Dr. Heather Douglas

Biography

Heather Douglas joined Michigan State University's Department of Philosophy in Fall 2018. Her research focuses on the relationship between science and democracy, the role of social and ethical values in science, the nature of scientists' responsibility, and the interfaces between science and policy. She examines how citizens interact with science and the foundations of citizens' trust in scientists. Douglas has worked on understanding the concept of objectivity in science and has weighed complex, non-convergent sets of evidence. She has authored dozens of articles, essays, and edited collections, including 'The Rightful Place of Science: Values, Democracy' (2021) and 'Science, Policy and the Value-Free Ideal' (2009, University of Pittsburgh Press). She is a fellow at the Institute for Science, Society, and Policy at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Socially Engaged Philosophy of Science Group at MSU. In 2016, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Douglas was a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh from 2021 to 2022. She is interested in directing graduate work in philosophy related to science policy issues. Recent graduate seminars she has included are Values in Science (2020), Science, Citizens, and Democracy (2020), and the Commercialization of Science (2019). Past and current graduate student projects she has directed include Ty Branch’s 'Contextualizing Science: Value-Conscious Communication' and Char Brecevic’s 'Patient Nonadherence: Imagining a Way Forward.'

Research Interests

Experience