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Diane Michelfelder

Professor of Philosophy
20th Century European philosophy, philosophy of technology and engineering, animal ethics.

Old Main, 115
651-696-6197

Website: https://www.macalester.edu/~michelfelder/

Much of Professor Michelfelder’s teaching and research has developed at the intersection of  movements in 20th century European philosophy, particularly phenomenology, with the philosophy of technology.  A special focus of her work is on ethical issues related to Internet-embedded design, ranging from individual technologies such as the Echo/Alexa to the “smart” city. Professor Michelfelder is a past president of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, and serves (since 2013) as the co-editor-in-chief of its journal, Techné: Research in Philosophy of Technology. In 2017-2018 she taught Philosophy of Technology, Critical Thinking, Animal Ethics, and the Philosophy Senior Seminar, along with supervising the Honors project of Logan Stapleton ’18 on “Persons in a Built Environment: Animals, Machines, and Moral Responsibility”.  While she has a home office, she almost always works in her living room so she can be surrounded by her cats and dogs and be closer to the coffee maker.

Sample Publications and Presentations:

“Risk, Disequilibrium, and Virtue”. 2018. Technology in Society 52 (February): 32-38.

Michelfelder, Diane, Byron Newberry, and Qin Zhu, Eds. Philosophy and Engineering: Exploring Boundaries, Expanding Connections. 2017. Dordrecht: Springer Press. viii+270 pp.

Diane Michelfelder, Galit Wellner, and Heather Wiltse. 2017. “Designing Differently: Toward a Methodology for an Ethics of Feminist Technology Design.” In The Ethics of Technology: Methods and Approaches, Ed. Sven-Ove Hansson, Roman and Littlefield International, pp. 193-218.

Diane Michelfelder and Sharon Jones. “From Caring About Sustainability to Developing Care-Ful Engineers.” 2016. In New Developments in Engineering Education for Sustainable Development. Eds. Walter Leal Filho and Susan Nesbit. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 173-184.

“Postphenomenology with an Eye to the Future.” 2015. In Postphenomenological Investigations: Essays on Human-Technology Relations. Edited by Robert Rosenberger and Peter-Paul Verbeek. New York: Lexington Books (Roman Littlefield): pp.237-346.

“Driving while Beagleated.” 2014. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 18(1-2): 117-132.

PhD: The University of Texas at Austin, 1982.

  • AB: Bryn Mawr College, 1975