Postdoctoral Fellowship

We regret to announce that funding for the APPLE postdoctoral fellowship in animal ethics has now run its course and will not be renewed. APPLE will continue to sponsor workshops, conferences and other events, so please stay tuned.

Current Postdoctoral Fellows with APPLE:

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).