Carla Fehr

Areas of interest

feminist philosophy of science, feminist epistemology, feminist philosophy of biology, socially relevant philosophy of science, gender and diversity in STEM, animal studies

Areas of graduate supervision

I’m happy to supervise students within my areas of interest.

Current research

My research explores the social nature of science and technology. I investigate how a group’s culture—its values, practices, and structures—influences the knowledge it produces.

I want to know how scientific values such as objectivity and creativity, and ethical values such as justice, equity, and respect support and reinforce each other to help people meet a wide range of practical and epistemic goals.

Using an intersectional approach to cases ranging from primatology to AI I explore how structural injustice, exploitation, and objectification harm scientific and technological research.

I am also interested in how love can make science better. For fun, I think about how the relationships between humans and dogs support excellence in canine cognition research.

You can find more information about my research and graduate teaching and supervision on my UWscholar page  https://uwaterloo.ca/scholar/c3fehr/home .

Selected publications

• Carla Fehr and Janet Jones. Accepted. “Culture, Exploitation, and the Epistemic Approach to Diversity.” Synthese. Preprint http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/20880/.
• Carla Fehr. 2021. “Doing Things with Case Studies,” in Heidi Grasswick and Nancy McHugh (eds), Making the Case: Feminist and Critical Race Theorists Investigate Case Studies, SUNY Press.
• Sara Weaver and Carla Fehr. 2017. “Values, Practices, and Metaphysical Assumptions in the Biological Sciences,” Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy, ed. Ann Garry, Serene J. Khader, Alison Stone, London: Routledge.
• Carla Fehr. 2011. "Feminist Philosophy of Biology", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).