Martina Orlandi

I am Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Trent University Durham, Canada.

My research interests are broad and range across philosophy of mind and action (including philosophical implications of AI), ethics, epistemology, and moral psychology. I have a longstanding interest in practical irrationality, particularly self-control and self-deception. 

Before joining Trent, I was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Engaged Ethics at the Rock Ethics Institute and The Schreyer Honors College at the Pennsylvania State University where I did research within the Empathy & Moral Psychology Lab and worked to develop a new ethics curriculum for The Schreyer Honors College.

In 2022 I was a member of Penn State's Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) where I was Co-Pi ( with Daryl C. Cameron, PI) of the research project: ‘You Do Your Own Dirty Work’: Addressing the Risks of Ethical Outsourcing to Artificial Intelligence. 

Currently, I am collaborating with Michael Inzlicht (Psychology, University of Toronto) and Aidan Cambpbell (Psychology, University of Toronto) on a research project on how the effortless use of ChatGPT can negatively impact our sense of meaningfulness when performing tasks. 

I am also writing a book on how resilience can lead to making irrational and maladaptive choices for Bloomsbury's Why Philosophy Matters series that is expected to be published in 2026. 

Outside of my day job, I have a strong commitment to public philosophy and in 2022 I was selected as an inaugural Marc Sanders Foundation Philosophy in the Media Fellow for Op-Ed Writing. My writing has appeared in several popular venues. I recently published an article on how fiction gives us a special insight into our flaws in Aeon Psyche.

In 2019, I published (in The Conversation) an article on why good character testimonies do not constitute a defence for sexual harassment. And in 2020-2021 I was a regular columnist at The Prindle Post, where I wrote about ethics and social philosophy. In 2020 I also had the pleasure of participating to the Ethics Bowl as a judge at DePauw University, and I am currently in the process of organizing Trent's participation to the Ontario High School Ethics Bowl in 2025-2026.

​I did my graduate work at McGill University where I was a member of the Research Center for Ethics (CRE) and of the Interuniversity Research Group on Normativity (GRIN), which I also coordinated in 2016-2017.