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 aspect of this research concerns the epistemic value of emotion: I am interested in how emotions can tell us about value, and the conditions in which emotions can play a positive epistemic role. My book on these themes, Emotional Insight, was published by Oxford University Press in 2013.
A second aspect is the nature and value of negative affective experience. 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. My book on this topic, Suffering & Virtue, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018. Two current research projects develop this interest further. 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. And in 2024, I was awarded a major three-year grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation for a project on ‘Confession and Flourishing’, with Professor Eranda Jayawickreme at Wake Forest University.
I have written an introductory book Emotion: The Basics, which was published by Routledge in 2018, and edited six books, most recently Summer.Autumn.Winter.Spring, which was published by Manchester University press, and resulted from a collaboration with the performance and theatre company Quarantine. In September 2025 I will take up the role of Dean of Research for the College of Arts & Humanities.
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Grants
2024-27
$259,734. Templeton World Charity Foundation. ‘Confession & Flourishing: An investigation into the impact on flourishing of Catholic confessional practices.’
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:
- Stylianou, Constantinos
Reconstructing Stoicism as a modern virtue ethical theory
I have been supervisor (first or second) for the following students:
- Olan Harrington
- Yunjie Zhang
- Eilidh Harrison
- 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.
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.
