not to be narrowly confined by naturalism.

Courses taught by Denise at Adelaide include Philosophy and Film and Crime & Punishment.  (Denise has passed four law subjects - Legal institutions, Contracts, Torts, Criminal Law - through University of Sydney before abandoning legal studies.)  She co-ordinates and lectures in Professional Ethics and also regularly  lectures  in Ethics, Science, & Society (jointly run with Department of Anatomical Sciences.)

Denise was for several years involved in developing OHS policy and convening the Faculty OHS Committee  in her role as   Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Associate Dean (OHS). 

She is a Professional Associate of the Ethics Centre of South Australia.

Teaching Interests

Discovering fresh, engaging, and successful ways to teach and enable students to engage with philosophically challenging issues in philosophy of film.  Denise will use the newly designed, flexible defined space offered by Innova Collaborative Space Room 218 to teach Philosophy & Film in 2012.  This space provides opportunity to involve students in active group, individual, and class learning in novel, innovative, and exciting ways.

Denise also has an interest in Kant studies most appropriately pursued at the teaching level through Honours courses. She has given several honours courses, or participated in joint honours courses, in Kant's moral philosophy or aspects thereof.

Another ongoing teaching interest is in applied ethics and bioethics.  Denise has shared the running of an interdisciplinary course in bioethics with Dr. Jeff  Trahair of the Department of Anatomical Science for the last ten years.  There are prospects being actively pursued of further interdisciplinary teaching involvement with Computer Science and in the development of a bioethics major in 2012.

Research Interests

Denise's primary research interests are in Kant's moral and aesthetic philosophy, and philosophy of film.

Work in progress

Denise is currently examining issues surrounding the possibility of film as representational art and exploring this as one route to the exploration of moral engagement and understanding.  This research is intended to be part of a larger project encompassing film aesthetics and epistemology, and emotional engagement with film.  Potential for collaboration with other members of the school of Humanities is being explored. 

In response to feedback Denise is also continuing work on three papers in Kant's moral philosophy each of which has at its core a reading of Kant's morally relevant concept of respect-worthiness of humanity understood in the light of his teleology of reason and ideas of reason.  In different ways each paper seeks to show how this interpretation provides grounds for challenging widely held views that "Kantian" morality supports liberal abortion rights.

Research Funding

2011 -  Awarded small grant in Faculty Grant Scheme to seed research in Philosophy of Film:  Film and moral experience

Publications

 Some Articles

1. Potentialism and the value of an embryo (2005)  Public Affairs Quarterly 19 4 265-299
2. Manifestability and semantic realism (2003) Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 84 1 1-24
3. Defending semantic realism. (2002) Language and Communication 22 3 243-258
4. P-consciousness presentation; A-consciousness representation. (1997) Behavioural and Brain Sciences (Open peer commentary on Ned Block’s “On a confusion about a function of consciousness”) 20 1 149-50
5. Meaning and mental representation.  (1992)  Australasian Journal of Philosophy 70 3 343-357

Reviews

1. Kantian ethics almost without apology.  Marcia Baron.(1997) Australasian Journal of Philosophy 75 4 439-41

2. Representation, meaning and thought.  Grant Gillett. (1995) Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73 3 483-4.

3. Philosophical determinism: On the origin of knowledge by natural selection.  Peter Munz. (1995) Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73 3 498-9.
4. The representational theory of mind. Kim Sterelny. (1993) Australasian Journal of Philosophy 71 4 525-7.

 

 

Expertise for Media Contact

Entry last updated: Sunday, 5 Feb 2012