Stella Villarmea

Professor of Philosophy, Complutense University of Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Areas of specialisation: Epistemology and Feminist Philosophy
Field of interest: Philosophy of Birth

Stella Villarmea is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Complutense University of Madrid,
and Associate Faculty Member in Philosophy at the University of Oxford.

She is a main contributor to the emergent field of the Philosophy of Birth. With an expertise in
epistemology and feminism, her works address the relation between knowledge and
emancipation. She has published on capacity and rationality in birth care, obstetric violence,
and the language of birth from an epistemic perspective. In former years, she published
research on conceptual innovation and scepticism, as well as on Wittgenstein, Kant, and
Levinas.

She currently leads a Program of Excellence on the Philosophy of Birth (PHILBIRTH-2), funded
by the Government of Madrid (2021-24). She is a research member in the European Project
‘IPOV-Respectful Care’, an International Platform on Obstetric Violence, funded by the
European Commission MSCA Staff Exchange Programme. As a Marie S. Curie Fellow at the
University of Oxford, she led the research project, ‘Controversies in Childbirth: from
Epistemology to Practices (VOICEs), funded by the European Commission (2018-20). As the
principal investigator of ‘Philosophy of Birth: Rethinking the Origin from Medical Humanities
(PHILBIRTH-1)’, funded by the Ministry of Economy in Spain, she coordinated an
interdisciplinary team around birth care (2016-19).

Stella Villarmea received the Special Distinction of Excellence for her 20 year-teaching career
at her former University, the University of Alcalá. She was Adjunct Professor at University of
Saint Louis, Madrid, and Visiting Professor at the Humboldt and Paderborn (Germany), Lund
(Sweden), Marie Curie (Poland), Kent and Oxford (United Kingdom).

Stella Villarmea serves in the Steering and the Gender Committees of The International
Federation of Philosophical Associations (FISP) and has been Speaker of The International
Association of Women Philosophers (IAPH), the oldest and most diverse global network of
women philosophers. She is a Member of the Institute for Feminist Studies at Complutense
University of Madrid. She is the Lead of the Philosophy of Birth Network in The Collaborating
Centre for Values-based Practice at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. She volunteers in Childbirth
is Ours, the Spanish birth-rights association, and has been recently hired by the European
Commission to co-author the report “Obstetric Violence in Spain”.

Her career, commitment, and knowledge speak for her ability to contribute to the diversity of
philosophical areas, methods, and topics; and to apply the philosophical tools to improve
birth-care and citizenship in the labour room.