Professor VIKKI ENTWISTLE

Biography

I am Professor of Health Services Research and Philosophy with academic homes in both the Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation (formerly Health Services Research Unit) within the Institute of Applied Health Sciences on the University's Foresterhill campus and Philosophy (School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History) on the Old Aberdeen campus.

My research and teaching are highly interdisciplinary. Broadly speaking, I use philosophy and social research to understand and address concerns about quality, ethics and social justice in health care, public health and funeral provision. I am particularly interested in what are sometimes called person-centred approaches - you might prefer to talk about the humanity in health care and death care. I often use feminist theorising and a relational capabilities approach to human wellbeing in my work. 

I've had the privilege of working in, and visiting, a number of universities internationally, gravitating back to the University of Aberdeen each time with an extended range of valued colleagues and learning. 

Research Overview

I use social research and practical philosophy to help understand what matters for 'good' public health, healthcare and care of the dead and bereaved, to analyse ethical issues, and to consider how policy and practice should be developed in those domains. I seek to take seriously the plurality of values, diversity of perspectives, complexity of social relationships and demands of social justice.  

Current Research

I am currently working on several projects:

Following from the Wellcome funded 'But why is that better?' project, which explored what applied philosophy and ethics can contribute to healthcare improvement, I continue to work with Professor Alan Cribb on questions about the nature and value of relationship goods in healthcare, and the implications for these of various 'shifts to digital'. We've recently published an agenda-setting paper for that work. Most outputs from 'But why is that better?' can be found at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/but-why-is-that-better-project and our open access book 'Rethinking healthcare improvement: philosophy and ethics in practice' is available from Bloomsbury.  

I am also working with Dr Arnar Árnason (Anthropology), to develop the foundations for a Centre (currently 'in development') for Interdisciplinary Death Matters. This  broad initiative builds from the collaboration and learning that for me were initiated with the ESRC funded project 'Developing practical ethics of care for the dead and bereaved' . That project examined what we can learn from the disruption and development of funeral practices during COVID-19. One of the main outputs was the Care in Funerals Casebook - an online resource to support reflection and discussion of values and practical and ethical challenges in funeral provision (see  www.abdn.ac.uk/care-in-funerals-casebook ). My contributions to developmental work for the Death Matters Centre include fostering internal and external network development and supporting grant writing. We have recently been awarded seed funding from the Scotland Beyond Net Zero initiative to develop a research network and scope a research agenda to promote sustainability in funerary practices. 

Collaborations

Current external collaborations include with:

Professor Alan Cribb (King's College London) - on philosophy for healthcare quality, including development of work on the value of healthcare relationships in the context of digitalisation. 

Dr Rachel Adedokun (Robert Gordon University) - on sustainability in funeral provision.

Dr Gert Olthuis (Radbound UMC), Prof Katrien Schaubroeck (University of Antwerp), Lucas Boer (Radboud UMC), Dr Carolyn Phelan (Flinders University), Abi Pattenden (National Association of Funeral Plan Providers), Dr Kate Falconer (University College Cork) and Dr Tadgh Connery (University College Cork) on various ideas and potential projects relating to respect and care for the dead and bereaved. 

Teaching Responsibilities

For Academic Year 2026-27 my main teaching commitments are:

Lecturer for PU5056/5062 Key Concepts in Global Health (covering human rights, justice and ethics in global health)

Lecturer for PH1522 How Should One Live? (covering feminist approaches to ethics)

Lecturer for AY1505 Death! (covering Funerals and COVID-19: learning from disruption)

Lecturer for PH2042 Philosophy and Society (covering philosophy of healthcare improvement)

Lecturer for PH355U Contemporary Ethics

Lecturer for PH5069 Philosophy and Society (online)

Lecturer for PH5075 Core Concepts and Methods in Applied Philosophy (online)

Lecturer/supervisor for PH5571 Readings in Applied Philosophy (online)

Project and dissertation supervision:

I supervise UG and PG philosophy projects and dissertations (usually relating to ethics, feminist philosophy or philosophy of healthcare).   

I am happy to discuss possible supervision with postgraduate students from diverse disciplinary and practitioner backgrounds who are interested in pursuing questions relating to values and ethics in healthcare and/or deathcare. I particularly welcome inquiries from people who want to work across philosophical and social research approaches, and to draw on feminist theorising and/or a capability approach.

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

I contribute to the Philosophy Summer School, usually teaching on applied philosophy and ethics.