{"id":476,"date":"2019-08-29T13:23:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T17:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/?post_type=profile&p=476"},"modified":"2025-08-13T09:36:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T13:36:53","slug":"rachell-powell","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/profile\/rachell-powell\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachell Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachell Powell<\/strong>, PhD JD MS, is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Boston University.<\/p>\n

Pronouns:<\/strong> she\/her\/hers<\/p>\n

Research Areas:<\/strong>\u00a0philosophy of biology; philosophy of medicine; bioethics; philosophy of psychology; legal and political philosophy<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a>\u00a0for a copy of her C.V.<\/p>\n

Professional Background: <\/strong>Prior to her appointment at BU, Dr. Powell was an Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellow in the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University, and a James Martin Research Fellow at the Institute for Science and Ethics also at Oxford University. Before that she was a Greenwall Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and a Visiting Professor at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n

Dr. Powell has held fellowships at the National Humanities Center, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at Humboldt University, and the Center for Genetic Engineering and Society at North Carolina State University.<\/p>\n

She has been a Principal Investigator on collaborative and solo grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. From 2011-2016 she was as Associate Editor of the\u00a0Journal of Medical Ethics<\/em>\u00a0(British Medical Journal Group), and she is currently serving as an Associate Editor of Philosophy & Technology<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Education:<\/strong> Dr. Powell received her B.A. in philosophy (summa cum laude<\/em>) from SUNY Binghamton in 1999, a Juris Doctor (with honors<\/em>) from NYU Law School in 2002, and a PhD in Philosophy and MS in Biology from Duke University (2009). Before returning to philosophy, then R. Powell, Esq. worked as an attorney in the New York office of the global law firm Skadden Arps on class action and pharmaceutical liability litigation.<\/p>\n

Research Interests: <\/strong>Dr. Powell\u2019s research interests are wide-ranging and highly interdisciplinary, falling roughly along two main themes: (1) conceptual and methodological problems in evolutionary theory and (2) ethical dimensions of the new biosciences. She has made contributions to topics such as macroevolutionary theory, human evolution, the evolution of morality, the natural history of mind and value, theories of disease, animal and environmental philosophy, the ethics of human germline modification, and the biomedical enhancement of human capacities. In future work she plans to explore the psychology of trauma and its biocultural intersections with gender and sexuality.<\/p>\n

Monographs<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology\u00a0of Body and Mind<\/a> (MIT Press, 2020)<\/p>\n

The Evolution of Moral Progress: A Biocultural Theory<\/a>\u00a0(Oxford University Press, 2018; co-written with Allen Buchanan)<\/p>\n

Genetic Engineering and the Future of Human Nature<\/em> (Cambridge University Press, under contract, due 2022)<\/p>\n

Alien Minds: Invertebrate Intelligence and the Evolutionary Meaning of Life <\/em>(in progress; co-written with Irina Mikhalevich).<\/p>\n

Selected Articles: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mikhalevich, I. and Powell, R. (2020), \u201cMinds Without Spines: Toward a More Evolutionarily Inclusive Animal Ethics,\u201d Animal Sentience<\/em> 29(1).<\/p>\n

Powell, R. and Scarffe, E. (2019), \u201cRehabilitating \u2018Disease\u2019: Function, Value, and Objectivity in Medicine,\u201d Philosophy of Science<\/em> 86(5):1168-1178.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley, M. and Powell, R. (2016) \u201cMajor Problems in Evolutionary Transitions\u201d Biology and Philosophy <\/em>31(2): 159-189.<\/p>\n

Buchanan, A. and Powell, R. (2016), \u201cA Naturalistic Theory of Moral Progress,\u201d Ethics <\/em>126: 983\u20131014.<\/p>\n

Buchanan, A. and Powell, R. (2015), \u201cThe Limits of Evolutionary Explanations of Morality and Their Implications for Moral Progress\u201d Ethics <\/em>126(1): 37-67.<\/p>\n

Powell, R. (2015), \u201cIn Genes We Trust: Genetic Engineering, Eugenics and the Future of the Human Genome,\u201d Journal of Medicine and Philosophy <\/em>40(6): 669-95.<\/p>\n

Powell, R. and Mariscal, C. (2015), \u201cConvergent Evolution as Natural Experiment: The Tape of Life Reconsidered,\u201d Journal of the Royal Society Interface Focus<\/em> 5(6): 1-13.<\/p>\n

Powell, R. and Shea, N. (2014), \u201cHomology Across Inheritance Systems,\u201d Biology and Philosophy<\/em> 29(6): 781-806.<\/p>\n

Powell, R. and Clarke, S. (2012), \u201cReligion as an Evolutionary Byproduct: A Critique of the Standard Model,\u201d British Journal for the Philosophy of Science<\/em> 63(3):\u00a0457-486 (editor\u2019s choice)<\/p>\n

Powell, R. (2012). \u201cThe Evolutionary Biological Implications of Human Genetic Engineering,\u201d Journal of Medicine and Philosophy<\/em> 37(3): 204-226.<\/p>\n

Powell, R. (2012), \u201cThe Future of Human Evolution,\u201d British Journal for the Philosophy of Science <\/em>63: 145-175.<\/p>\n

Powell, R. (2012), \u201cConvergent Evolution and the Limits of Natural Selection,\u201d European Journal for the Philosophy of Science<\/em> 2(3): 355-373.<\/p>\n

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