Dr. Gerry Dunne

Biography

Gerry is a Lecturer in the Philosophy of Education at the Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, a Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin (where he received his PhD), and Associate Editor of Educational Theory (Wiley). His research sits at the intersection of epistemology, philosophy of education, and applied ethics, with particular strengths in vice epistemology, epistemic injustice, critical thinking, and transformative pedagogy. He has published in over fifteen internationally recognised journals, edited five special issues across leading international outlets, and delivered invited keynotes at institutions including the University of Chicago, University College Dublin, University of Florida, Swansea University, and Dublin City University.

A central strand of his work examines how epistemic vices"traits such as closed-mindedness, arrogance, and intellectual apathy"obstruct knowledge acquisition and corrupt educational practice. His publications in this area propose novel pedagogical interventions for vice rehabilitation, including exemplarist approaches grounded in responsibilist community of inquiry principles.

Closely related is his sustained engagement with epistemic injustice in education. He has explored testimonial and hermeneutical injustice, epistemic exploitation, and the concept of `ontic burnout""the dissociative explanatory fatigue experienced by marginalised knowers compelled to educate privileged audiences about the nature of their oppression (Dunne, 2024). Recent collaborative work in Episteme distinguishes epistemic wrongs from epistemic harms, sharpening the analytic tools available to researchers in this field.

His research on critical thinking challenges reductive skills-based accounts and argues for a richer conception of criticality that integrates critical thinking, critical self-reflection, and critical action. Recent work draws on 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, extended, enactive) to reconceptualise thinking skills beyond purely brain-based computational models. He has also developed the concept of `tantric learning""an alternative pedagogy that emphasises sustained attention and intellectually demanding practice in response to the attention crisis generated by digital platforms and Reward Deficiency Syndrome.

Further research interests include epistemic colonisation and its legacy harms (particularly linguicism reconceptualised through hermeneutical injustice), non-ideal epistemology and its relationship to bounded rationality, epistemic paternalism, conceptual engineering, embodied cognition, the role of empathy as an intellectual virtue, and the place of philosophy in initial teacher education. He is also active in public philosophy, with regular contributions to The Irish Times and co-authorship of Ireland"s Junior Cycle Philosophy Short Course.

Gerry is currently working on a book entitled, 'Rethinking Educational Philosophy in the age of Digital Disruption', with Routledge. It is due to be published in 2027.

He welcomes colloborations with scholars working in adjacent fields, inlcuding prospective PhD students working on some of the topics above.