Associate ProfessorChristopher Mayes

Christopher is the author of two books. The Biopolitics of Lifestyle: Foucault, Ethics, and Healthy Choices  (Routledge, 2016), which critically explores the use of lifestyle rhetoric and policies to govern individual choice and secure population health from the threat of obesity. Unsettling Food Politics: agriculture, dispossession, and sovereignty in Australia (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2018), examines contemporary political and ethical discourses of food and agriculture in Australia.

Chris is currently developing a book manuscript based on his research on the history of bioethics in Australia. This book explores the way bioethics
contributed to the changing nature of moral authority in Australia in the latter part of the 20th century.

In 2017, he received a Discovery Early Career Research Award from the Australian Research Council to research the social history of bioethics in Australia. Bioethics in the Antipodes: a history of Australian bioethics since 1980 (DE170100550). This project aims to provide a comprehensive account of bioethics in Australia and uses archival sources, interviews, and theoretical analysis. The project seeks to advance understanding about the distinctive local and global contributions of Australian bioethics to regulatory frameworks, legal reform, and public discourse.