Farewell and What’s Next for Postdoctoral Fellows
'25 Postdoctoral Fellows
It’s that time of year, when we must bid a sad farewell to our postdoctoral fellows. Over the past year, the fellows have taught, researched, mentored undergraduates, and built an interdisciplinary ethics community across the campus. Before they say goodbye, they shared a bit about their time at the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society and where they’re headed next.
Shannon Sylvie Abelson
Research Area: Space policy, ethics of emerging technology, and environmental philosophy.
Fellowship Highlights: The Ethics Center and Stanford opened a wealth of resources and networks to pursue. My work is very interdisciplinary, so being a part of such a diverse community was invaluable to my growth as a researcher. The most meaningful part of the postdoc for me was building connections with the other postdocs in the cohort.
What’s Next? Science policy!
Postdoc Publications:
“Eliminative Reasoning in Astronomy and Astrophysics”
Moya Mapps
Research Area: Moral, social, and political philosophy.
Fellowship Highlights: This fellowship gave me two of the most valuable things a philosopher could ask for: (1) time for reading, writing, and thinking, and (2) a vibrant network of colleagues to challenge me and help make my work better.
What’s Next? Lecturer in the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) Program here at Stanford.
Postdoc Publications:
“Getting Personal: A Feminist Perspective on Philosophical Methodology”
Veronica Rivera
Research Area: Digital safety, at the intersection of computer security and human-computer interaction, and how to design safer social technologies that address harm on a broad scale instead of just individual platforms.
Fellowship Highlights: At the Ethics Center, I had the opportunity to learn about work beyond computer science in philosophy and science and technology studies that has shaped how I think about my research. I've had a truly wonderful time at Stanford and will really miss it. I’ve enjoyed going to dinners, joining the running club, and making life-long friends in the CS department, giving ethics lectures, and mentoring an undergraduate student. It was exciting to give a student their first exposure to academic research and to play an important part in their educational growth.
What’s Next? A one-year postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Bochum, Germany, followed by a faculty position in fall 2026 (still deciding which one!).
Postdoc Publications:
“Teaching Ethics & Activism in a Human-Computer Interaction Professional Master's Program”
“Safer Algorithmically-Mediated Offline Introductions: Harms and Protective Behaviors”
"’Perfect is the Enemy of Good’: The CISO's Role in Enterprise Security as a Business Enabler”
Daniel Webber
Research Area: Moral theory, with a particular focus on the role of real people and practices in ideal moral theorizing.
Fellowship Highlights: The Ethics Center brought me into weekly conversation with the other fantastic participants in the postdoc workshop and got me to think about new and exciting topics. I’ve started thinking about some questions in AI ethics, like how AI stands to affect meaning in human life, that I’m incorporating into my research.
What’s Next? Continuing to teach and research at Stanford as a Lecturer in the program for Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE).
Postdoc Publications: