About
Alistair Niemeijer works as senior researcher and assistant professor in care ethics at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, The Netherlands and has held positions as a lecturer and as a postdoc researcher at Hogeschool Utrecht and Amsterdam UMC respectively.
He is currently member of two ethics committees: the national center of ethics and health (CEG) committee of the Dutch Ministry of Health and the advisory council on ethics of human-centered technology of the Philadelphia Foundation (a long term care institution). He is also a member of the supervisory board of the disability care organization Stichting Odion.
Having studied philosophy at the VU and applied ethics at the UU (graduating cum laude) he subsequently worked as a PhD candidate at the EMGO institute of the VU University Medical Center. Here he conducted qualitative empirical research into the ethical aspects of the use surveillance technology in the care of people with dementia and an intellectual disability. His PhD-thesis titled 'Exploring good care with surveillance technology in residential care for vulnerable people' is available from VU University Press.
His current line of research focuses on precarious practices of care and well-being of and for the (chronically) vulnerable. He has (co-)authored scientific articles in a diverse range of scientific journals and has also contributed to several Dutch media outlets and policy reports on topics related to long term care and medical and care ethics. Having both a chronic illness and a young son with Down’s Syndrome and epilepsy, Alistair is intrinsically and professionally motivated to carry out research which is aimed at understanding better what it means to live with a chronic disease or disability and what the everyday aspirations of caregivers entail.