Normative Energy Ethics Workshop

Ran Ran is a Senior Research Fellow at Global Megacity Governance Institute, Shenzhen University. Her research interests are in Comparative Environmental Politics, Climate Change and Urban Governance. Prior to joining Shenzhen University, Dr. Ran held the position of Associate Professor at Renmin University of China. She earned the Ph.D. from the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2009 and in 2009-10 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California. Dr. Ran’s publications have appeared in Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, China Quarterly, Journal of Cleaner Production, among others. Her 2015 book systematically examined the paradox of the “Environmental Policy Implementation Gap” in China’s local environmental politics. Dr. Ran was selected as one of the “Chinese Highly Cited Researchers in Political Science” by Elsevier in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Her talk in the Energy Ethics Workshop will deal with the ethics of energy policy in China.

Adam Briggle is a Professor in the Philosophy and Religion Department at the University of North Texas. He has a PhD in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Science and Technology Policy research from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Briggle spent three years as a post-doctoral fellow in the philosophy department at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. His interdisciplinary research lies at the intersections of science, technology, ethics, and politics. He is the author of several books, including A Field Philosopher’s Guide to Fracking (2015) and Thinking through Climate Change: A Philosophy of Energy in the Anthropocene (2021). He is also active in the Public Philosophy Network, which seeks to advance the theory and practice of philosophy that engages with society. His most recent book, A Field Guide to Climate Change: Understanding the Problems (2024) deals with the issue of climate literacy and provides a guide for understanding how problems related to climate change are framed, debated, and resolved.

His talk in the Energy Ethics Workshop will deal with the ethics of energy policy in the United States.

Rafaela Hillerbrand is a Professor of Ethics of Technology and Philosophy of Science, the head of the Philosophy of Engineering, Technology Assessment & Science (PhilETAS) Research Group at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). She is also the Director of the Academy for Responsible Research, Teaching, and Innovation (ARRTI) at KIT. She holds PhDs in philosophy (2005) and theoretical physics (2008). From 2006 to 2008 she held a position as a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford. Before joining KIT, Rafaela Hillerbrand held professorships at TU Delft and RWTH Aachen University and was head of the interdisciplinary research group Ethics for Energy Technology (EET) at the Human Technology Centre (HumTec) at RWTH. She serves on expert committees to advise policy and industry on questions concerning the development of sustainable (energy) technologies.

Her talk in the Energy Ethics Workshop will deal with the ethics of energy policy in Germany and the broader European context.