Kay Mathiesen
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Kay Mathiesen is an Associate Professor with a research focus on information and computer ethics and justice. She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from University of California, Irvine. She uses her expertise in social epistemology, ethics, social philosophy, and political philosophy to analyze ethical issues related to persons and communities as seekers, sources, and subjects of knowledge and information. She has written a number of papers on human rights and democracy as they relate to information access and control.
She is currently working on a book project titled Informational Justice. This project seeks to answer such questions as: Do we have a right to know? If so, what? And what duties does that right place on ourselves, other citizens, and governments? Do we have rights to control how we are depicted and what information is circulated about us? If so, how do such rights interact with others rights to communicate? Is freedom of expression sufficient to allow for full participation of marginalized groups in the public infosphere? If not, how can we foster greater inclusion?
She also works on ethical issues related to computers and the digital environment. This work includes articles and chapters on contemporary debates surrounding Fake News and Digital Privacy.
-
Education
Ph.D., Philosophy, University of California, Irvine
-
Contact
617-373-4163 k.mathiesen@northeastern.edu
Information Ethics
PHIL 5005
Covers issues of justice and the public good in relation to the creation, collection, storage, analysis, processing, dissemination, and use of information. Discusses theories of justice and human rights, as well as ethical theories such as utilitarianism and principlism.