Â鶹´«Ã½AV

Dr Fay Niker

Lecturer

Philosophy A94 Pathfoot Building

Dr Fay Niker

Contact details

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http://www.stir.ac.uk/people/fayniker

About me

I joined Â鶹´«Ã½AV's Philosophy department as a Lecturer in August 2019 to pursue my research and teaching interests in political philosophy and ethics.

Before taking up this role, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford University for two years. I completed my PhD at the University of Warwick in 2017 (thesis title: "Living Well by Design: An Account of Permissible Public Nudging"), and was awarded my MPhil in political theory from the University of Oxford in 2013. I first studied philosophy and politics while doing my BA (Hons) at Trinity College Dublin.

My main research interests are in political philosophy and (practical) ethics, though increasingly these interests are moving me towards exploring topics in moral psychology and social epistemology too.

My work focuses primarily on the ethics of influence, broadly understood. Within this, I've been working on: the political morality of nudging (i.e., behavioural public policy); how we might accommodate social embeddedness into our understanding of autonomy and paternalism (including some work on trust); salience and attention, and the ways in which these can be adjusted or curated for the purposes of epistemic and/or ethical ends; and the ethics and politics of ¡°caring technologies¡±.

Given the close relationship between my philosophical topics and public policy, I'm keen to be involved in projects that reach beyond the academy.

I am a member of the Neuroethics Collective (based out of the University of British Columbia) and the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs (CEPPA, University of St Andrew's). I also co-edit a collaborative blog, Justice Everywhere, about philosophy in public affairs ().

Community Contribution

Trustee of the Pregnancy and Parents Centre, Edinburgh

I joined the Board of Trustees of the Pregnancy and Parents Centre (PPC) in Edinburgh in 2024. The PPC is a charitable organization supporting women and their families during pregnancy and early parenthood.

Professional membership

Elected to the Council of The Royal Institute of Philosophy

Member of the Centre of Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs (CEPPA)
University of St Andrews

Member of The Neuroethics Collective
University of British Columbia

Professional qualification

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
Higher Education Academy

University Contribution

Co-Lead of the IAS "Accessible Environments" Research Cluster
I am a Co-Lead for the successful IAS cluster Accessible Environments, together with Magdalena Ietswaart (Lead) and Arran Reader. We are the only cluster to have been successful in both rounds of IAS funding, meaning that we now have six PhD students in our research cluster, each being supervised by an interdisciplinary, cross-Faculty team of supervisors. I am supervising two of these projects.

Outputs (18)

Book Review

Frame It Again: New Tools for Rational Decision-Making, Jos¨¦ Luis Berm¨²dez. Cambridge University Press, 2020, x + 330 pages.

Niker F (2022) Frame It Again: New Tools for Rational Decision-Making, Jos¨¦ Luis Berm¨²dez. Cambridge University Press, 2020, x + 330 pages.. Review of: Frame It Again: New Tools for Rational Decision-Making, Jos¨¦ Luis Berm¨²dez. Cambridge University Press, 2020, x + 330 pages. ISBN: 9781107192935. Economics and Philosophy, 38 (2), pp. 320-326. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267121000316

Book Chapter

Autonomy, Evidence-Responsiveness, and the Ethics of Influence

Niker F, Felsen G, Nagel S & Reiner P (2021) Autonomy, Evidence-Responsiveness, and the Ethics of Influence. In: Blitz M & Bublitz JC (eds.) The Law and Ethics of Freedom of Thought, Volume 1: Neuroscience, Autonomy, and Individual Rights. Palgrave Studies in Law, Neuroscience, and Human Behavior. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 183-212. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84494-3_6

Book Chapter

Introduction

Bhattacharya A & Niker F (2021) Introduction. In: Niker F & Bhattacharya A (eds.) Political Philosophy in a Pandemic: Routes to a Most Just Future. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 1-10. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/political-philosophy-in-a-pandemic-9781350225893/

Book Chapter

Harnessing the Epistemic Value of Crises for Just Ends

Adams M & Niker F (2021) Harnessing the Epistemic Value of Crises for Just Ends. In: Niker F & Bhattacharya A (eds.) Political Philosophy in a Pandemic: Routes to a More Just Future. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 219-232. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/political-philosophy-in-a-pandemic-9781350225893/

Book Chapter

Iris Murdoch

Niker F (2020) Iris Murdoch. In: Buxton R & Whiting L (eds.) The Philosopher Queens: The lives and legacies of philosophy's unsung women. London: Unbound, pp. 103-112. https://unbound.com/books/philosopher-queens/

Book Chapter

Trusting Relationships and the Ethics of Interpersonal Action

Niker F & Specker Sullivan L (2019) Trusting Relationships and the Ethics of Interpersonal Action. In: Baghramian M (ed.) From Trust to Trustworthiness. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/From-Trust-to-Trustworthiness/Baghramian/p/book/9780367183103

Research Report

Coding Caring: Human Values for an Intimate AI

Niker F, Himmelreich J, Feldman J & Currie M (2019) Coding Caring: Human Values for an Intimate AI. Stanford University's One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100). https://ai100.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj18871/files/media/file/coding_caring_workshop_report_1000w_0.pdf

Book Chapter

Policy-led Virtue Cultivation: Can we nudge citizens towards developing virtues?

Niker F (2018) Policy-led Virtue Cultivation: Can we nudge citizens towards developing virtues?. In: Harrison T & Walker DI (eds.) The Theory and Practice of Virtue Education. London: Routledge, pp. 153-167. https://www.routledge.com/The-Theory-and-Practice-of-Virtue-Education/Harrison-Walker/p/book/9780367371418

Teaching

Since joining Â鶹´«Ã½AV, I have taught on several modules, broadly covering moral and political philosophy, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Undergraduate Teaching:

  • Designing and teaching several Honours-level modules, including: Humanity as an Ethical Idea (PHIU9HI), Feminist Philosophy (PHIU9FS), and Moral Transformation and Progressive Social Change (PHIU9MT).
  • Redesigning, coordinating, and lecturing on one of Philosophy's large first-year modules, How Should We Live? Philosophy, Ethics and Life (PHIU9A2).
  • Lecturing on John Stuart Mill's philosophy on our second-year history of philosophy module From Plato to Existentialism (PHIU913).
  • Supervising fourth-year Philosophy and PPE dissertation students.
  • Coordinating dissertations for the Politics, Philosophy and Economics programme (2020/21).

Postgraduate Teaching:

  • Teaching Human Rights Theory (HUMPR02) on the MSc in Human Rights and Diplomacy, which Â鶹´«Ã½AV runs with the UN.
  • Convening the Research Methods (PY5103) seminar for the SASP MLitt programme.
  • Supervising SASP MLitt dissertations.

PhD Supervision:

  • Supervised Colin McLean's PhD (with Ben Sachs-Cobbe), which was successfully defended in June 2024. Title: The Liberal Case for Transformative Manipulation.
  • Currently supervising two other SASP PhD students, Emma Holmes (with Jade Fletcher and Rowan Cruft) and Omar Ruiz Rivera (with Michael Wheeler).
  • Co-Lead of the IAS-funded "Accessible Environments" interdisciplinary research cluster, which has secured funding for 6 PhD students each working with an interdisciplinary, cross-Faculty team of supervisors.
  • Supervising two students as part of the Accessible Environments cluster, Jessica Noel-Smith and Devin Adams.

Research themes