Dr. Simon v.der Weele

I am an ethicist and qualitative researcher working at the intersection of ethics and ethnography. I am fascinated by everyday ethics: the moral practices, emotions, and experiences that mark our ordinary lives. My interest lies in the attempts public professionals make to put weighty ethical ideals into everyday practice, particularly in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.

I work as assistant professor at the UvH since 2021. In 2020 I was a visiting scholar at the department of Medical Humanities of Drew University. In 2022 I received a Fulbright Scholarship to visit Veena Das at the department of Anthropology of Johns Hopkins University.

You can watch me talk about my interest in ethics, dependency, and intellectual disability in my lecture at the Betweter Festival 2021 (in Dutch).

Degrees held
PhD, Philosophy, University of Humanistic Studies (2022, cum laude) 
MA, Cultural Analysis (research), University of Amsterdam (2015, cum laude) 
BA, Liberal Arts & Sciences, Tilburg University (2012, cum laude)

My research is driven by my fascination with ethics in everyday life. In my research, I strive to normalize the idea of ethics as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry. Hence, my research is emphatically interdisciplinary, rooting ethical reflection in context-rich descriptions of ordinary moral practices.

Broadly speaking, my research has three themes: 

1. Interdisciplinary ethics. Through my work, I attempt to further cross-pollination between philosophical ethics and the social sciences. I have written about the use of "thick ethical concepts" for the social sciences (2021) and about the merits of empirical ethics for the field of disability studies (2022). The conclusion of my dissertation contains most of my current thoughts about the significance of empirical research for ethics. 
   
   
2. The moral life of professional assistance. My ethnographic projects focus on the moral life of professional assistance in the social and care sectors, particularly services involving people with intellectual disabilities. I have published on how care professionals navigate dependency relationships with people with intellectual disabilities (2020) and on moral experiments with independence in group homes where people with intellectual disabilities live (2021).
   
   More recently I published on how we can conceptualize (2024) and realize (2023) social inclusion for people with profound intellectual and/or multiple disabilities. I have also published books on dependency (2019) and on sheltered living arrangements (2024) for a broad audience of professionals, managers, and policy makers in the disability sector. 
   
   
3. Care theory. In my work, I explore philosophical problems about care, dependency, and vulnerability. My publications include an essay on philosophical disagreements about the concept of "dependency" (2021) and an essay on resonances in the moral philosophies of Eva Kittay and Judith Butler (2021). I also have a chapter on dependency in the Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Nursing (2024).
   

For a full overview of my publications, you can visit the Research Portal University of Humanistic Studies.

Monographs



Een wereld van verschil: instellingsterreinen en het goede leven voor mensen met een verstandelijke beperking (2024)
Femmianne Bredewold & Simon van der Weele

What is a good life for people with intellectual disabilities? For most, a good life means a life as 'normal' as possible: fully participating in ordinary society. But many people with intellectual disabilities in the Netherlands don't live such a life: their life takes place in a sheltered living arrangement, outside ordinary society. This Dutch-language monograph presents an ethnography of such places. It explores how the sheltered life offered by such arrangements relates to the ideal a 'normal' life in society. What alternative ideals do these places offer? And how do they help us reflect on the ethics of disability care? Based on a ZonMw-funded project on social inclusion for people with profound intellectual and/or multiple disabilities. 



Zorgen als ambacht: afstemmen op afhankelijkheid van mensen met een beperking (2019)
Simon van der Weele, Femmianne Bredewold, Ellen Grootegoed, Margo Trappenburg & Evelien Tonkens

Dependency is a dirty word in disability care. But dependency is also an inevitable aspect of care. How do you navigate this tension as a care professional? This Dutch-language monograph explores the kinds of problems dependency can pose for care practice and how professionals can navigate them. It is based on the findings of an ethnographic study on experiences of dependency, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health (2017-2018).

Peer-reviewed publications 

• Van der Weele, S. & Bredewold, F. (2024). What's good about inclusion? An ethical analysis of the ideal of social inclusion for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Health Care Analysis. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. (2024). 'Doing' normativity in disability studies: soft suggestions towards an empirical ethics of disability. Disability & Society. [link]
• Bredewold, F. & Van der Weele, S. (2024). Navigating uncertainty: taking methodological cues from relatives and care professionals for researching the perspectives of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities. [link]
• Schmidt, J., Van der Weele, S., & Sebrechts, M. (2024). In praise of awkwardness in the field: increasing our understanding of relational concepts by reflecting in researchers' emotion work. Qualitative Research. [link]
• Bredewold, F. & Van der Weele, S. (2023). Social inclusion revisited: sheltered living institutions for people with intellectual disabilities as communities of difference. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. (2021). Thick concepts in social research: what, why, and how? International Journal of Qualitative Methods. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. (2021). Four paradigm cases of dependency in dependency relations. Hypatia. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. & Bredewold, F. (2021). Shadowing as a qualitative method for intellectual disability research: opportunities and challenges. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities. [link]
• Van der Weele, S., Bredewold, F., Leget, C. & Tonkens, E. (2021). What is the problem of dependency? Dependency work reconsidered. Nursing Philosophy. [link]
• Van der Weele, S., Bredewold, F., Leget, C. & Tonkens, E. (2021). The group home as moral laboratory: Tracing the ethic of autonomy in Dutch intellectual disability care. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. (2021). Bridging conversations: "Paradigm cases" of dependency in Eva Kittay and Judith Butler. In Bodies that still matter, eds. A. Halsema, K. Kwastek & R. van den Oever. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. (2017). Mourning moppa: Mourning without loss in Jill Soloway's Transparent. Transgender Studies Quarterly. [link]

• Van der Weele, S. & Bredewold, F. (2024). Maak sociale inclusie écht inclusief: pleidooi voor 'verschildenken'. Sociale Vraagstukken. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. (2023). Afhankelijkheid wordt vereerd als de weg naar het goede leven. Dat is het niet. Trouw. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. & Bredewold, F. (2023). Niet misbruik en vernedering, maar aandacht en creativiteit kenmerken onze gehandicaptenzorg. Dagblad van het Noorden. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. (2019). Afhankelijkheid hoort er in de gehandicaptenzorg gewoon bij. Sociale Vraagstukken. [link]
• Van der Weele, S. & Bredewold, F. (2019). De zorgverlener moet meer zijn dan een voorbijganger. Trouw. [link] 
• Van der Weele, S. & Tonkens, E. (2018). Niet afhankelijkheid, maar onmacht is het probleem in de zorg - en er is iets aan te doen.Trouw. [link]

I teach broadly within the domains of ethics and political and social theory, in English and Dutch. I also supervise internships and theses in our BA and MA programmes. 

Current modules (24-25)

• Promises and Pitfalls of Citizenship (BA Humanistic Studies)
• Ethical Professionalism [Ethische Professionaliteit] (MA Citizenship, Professionalism, and Civil Society)

• Care Ethics and Policy [Zorgethiek en beleid] (MA Care Ethics)
• Pursuing Social Justice: Redistribution, Recognition, or Participation? (MA Humanistic Studies)
• Moral and Citizenship Education (MA Humanistic Studies, MA Citizenship, Professionalism and Civil Society)
• Humanisation and the Public Sector [Humanisering en de Publieke Sector] (BA Humanistic Studies)
• Humanisation of the Public Sector [Humanisering van de Publieke Sector] (MA Humanistic Studies)