Rate My Professor Rob Wilson

Rob Wilson is Professor of Philosophy in the Discipline of Philosophy, School of Humanities at the University of Western Australia, a position he has held since 2019. He earned a B.A. with first class honours in philosophy from the University of Western Australia and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University as a Fulbright Scholar. Prior to UWA, Wilson served at Queen's University (1992-1996), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1996-2001), the University of Alberta (2000-2017), and La Trobe University (2017-2019), achieving full professorship in 1999. His research specializations encompass philosophy of mind and cognitive science, philosophy of biology and anthropology, bioethics and disability, eugenics, history of modern philosophy, philosophy of science, and science and technology studies. Wilson has led engaged philosophy initiatives, including founding Philosophy for Children Alberta in 2008, directing the Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada (2010-2016), and initiating the Eurekamp Oz! program at UWA.

Wilson is the author of books including Cartesian Psychology and Physical Minds (Cambridge University Press, 1995), Boundaries of the Mind (2004), Genes and the Agents of Life (2005), and The Eugenic Mind Project (MIT Press, 2018). He co-edited The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (1999), Species: New Interdisciplinary Essays (1999), and Explanation and Cognition (2000), and has forthcoming work such as Kin Matters: Relational Beings in the Fragile Sciences (Oxford University Press, 2026). With over 120 refereed articles and chapters in journals like Mind, Nous, Philosophy of Science, and Biological Theory, he has delivered more than 300 talks. Recognized with election to the Royal Society of Canada (2009), the PROSE Award (1999) for the MIT Encyclopedia, the Leader in Lifelong Learning Award (2012), short-listing for the Prize in Excellence in Philosophy Teaching (2018), the Work Integrated Learning Innovation Award (2023), and the UWA School of Humanities Senior Research Award (2023), Wilson chairs the Philosophy in the Community Committee of the Australasian Association of Philosophy and edits the Life and Mind series for MIT Press. Current projects include Keeping Kinship in Mind (ARC-funded).