Russell Blackford – curriculum vitae

Phone: +61 3 9699 1493
Email: russellblackford@bigpond.com

Academic background and professional qualifications

·        BA (Hons 1) - University of Newcastle.

·        Dip.Ed. - University of Newcastle.

·        Ph.D in English literature - University of Newcastle.

·        LLB (Hons 1) - University of Melbourne.

·        MBioeth - Monash University.

·        Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

 

Career

Tutor, Department of English, Monash University (1979-82).

 

Various positions in labour relations and professional legal practice (1983-2001).

 

Currently:

·        Freelance writer.

·        Graduate student and sessional teacher, School of Philosophy and Bioethics, Monash University.

·        Fellow, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

 

Areas of specialisation

Moral philosophy, including philosophical bioethics; legal and political philosophy.

 

Areas of competence

 

Philosophy of religion; philosophy of science, particularly philosophy of biology; metaphysics; representation of philosophy and science in literature, art, and popular culture.

 

Selected academic publications

·        "Rendezvous with Utopia: Two Versions of the Future in the Rama Novels." Colloquy 14 (2007): 21-29.

·        "Slippery Slopes to Slippery Slopes: Therapeutic Cloning and the Criminal Law." American Journal of Bioethics 7, 2 (February 2007):  63-64,

·        "Differing Vulnerabilities: The Moral Significance of Lockean Personhood." American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB-Neuroscience) (January 2007):  7, (1) (January 2007): 70-71. 

·        "Sinning against Nature: The Theory of Background Conditions." Journal of Medical Ethics 32 (2006): 629-34.

·        "Dr. Frankenstein meets Lord Devlin: Genetic Engineering and the Principle of Intangible Harm." The Monist 89 (2006): 526-47.

·        "Stem cell research on other worlds, or why embryos do not have a right to life." Journal of Medical Ethics 32 (2006): 177-80.

·         "Greg Egan." A Companion to Science Fiction. Ed. David Seed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005: 441-51.

·         "Human Cloning and 'Posthuman' Society." Monash Bioethics Review 24 (2005): 10-26.

·        "Should We Fear Death? Epicurean and Modern Arguments." Ed. Immortality Institute. The Scientific Conquest of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans. Buenos Aires: LibrosEnRed, 2004: 257-69.

·        "Try the Blue Pill: What's Wrong with Life in a Simulation?" Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation. Ed. Matthew Kapell and William Doty. New York: Continuum, 2004: 169-82.

·        "Mutants, Cyborgs, AI & Androids." Meanjin 63, 1 (2004): 14-21.

·        "Stranger Than You Think: Arthur C. Clarke's Profiles of the Future." Prefiguring Cyberculture: An Intellectual History. Ed. Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson, and Alessio Cavellaro. Sydney: Power Publications, 2002; co-published Boston: MIT Press, 2003: 252-63.

·        "Thinking about Cloning: A Reply to Judith Thomson." Journal of Law and Medicine 9 (2001): 238-50.

·        "Judicial Power, Political Liberty and the Post-Industrial State." Australian Law Journal 71 (1997): 267-93.

 

Academic journals

 

Editor-in-chief of The Journal of Evolution and Technology

 

Referee for the following peer-reviewed journals:

 

·        Bioethics.

·        Colloquy.

·        Journal of Medical Ethics.

·        Monash Bioethics Review.

·        Science Fiction Studies.

 

Work in progress

Doctoral dissertation (and associated articles and essays) on the philosophy of emerging technologies and human enhancement.

 

Research interests revolve around questions relating to the human, or posthuman, future. This includes the ethics, and possible regulation, of emerging technologies, and more generally the future of  morality, the law, political organisation, religious belief, art and literature, and human nature itself.

 

Personal

Russell Blackford was born in Sydney, Australia, and grew up in the Lake Macquarie area, near Newcastle, NSW. He has lived in Melbourne since 1979.

 

Russell is also a professionally published writer, and an internationally respected critic, in the field of science fiction. His other interests include travel and cinema. For more information, see his personal web site: http://www.russellblackford.com.