alessandra-papa
Alessandra Papa, PhD
Professor of Moral Philosophy

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan
Largo Gemelli, Milan, Italy
E-mail: alessandra.papa@unicatt.it

Education

2010-2013 PhD in Bioethics Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy
2011 Advanced Bioethics Programme Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy

Biography

Dr. Alessandra Papa is a Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and a member of the Scientific Committee of the University Bioethics Centre at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. She teaches Philosophy of the person, Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Human Praxis in the University’s Faculty of Educational Sciences and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the magazine “Medicina e Morale. Rivistainternazionale di bioetica” (“Medicine and Morality. International Magazine of Bioethics”) and of the S.I.F.M. (Italian Society of Moral Philosophy). She has participated in a number of research projects in the area of disability and care.

Dr. Papa’s research focuses on two key areas of interest: the work of Hannah Arendt, and bioethical and anthropological issues in the areas of care, disability and relationships. She has demonstrated how Hannah Arendt’s philosophy, with her focus on the theme of natality, of acting responsibly, of evil and of the political dimension of thought, is an original source for attempting a new way of understanding the multitude of issues that arise in the field of bioethics and disability. The theme of “coming to the world” stands at the crossroads of numerous questions in bioethics. Birth is the theoretical place in which the anthropological question of the “who” of personhood arises and presents itself as the first phenomenon in responsibility and care.

Investigation of the corpus of Arendt’s writing therefore provides a line through which to rethink the bond between acting and beginning: it is precisely the ‘faculty of starting something new’ that makes every one of us unconditioned beings, capable of interrupting the given, and therefore of subtracting ourselves from the mechanisms of historicistic and naturalistic determinism.

Dr. Papa has addressed the issue of the vulnerable body as a paradigm for relationships, and the primary value of the person, always exposed to misunderstanding, abandonment or incomprehension. In her research she has returned to and reinterpreted the classic theme of care as philia and addressed the philosophy of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Foucault. Her current research focuses on the theme of the person in bioethical debate. This research perspective passes through various different theoretical orientations: from the ethics of care as a gender issue, to disability studies and the capability approach. She combines theoretical and practical approaches addressing bioethical questions and the anthropological dimension, focusing on the issue of personal identity and corporality.


Research Interest

  • Bioethics, Natality, Corporality, Care, Relationships, Ethics, Personhood, Political Responsibility


Scientific Activities

Teaching Experience
2015-Present Professor of Moral Philosophy, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, Milan, Italy
Professional Activities

Membership For Professional Organizations

  • Member of the Scientific Committee of the University Centre for Bioethics
  • Member of the Scientific Committee of the magazine “Medicina e Morale. Rivistainternazionale di bioetica” (“Medicine and Morality- International Magazine of Bioethics”)
  • Member of S.I.F.M. (Italian Moral Philosophy Society)

Publications

  1. Alessandra Papa (2015) The forgotten body. Person-Engineering and personalities. Magazine Of Neo-School Philosophy, 473-480.
  2. Alessandra Papa (2013) Los enfermos y los enemigos. Social and chemical use of medicine. Medicine Y Ética: Revista Internacional De Bioética, Deontología Y Ética Médica 371-390.
  3. Alessandra Papa (2013) Tecnification of nacimiento y vida frozen. The categoría filosófica de natality de Hannah Arendt. Medicine Y Ética: Revista Internacional De Bioética, Deontología Y Ética Médica, 105-133.
  4. Alessandra Papa (2012) The sick and the enemy. Ethical and anthropological issues of the social use of medicine. Medicine and Moral, 571-588.
  5. Alessandra Papa (2012) Genealogia Şi Umanizarea Tratamentului. Study universitatis babes-bolyai. Bioethica, 37-55.
  6. PAPA A. (2012). Creation of birth and frozen life. The philosophical category of natality by Hannah Arendt. Medicine and Moral, 209-233.
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