Professor Michael Brady
- Professor of Philosophy (Philosophy)
email:
Michael.Brady@glasgow.ac.uk
Philosophy, Room 525, 69 Oakfield Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8LP
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5826-7136Research interests
My main research is in the philosophy of emotion. One strand of this concerns the epistemic value of emotion; here I am interested in how we should understand the common-sense idea that emotions can tell us about value, and the conditions in which emotions can play a positive epistemic role. My monograph on these themes, Emotional Insight, was published by Oxford University Press in 2013.
The other strand concerns the nature and value of suffering. I was Principal Investigator, along with my colleague David Bain, on a major three-year interdisciplinary project The Value of Suffering, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The project was an investigation by a team of philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and clinicians into the nature and role of suffering and affective experience in general. My monograph on this topic, Suffering & Virtue, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018.
My introductory book Emotion: The Basics was published by Routledge in 2018. I’ve recently co-edited two volumes with my colleagues David Bain and Jennifer Corns, both with Routledge. Philosophy of Pain was published in 2018, and Philosophy of Suffering was published in 2019. That year also saw the publication of Summer.Autumn.Winter.Spring by Manchester University press, a book I co-edited with colleagues at Quarantine, a Manchester-based ensemble of artists and producers making theatre and public performance.
In 2023, I was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for a project on ‘The Philosophy of Post-Traumatic Growth’, which will run until 2025.
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Grants
2023-25
£104,000. Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. The Philosophy of Post-Traumatic Growth.
2013-16
£362,000. John Templeton Foundation. The Value of Suffering Project (Principal Investigator). The VOS project is a large, international, and interdisciplinary research project investigating the nature, role, and value of pain, suffering, and affective experience more generally. Its core team comprises philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists, and clinicians, based in Scotland, France, Norway, and the United States. It includes a postdoctoral fellow and an international PhD student. Running from 2013 - 2016, the project will involve numerous workshops and conferences and will result in articles, a monograph, edited collections, and various outreach activities.
2012-13
£107,000. John Templeton Foundation. The Pain Project (Principal Investigator).
Supervision
My current PhD students are Olan Harrington, Eilidh Harrison and Yunjie Zhang.
I have been supervisor (first or second) for the following students:
- Catherine Robb
- Robert Cowan
- Ioanna-Maria Patsalidou
- Carole Baillie
- James Humphries
- Ross Hetherington
I have also managed Dr Jennifer Corns, who is the postdoctoral researcher on two projects: The Pain Project, and The Value of Suffering.
- Stylianou, Constantinos
Reconstructing Stoicism as a modern virtue ethical theory
Teaching
I usually teach the following courses:
- Philosophy MSc
- Philosophy Conversion (MLitt)
- Senior Honours: The Emotions (SH27)
- Junior Honours: Moral Philosophy (JH9)
- Junior Honours : Epistemology (JH3, tutorials)
- Level 2: Morality, Politics and Religion (2M, Metaethics component)
- Level 1: Right and Wrong (1M, Applied Ethics component)
Additional information
I joined the Department at Glasgow in 2005, having previously taught at the University of Stirling. I received my PhD from the University of California at Santa Barbara, after having studied for a Masters in Philosophy at King's College, University of London, and a BA (Hons) in Philosophy at the University of Liverpool.
From 2019-2023 I was Head of School of Humanities, and am currently Deputy Head of the College of Arts & Humanities at Glasgow.
I was Director of the British Philosophical Association from 2011 until 2014, and Secretary of the Scots Philosophical Association from 2009 until 2012. I am on the Board of The Philosophical Quarterly, and subject editor responsible for Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of Religion for Oxford Bibliographies Online.
Outside of academic philosophy, I am Philosopher-in-Residence at the Manchester-based theatre and performance company Quarantine, and have worked with them on a number of productions.
