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Professor
Social Medicine

Core Faculty
Center for Bioethics

PhD Philosophy
MA Anthropology
MA Philosophy
BA Philosophy


Stuart Rennie is Professor in Social Medicine. His background is in philosophy and medical anthropology, and his doctoral dissertation concentrated on the impact luck and chance can have on attributions of moral responsibility. Dr. Rennie’s current teaching, research and service interests focus on research ethics, public health ethics and medical ethics, particularly in the context of the developing world. He is currently co-Principal Investigator of two NIH/Fogarty International Center bioethics capacity building projects, in the Central Francophone Africa (‘Building Bioethics Capacity and Justice in Health’) and South Africa (‘Advancing Research Ethics in Southern Africa’ or ARESA). He is co-Principal Investigator of a NIH-funded research project on the social and ethical implications of HIV cure research (searcHIV) and leads the ethics program of UNC’s Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). With support of the NIH and collaboration of the Pacific Institute of Research and Evaluation (PIRE), Dr. Rennie is conducting research on the responsible conduct of HIV-related research among adolescents in western Kenya.

Dr. Rennie was Visiting Lecturer at the Center for Bioethics in Stellenbosch, Lecturer in philosophy at UNC-Greensboro, and Lecturer in applied ethics in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. In addition to giving guest lectures on research ethics and bioethics at UNC, Dr. Rennie leads the PD3 seminar (Global Health and Medical Ethics) for second year medical students and co-teaches a doctoral seminar on the history and philosophy of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

As ethics consultant, Dr. Rennie has acted as lead author of the Ethics Guidance for Research for the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), Save the Children USA, and has provided ethics consultation for UNC researchers as member of the Social and Behavioral Core of the UNC’s Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). In addition, Dr. Rennie is ethics reviewer for the European and Developing World Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and the Wellcome Trust.

Dr. Rennie has successfully applied for NIH grants to conduct qualitative research on rationing AIDS treatment in DR Congo and community attitudes to male circumcision as an HIV prevention strategy in Malawi. He has published in peer-reviewed journals such as PLoS Medicine, Science, the Hastings Center Report, Developing World Bioethics and the Journal of Medical Ethics on a variety of themes, including informed consent, HIV testing policies, medical rationing, implementation ethics, research involving children, health surveillance, health inequality and social justice. His reflections on bioethics in a global context can be found in his Global Bioethics Blog.


Recent Publications

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