Ethics, Values and Policy Initiative people
The Ethics, Values and Policy Initiative (EVPI) has a core team, as well as an advisory board and a group of student interns.
Co-directors of EVPI
Dr Temidayo Eseonu
Co-director of the Ethics, Values, and Policy Initiative
My academic training has included degrees in different disciplines which has influenced my interdisciplinary position, drawing on a range of theories to research questions of racial equity and justice. I am particularly interested in the role of values and ethics in agenda setting, issue prioritisation, and the determination of policy content. Some of the research questions I am interested in are: what values drive politicians and policymakers at all levels to respond to the claims for racial justice put forward by racially minoritised communities? What ethics set the boundaries for what is an acceptable policy response to these claims in a context of polarization, competing priorities, and limited resources? With previous professional experience outside academia and with experience of community engagement, I see myself as spanning boundaries, working across academic, public and policy spheres. I place importance on building relationships in these spheres, having knowledge of them, identifying policy problems, and creating spaces for people from within them to co-produce understanding of the policy problems and corresponding solutions to racial inequalities.
Professor Robert Geyer
Co-director of the Ethics, Values, and Policy Initiative
My background is in International Political Economy, UK and European Union Politics and Policy and Scandinavian Social Democracy. However, I best known for my work on Complexity Theory and Public Policy. For me, complexity theory is a framework for understanding why policy-making in our modern world is so challenging and why the role of policy markers is so important. I am keen to explore the ethical and values aspects of everyday policy making at all levels (from local schools to regional planning to national and international relations) because they are the fundamental organising principals around for millions of everyday policy actors micro-decisions. These principals and actions form the foundational culture of all policy environments. Exploring this, helping students to understand it and supporting policy makers in trying to manage their complex environment and make decisions in challenging situations is why I am so excited to be a part of the EVPI.
Project Co-ordinator
Dr Rianna Price
EVPI Project Co-ordinator
My PhD research looked at the intersection of medical ethics, health policy, and the impact of heteronormative values on legislative practice for queer people in India. As such, I am interested in the intersections between health, ethics, and policy, and how these shape socio-cultural discourses of sexual orientation and gender identity. My research engages with the relationships between colonialism and health, as well as the impact of imperialism on understandings of race, gender, caste, and religion. The ethics, values, and policy initiative is an excellent way for me to move into more direct research on policy and policymaking.
Board Members of EVPI
Dr Lucia Ardovini
EVPI Board Member
I am a Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, and the Director of the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies. My work focuses on the intersection of ideology, transnational activism, and social movements – investigating how forced displacement and repression bring about social and political change. I am therefore particularly interested in centering conversations around ethics and values in the process of policy-making, and in examining the role they play to shape both domestic and international policy discourses.
Professor Rachel Cooper
EVPI Board Member
I am a philosopher of science, working mainly on topics in the philosophy of medicine, particularly philosophy of psychiatry. My research has focussed on conceptual issues related to the classification of psychopathology, and on concepts of health and disorder. Much of my research integrates work in the history of psychiatry with philosophy of science, and my work in the philosophy of mental health seeks to engage with the live concerns of researchers, service users and policy-makers. My publications include three books: Diagnosing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Karnac, 2014), Psychiatry and the Philosophy of Science (2007, Acumen) and Classifying Madness (Springer, 2005).
Dr Bihani Sarkar
EVPI Board Member
Mywork has explored the ethics and values underlying the habits and attitudes of classical Sanskrit poets. My recent interests include the values underlying the interpretation of tradition in contemporary South Asian political ideology.
Dr Simona Soare
EVPI Board Member
I specialize in defence innovation, the applications of emerging technologies in defence capabilities, software-defined defence, digital transformation of defence, and future of war. I am Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Technology in the Department for Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University.
Prior to this, I was research fellow for defence and military analysis with IISS, senior associate analyst for transatlantic defence and EU-NATO cooperation with the EUISS, senior security and defence advisor to the Vice-President of the European Parliament and defence analyst with the Ministry of Defence. I hold a PhD in International Security (2011), and I am a US Department of State Fellow and a Denton Fellow.
Dr Garrath Williams
EVPI Board Member
I’ve had strong interests in ethics, value and policy for over 25 years, since my Master's degree in Health Care Ethics. I have written and taught research ethics, the ethics of genetics, public health, and food and health policy. I have also done research on individual and institutional responsibility, Kantian approaches to ethics and political theory, and the political thinker Hannah Arendt.
Law Policy Clinic and EVPI Board Members
Sadie Whittam
EVPI Board Member
I am a practising Solicitor, Senior Lecturer and Director of Clinical Legal Education in the Law School. I founded the University's award-winning Policy Law Clinic in 2021. In the Policy Law Clinic, practising solicitors train Law students to conduct research and produce a research report to support the work of a charity. In academic years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 the Policy Law Clinic collaborated with UCLAN and the Environmental Law Foundation. Students conducted empirical research and drafted a report to the Environmental Law Foundation, setting out the extent to which local authorities are on track to achieve their stated climate goals.
Zanele Wood
EVPI Board Member
I am a Solicitor and Lecturer of Clinical Legal Education. Prior to joining the University, I worked for a firm of solicitors based in West Yorkshire where I primarily undertook family law work. I am a lecturer and supervising solicitor in Lancaster University’s national, award-winning Law Clinic and am passionate about community engagement. In the Law Clinic, students interview members of the public about their legal cases, conduct legal research and draft letters of advice to clients under the supervision of a qualified lawyer. The Law Clinic has provided hundreds of thousands of pounds of free legal advice to the public. The Law Clinic won the FASS Outstanding Contribution to Engagement Award in 2020. I founded the Law Clinic’s Research Hub in 2023 which aims to use research to inform practice and to further develop the work of the law clinic. I am also part of the University’s award-winning Policy Law Clinic which won the FASS Dean’s Staff Award in 2023 in the category of Environmental Sustainability.
