Welcome!

Laura D’Olimpio is a philosopher who specialises in ethics, aesthetics, and education. She studied Philosophy and English Literature at the University of Western Australia. Her PhD thesis, The Moral Possibilities of Mass Art, examined the moral impact on society of mass artworks (particularly film) and their potential as tools for moral education. This led her to conclude that teaching children and young people philosophy, critical thinking and ethical deliberation was vital. She has advocated for adding philosophy to the school curriculum ever since and co-founded and continues to co-edit the open-access Journal of Philosophy in Schools.

Laura’s first academic post was as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, Western Australia. It was there that she wrote her first monograph, Media and Moral Education: a philosophy of critical engagement (Routledge, 2018), which won the 2018 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia annual book prize.

In 2019, Laura moved to the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom to take up her current position as Associate Professor of Philosophy of Education. Here she published her second monograph, The Necessity of Aesthetic Education: the place of the arts on the curriculum (Bloomsbury, 2024), a co-authored textbook with Jane Gatley and Ruth Wareham, Philosophy of Education (Palgrave MacMillan, 2025), co-edited Educating Character Through the Arts (Routledge, 2023), and edited a public philosophy book, Short Cuts: Philosophy (Icon Books, 2023).

As well as researching, teaching, and holding a leadership position as Director of Postgraduate Research for the College of Social Sciences, Laura is committed to public philosophy. She regularly writes for public philosophy, news and media outlets, is interviewed on radio and podcasts and guest produces episodes of ABC Radio National’s ‘The Philosopher’s Zone’. She believes that philosophers’ contributions to public debate are vital to role-model reasonable, critical and constructive dialogue, respectful disagreement, and encourage deep thinking.

When she’s not philosophising, Laura enjoys taking her miniature poodle, Daisy, on walks, playing pickleball and dancing.