Dr. Phila M. Msimang Senior Lecturer
Phila M. Msimang is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Stellenbosch University and is the former Head of Stellenbosch’s CIRCoRe Workstream IV on Race, Human Categorisation and Science (RHCS). He is a fellow of the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS), the coordinator of the International Philosophy of Biology Circle (IPBC), and the Secretary of the Azanian Philosophical Society (APS). Msimang is involved in several research groups working on problems regarding race and racism in the sciences. His work on race includes investigations on the history and definition of the concept, exploring the challenges with the use of the concept of race in health, the metaphysics of race debate, scientific controversies about race, and the uses and abuses of the concept of race in research and policy.
Selected publications Book chapters
- Fernandez, Msimang, Uren, & Petersen (2026). Removing race from genetics. In Faadiel Essop (ed.) Decolonizing medical education, research and practice: transforming challenges into solutions. Elsevier.
- Msimang and Sarkar (2026). Philosophy and Race Science. In Adam Tuboly and Flavia Padovani (eds) Routledge Handbook of the History of Philosophy of Science. Routledge. (HTML)
- Msimang (2021). Social races in biomedical settings. In Ludovica Lorusso and Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther (eds) Remapping Race in a Global Context. Routledge. (HTML)
- Msimang (2021). Revisiting race and biology in the South African social sciences. In David Ludwig, Inkeri Koskinen, Zinhle Mncube, Luana Poliseli, Luis Reyes-Galindo (eds) Global Epistemologies and the Philosophy of Science. Routledge, 243–253. (HTML)
Journal articles
- Msimang (2025). Prescribing Race: No Blank Scripts for Using Race and Ethnicity in Health. Argumenta 10 (2), 527–550. (HMTL)
- Msimang (2022). The IRR as false witness: how the Institute of Race Relations strategically misinforms us about race and policy (as a threat to deliberative democracy). Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 172 (2), 1–31. (HTML)
- Msimang (2020). Medicine, anti-realism, and ideology: variation in medical genetics does not show that race is biologically real. Northern European Journal of Philosophy 20 (2), 117–140. (HTML)
Scientific communications
- Msimang (in progress). What is the biological profile of ‘the’ South African? Forensic Anthropology.
- Msimang (forthcoming). Toward a population concept outside of the racial paradigm. Current Anthropology.
- Msimang (2022). That only the elite should have children is a worrying argument. South African Journal of Bioethics & Law 15 (1), 6–7. (HTML); Don’t shy away from the elitist implications of your argument: Response to de Roubaix. South African Journal of Bioethics & Law 15 (2), 42–43. (HTML)
A more comprehensive list of Msimang’s academic publications can be found on Google Scholar. Most of these publications should be available for download on ResearchGate
Teaching
Undergraduate
- Philosophy 214: Subdisciplines in Philosophy I (Modern Epistemology)
- Philosophy 333: Philosophy of race (the metaphysics of race)
- Philosophy 354: Analytic Philosophy (Philosophy of Mind)
Postgraduate
- Honours coursework and supervision
- Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Ethics
- MPhil (Applied Ethics) Biomedical Ethics
- MPhil (Applied Ethics) Social and Political Ethics
- MA coursework and supervision (topics in philosophy)
- PhD in Philosophy (various topics)