We are happy to introduce Virginie Simoneau-Gilbert, a new Postdoctoral Fellow with Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics at Queen’s University.
Virginie’s research interests include animal ethics, political theory, practical ethics, moral theory, and philosophy of emotion. In 2025, she completed a DPhil in Philosophy at the University of Oxford with a project that explored the possibility of recognizing some animals as moral agents. While at Queen’s she will be working with Will Kymlicka on reciprocity in nonhuman animals and the implications for theories of justice. Her research project is funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et Culture (FRQSC).
Virginie has widely published on matters related to animals and ethics. This includes authoring a book on the history of the Montreal SPCA between 1869-2019 and co-authoring a book on exploring what vegans want. In addition, Virginie has written about the significance of viewing animals as moral agents and has appeared often on popular media platforms to discuss matters like AI in farming practices.
We are excited to learn from and work with Virginie while she is at Queen’s University!
