Dr Elselijn Kingma, Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Southampton has been announced as one of just 30 exceptional academics nationally to receive this year’s Philip Leverhulme prize.
, whose research interests include the philosophy of science, applied ethics and metaphysics, with a special focus on medicine, pregnancy and birth, receives a share of £3 million from the Leverhulme Trust. She anticipates using the prize to do and promote research in the emerging field of the ‘philosophy of pregnancy, birth and early motherhood and further establish Southampton as a leading research centre in this field, with a particular focus on training the next generation of researchers.
“Although pregnancy and birth are processes at the absolute core of human existence, the many metaphysical, ethical, epistemological and indeed existential puzzles they present have been largely overlooked in philosophy, and especially analytic philosophy,” said Dr Kingma who is lead-investigator of a 5-year, 1.2 million Euro ERC Research Grant investigating the Metaphysics of Pregnancy. “The prize will enable me, in collaboration with colleagues, to articulate and address these questions.”
The Philip Leverhulme Prizes have been awarded annually since 2001 in commemoration of the contribution to the work of the Trust made by Philip Leverhulme. The prizes recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising.
In 2020 the Trust offered five prizes in each of the following subject areas: Biological Sciences; History; Law; Mathematics and Statistics; Philosophy and Theology; Sociology and Social Policy.
