Michael Roess, ABD
Graduate Assistant

e-mail: Michael.Roess@stonybrook.edu

Michael Roess is the graduate research assistant to the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics. Before coming to Stony Brook for his PhD studies, Michael graduated from Eckerd College in 2006 Summa Cum Laude as a Ford Foundation Fellow and Phi Beta Kappa. In addition to research, he is in charge of the center's website. His interest in bioethics was sparked while assisting affiliate faculty member Eva Kittay in organizing a conference on cognitive disabilities and moral reasoning in 2008.

He is also a PhD student in the philosophy department at Stony Brook. He is currently writing a dissertation tentatively titled “Pluralism: From Fact to Norm” in which he argues for a normative basis for pluralism in society grounded in a reassessment of the relationship between facts and values. When properly conceived, this relationship provides justification for treating pluralism in society as a prudential norm to be maintained rather than an inconvenience to be dealt with. One of the practical implications of this normative basis for pluralism is that societies not only have an obligation to accommodate both the physically and cognitively disabled, but that they will benefit from doing so.