Hugo Cossette-Lefebvre is a new postdoc at the Centre for the Experimental-Philosophical Study of Discrimination. Before joining CEPDISC, Hugo completed his Ph.D. in philosophy at McGill University. His research concentrated on three main issues: (1) how to define social equality and its significance in our everyday lives; (2) the connections between anti-discrimination law and relational egalitarianism – a theory of justice stating that we ought to relate as equals; and (3) how the use of Artificial Intelligence systems can be discriminatory.

At CEPDISC, Hugo will work mainly on three basic conceptual questions: why discrimination is wrong, what are the different types of discrimination, and how can they be distinguished. In a nutshell, Hugo argues that wrongful instances of discrimination capture actions, practices, or policies that deny the equal moral status of all or endanger the capacity of groups or individuals to stand as equals in society. This relational egalitarian approach to anti-discrimination law has important consequences for how we understand the distinction between direct and indirect discrimination, as well as algorithmic discrimination.