Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Department of Philosophy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada offers a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Animal Studies. This is a two-year non-renewable fellowship, supporting a researcher with demonstrated expertise in animal ethics, law and public policy. While we interpret animal ethics, law and public policy broadly, and welcome applications from various disciplines that study human-animal relations including political science, law, philosophy, sociology, geography, and environmental studies, we are particularly interested in research that critically examines the moral, legal and political dimensions of how human-animal relations are governed. The recipient of the Fellowship is expected to be actively involved in the day-to-day life of the University, to teach a University course in animal ethics each year, to participate in the activities of our animal studies research group, and to help organize a workshop or conference in the field. The Fellow works under the supervision of Prof. Will Kymlicka.

Serrin Rutledge-Prior began a Postdoctoral Fellowship in animal ethics in the Philosophy Department at Queen’s University in 2024. Here, she will primarily be working on a couple of research projects: one that explores how we can better recognise and respond to the agency of animals in interpersonal, political, and legal contexts, and another which seeks to acknowledge and reimagine the role of animals within the history of Western political thought. Beyond these topics, she is also interested in the role of animal advocates in the public sphere, and when or whether civil – or even uncivil – disobedience on behalf of animals can be justified. Prior to coming to Queen’s, Serrin was a Visiting Researcher at the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law (2024), and a Research Fellow at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy (2023-24). She has also volunteered for several years with one of Australia’s first community legal centres dedicated to issues in animal law: the Animal Defenders Office, based in Canberra/Ngunnawal Country. Serrin’s first book, tentatively titled Multispecies Legality: Animals and the Foundation of Legal Inclusion, is under contract with Cambridge University Press.

Virginie Simoneau-Gilbert began a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Philosophy at Queen’s University in 2025. During her stay at Queen’s, she will be working with Will Kymlicka on reciprocity in nonhuman animals and its 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). For the academic year 2025-2026, she is also a postdoctoral research associate in Philosophy at the University of Oxford. In 2025, Virginie completed a DPhil in Philosophy at the University of Oxford with the support of a Rhodes Scholarship and a doctoral scholarship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et Culture (FRQSC). Her thesis explored the possibility of recognizing some animals as moral agents. Her research interests include animal ethics, political theory, practical ethics, moral theory, and philosophy of emotion. She is also the author or co-author of two books on the history and philosophy of animal advocacy: Que veulent les véganes? La cause animale, de Platon au mouvement antispéciste (Fides, 2021, co-written with Alexia Renard) Au nom des animaux : l'histoire de la SPCA de Montréal (1869-2019) (Somme toute, 2019).

Previous postdoctoral fellows were Pablo P. Castelló (2022-2024),  Birte Wrage (2022-23), Jishnu Guha-Majumdar (2020-22), Julia Gibson (2019-20), Charlotte Blattner (2017-18), Josh Milburn (2016-17), Angie Pepper (2015-16), and Zipporah Weisberg (2013-15).