Michael Dunn

Research

Mikey works on ethics in health care, social care and research. His current research interests focus predominantly on various ethical aspects of community-based and long-term care practice, policy and law - in the UK and internationally.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mikey has also been undertaking clinical ethics research exploring the rationales for i) medical triage and the allocation of critical care resources, ii) the redeployment of health care professionals to high-risk clinical settings, and iii) modifications made to standard decision-making and consent procedures in hospitals.

In his research, Mikey draws upon - and seeks to integrate - philosophical, social scientific and legal methods of analysis. Connected to this approach, he also has a strong interest in examining questions about:

• the nature of bioethics
• the rationale for empirical bioethics research
• novel methodological strategies for answering bioethical research questions.

Mikey has authored more than 80 peer reviewed academic journal articles and book chapters. He has also written/edited 5 books. His most recent books are:

• Medical Ethics: A very short introduction (OUP, 2018, with Tony Hope)
• Empirical Bioethics: Practical and theoretical perspectives (CUP, 2017, edited with Jon Ives and Alan Cribb)
  

Two other edited books are currently under contract. The first examines the law, practice and value bases of advance directives in Asia, and the second provides a comparative analysis of values and participation in mental capacity law internationally.

His research and practice development activities have been funded through grants awarded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Ethox Foundation, the Lien Foundation, the Brocher Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Burdett Trust, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Nuffield Oxford Hospitals Fund, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Japanese Global Centres of Excellence Programme and the National University of Singapore.

Teaching

Mikey plays a major role in Ethox's teaching activities. As Director of Undergraduate Medical Ethics and Law Education, he is responsible for leading and managing the delivery of the medical ethics and law curriculum to all clinical and graduate entry medical students within the University of Oxford’s Medical School. As Director of the Ethox Centre Graduate Research Training Programme, he is working to foster the development of bioethics teaching and research skills amongst Ethox's cohort of DPhil students and junior post-doctoral researchers.

Mikey has completed the University of Oxford's Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. He now mentors junior colleagues undertaking this professional qualification and was appointed as a Senior Fellow of the UK's Higher Education Academy in 2015.

Mikey has supervised 7 doctoral students at the University of Oxford: Kyle Edwards, Leah Rand, Gulamabbas Lakha, Lovro Savic, Marisha Wickremsinhe, Kumeri Bandara and Urania Chiu.

In 2018, he was one of 15 academics shortlisted in the "Outstanding Graduate Supervisor" category in Oxford University's Annual Teaching Awards.

Mikey currently has a full quota of DPhil students and so is not able to consider requests to supervise additional graduate students at this time.

Other Academic Activities

Mikey sits on a number of advisory committees for research studies and practice development activities, and has acted as a consultant for ethics projects established by the Health Foundation, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, and the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS.

He also currently holds, or has recently held, the following appointments:

• Associate Editor, Journal of Medical Ethics
• Editorial Board member and Book Reviews Editor, Ethics and Social Welfare
• Board of Trustees, UK Clinical Ethics Network
• Member, Institute of Medical Ethics Research Committee
• Member, National Social Care Research Ethics Committee, NRES
• Member and Training Officer, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust Clinical Ethics Advisory Group
• Member, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Clinical Ethics Advisory Group
• Member and formerly Chair, Exam Board, Graduate Entry Medicine, Part 1, University of Oxford
• External Examiner, Postgraduate Teaching Programmes in Bioethics, University of Manchester
• Specialist Advisor on Ethics and Values, Executive Advisory Board, Careport

Background

Mikey has worked at the Ethox Centre since 2009. He was awarded his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Cambridge. His doctoral research focused on the law, ethics and practice of decision-making in residential care work for adults with profound and multiple intellectual disabilities.

He has previously held visiting teaching and research positions at the National University of Singapore, the University of Tokyo, Hong Kong University, the Hastings Center in New York, the VU University Amsterdam, the University of Oslo, the University of Bradford, and at Green Templeton College, Oxford.

ONLINE LECTURES, WEBCASTS AND INTERVIEWS

Research Ethics Regulation. The MI Interview, The Mason Institute, Faculty of Law, University of Edinburgh, 21st January 2016.

Teaching and Learning Using Difficult Clinical Cases: An ethics 'toolbox' for clinicians and educators. CUHK Centre for Bioethics First Annual Summer Workshop, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 16th July 2014.