Clarisse Paron
Clarisse (she/they) is a PhD student in the Philosophy Department at Dalhousie University. She specializes in the areas of feminist bioethics, epistemology, and disability theory. She is passionate about the autonomy and decision-making of oppressed groups in medical contexts and hopes this will translate to a career in clinical ethics after her degree.
Before her doctoral studies, she completed her Master of Arts in Philosophy and a Bachelor of Science at the University of Alberta. Her master’s thesis considered complications for women’s autonomy from various theoretical perspectives in the decisional context of breast cancer gene screening (BRCA1/2) and preventative mastectomy. Her graduate studies have been funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Nova Scotia Government.
Her most recent publication, “Evidence, Testimony, and Trust: How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Exacerbating the Crisis of Trust in Science,” considers how poorly conducted science in the early stages of the pandemic has destroyed public trust in science (Paron, 2021). A feminist perspective illuminates the role of values in scientific production and policy formation during the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of social values in regaining the publics’ trust in scientific authority.
She has worked with Dr. Letitia Meynell (Dalhousie University) on an open resource Applied Ethics Primer that provides an introduction to ethical theories for applied ethics courses. The resource differs from traditional texts as it aims to include discussion of non-Western ethical concepts.
​
She will be giving a TEDx talk this February on the role of epistemic injustice in stigma towards mental illness.