Fiona is Professor of Philosophy and founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience at the University of Glasgow. She joined our Board in 2025.
Trustee
Professor Fiona Macpherson (FRSE, MAE)
Trustee
Fiona is a leading scholar in the philosophy of mind and perception, with research spanning consciousness, sensory experience, illusion and hallucination, imagination, memory, dreaming, and colour. She has published widely, edited eight influential volumes, and collaborated with scientists and artists on interdisciplinary projects exploring the mind.
She received her PhD from the University of Stirling (2000), and has subsequently held positions at the Universities of Harvard University, the University of St Andrews, and Girton College, Cambridge, as well as visiting professorships worldwide. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a member of Academia Europaea. She has delivered keynote lectures internationally and regularly discusses her research in the media, including BBC radio, podcasts, and print outlets.
Professor Macpherson was President of the British Philosophical Association (2019–2026), and is a member of the UKRI Creative Industries Advisory Group (2019–). She serves on the editorial boards of The Philosophical Quarterly and Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. She has also held a number of prominent leadership roles, including trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust (2014–2024), member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2014–2023), and President of the Scots Philosophical Association (2015–2016). She is currently an investigator on an AHRC-funded project on sensory engineering.
