Tzofit Ofengenden, PhD
Director of the MS in Philosophy and Bioethics & Associate Director of Graduate Studies
Biography
Tzofit Ofengenden, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Director of the MS in Philosophy and Bioethics, and Associate Director of Graduate Studies in the Program in Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Tulane University School of Medicine. She holds a PhD from the IZEW at Tübingen University, Germany.
She initiated and developed the MS in Philosophy and Bioethics in collaboration with Tulane’s Department of Philosophy and now serves as its director and a student advisor.
Her research examines how developments in neuroscience and emerging technologies reshape our understanding of memory, consciousness, personal identity, and autonomy. Her work brings together neuroethics, philosophy of mind, and the ethics of brain intervention, with particular attention to the relationship between scientific frameworks and human experience.
Her current book project explores artificial selfhood in conversational AI, asking what kind of “self” these systems present and how users come to experience them as someone who knows and cares about them. Drawing on philosophy of mind and language, the project examines how these relationships may shape independent judgment and trust, and what responsibilities arise for the developers and institutions behind them, particularly in mental health and companionship.
A related strand of her research addresses conscience and professional obligation in healthcare. Her published work examines the moral reasons for accommodating both conscientious refusal and conscientious provision, exploring how commitments of conscience relate to professional responsibilities.
She serves on the Tulane AI and Policy Task Force and delivers an annual lecture on AI, medicine, and ethics at Tulane School of Medicine.
Areas of Expertise
Publications
Series Editor
Co-editor, with Chara Kokkio, of Suffering, Therapy, and Healing – Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. De Gruyter/Brill, forthcoming 2028.
Volume Editor
Co-editor, with Ari Ofengenden, of The New Ecology of Suffering and Therapy: Biological, Technological, and Social Conditions in the Twenty First Century. De Gruyter/Brill, forthcoming 2028.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- “Moral Reasons to Accommodate and Protect Positive Conscientious Objections.” Canadian Journal of Bioethics. September 2026.
- “Rethinking Memory and Imagination: A Philosophical and Neuroscientific Perspective.” RHV: An International Journal of Philosophy. December 26, 2025.
- “Are Conscientious Refusal and Conscientious Provision Mutually Exclusive?” Bioethics. November 18, 2025.
- “Memory Formation and Belief.” Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences. Volume 7, Issue 2, 2014.
- “Neurobiological Paradigm of Memory Formation and its Theoretical and Ethical Implications.” The American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience. 2014.