06.06.24, 19:00, Farah Focquaert, Danny Devos

An in-depth conversation-interview between Prof. Dr. Farah Focquaert and Danny Devos, exploring the parallels between artists and serial killers, alongside the philosophy of free will and punishment. This unique dialogue will unfold within the exhibition Fantastic Voyage through the Body of an Artist, drawing direct parallels to the exhibited works.

Prof. Dr. Farah Focquaert is part of the Ghent Research in Ethics, Law and Philosophy (GRELP) research group at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, at Ghent University. She has expertise in the philosophy of free will and punishment, the ethics of restorative justice and the philosophy of psychiatry. She has done research on the ethics of moral enhancement, and a variety of related fields that are important to understanding morality and moral behavior. Farah Focquaert is currently focusing her qualitative research on the views and needs of victims and perpetrators in the context of restorative justice mediation. At present, she also does collaborative research in the field of public health ethics. She has a long-standing research collaboration with international biopsychosocial criminologists such as Prof. Dr. Andrea Glenn, Prof. Dr. Olivia Choy, Prof. Dr. Cristina Scarpazza, Prof. Dr. Colleen Berryessa, Prof. Dr. Adrian Raine and others. Their research is focused on understanding and preventing violent, aggressive and antisocial behavior in youth and adult populations. In her work, Farah Focquaert focuses on philosophical and ethical questions related to their field of study. 

Farah Focquaert is co-director of The Justice Without Retribution Network (The University of Aberdeen, Cornell University and Ghent University) and former vice chair of the ethics committee at the Belgian Forensic Psychiatric Centers Ghent/Antwerp. She did six long-term research stays at prestigious academic universities and institutions, such as The Center for Neuroscience & Society and The Jerry Lee Center for Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health, The Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College and The Sage Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her most important published work is The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Science of Punishment, co-authored with Prof. Dr. Bruce Waller and Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (2020). In Belgium, she recently appeared on the popular podcast ‘Zwijgen is Geen Optie’, where she was interviewed about various topics related to her work.