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Burg, S. van der (Simone)

Research profile

Background

Simone van der Burg is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Twente. She received a PhD at the Free University in Amsterdam for her dissertation In kritisch gezelschap (in critical company), on the role of criticism in ethics based on practices (2007). She studied philosophy also at the Free University and the University of Notre Dame (USA), and did the postdoctoral school of journalism in Rotterdam (diploma: 1996). Between 2001 and 2006 she worked as an assistant professor of ethics and technology at the technical university of Eindhoven (2001-2006) and Delft. Since 2005 she is editor of Wijsgerig Perspectief, a philosophical journal about actual political and societal issues in the Netherlands. Between 1996 and 2002 she worked as a free lance journalist, mostly for Filosofie Magazine –a public magazine about philosophy- and as a script-writer for the television course on philosophy Denken Doorzien by Teleac/NOT, for which she also wrote the first course book. Between 1999 and 2002 she co-organised philosophical cafés in Utrecht, Hofman’s vertellingen, and was the violinist in De filosofen fanfare, the houseband of the philosophical café in Amsterdam Felix en Sophie. Simone is married to Arjen Slagboom and has a son Job (2004).

Current research

Simone van der Burg is currently involved in ethical parallel research in the context of technology research at the Institute for Biomedical Technology in Twente. As an ethicist she follows the research of biophysicists which is conducive to the development of two medical devices: a photoacoustic mammography for the non-invasive detection of breast cancer and an acousto-optic device for the non-invasive monitoring of chemical substances in the blood, such as oxygen and glucose. Her research has two aims: (1) to make an inventory of the morally relevant characteristics of the technologies that are researched, and think about the ways in which ethicists could deal with them, and (2) to advise STW (the most important public financer of technology research in the Netherlands) about how to control the ethical value of technology research.
Themes of interest are the relation between empirical and ethical research, the role of the ethicist in technology research, moral imagination of the future of technology, social (collective) responsibility, the relation between tradition, conservatism and innovation.

International activities

• Co-organization of workshop ‘Research funding and the good life’ with Prof. dr. Robert Frodeman (University of North Texas, USA), which will take place March 17/18 2009 at the University of Twente. Via this workshop I have contacts with (among others) guests like Steve Fuller (University of Warwick, UK), Brian Wynne (CSEC, Lancaster, UK), Carl Mitcham (Colorado School of Mines, USA), René von Schomberg (European Commission, Belgium), John Weckert (CAPPE, Australia)
• Invited lecture to be given in January 2009 at the STIR-workshop (Socio-technical integration research) organized by Erik Fisher, Arizona State University, USA
• Invited lecture given in the Interdisciplinary Lecture Series at the University of North Texas (November 2008)
• Invited two-day ethics course for European PhD-students in technology given at IDEA League Summer School, London July 2008
• Lectures at various international conferences and workshops on ethics and technology (in 2008 four conferences), and related issues in social sciences
• Visiting graduate student at the University of Notre Dame (USA), with philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre (1993-1994)

Other academic activities

• Organization of a colloquium with Klaus Hoeyer at the University of Twente, January 2009
• Development of two modules for courses on ethics of technology for PhD students in technology (on future scenarios, and on research groups and networks). These modules are funded by STW, and are part of a reservoir of course-material coordinated by Ibo van de Poel.
• Main editor of Wijsgerig Perspectief (Philosophical Perspective; a Dutch philosophy journal), 2007- present
• Occasional joint editor (freelance) of Filosofie Magazine, a popular Dutch magazine about philosophy for whom the applicant provided extensive interviews with (among others) Martha Nussbaum, Michael Walzer and Judith Butler
• Invited courses given at the International School of Philosophy (ISVW), about topics like imagination and film, the role of emotion in moral judgment and ethics of technology
• Frequent invited lectures (about 6 yearly) for academic and non-academic audiences on various philosophical themes, mostly ethics and technology.

3TU.Ethics Projects

Normative implications of non-invasive instruments to analyze blood & tissue