I received my PhD in philosophy from the University of Alberta in 1997 and my MA and BA (Hon) in Philosophy from the University of Western Ontario in 1990 and 1991, respectively.

Prior to joining Laurier, I was the Director of Integrative Programs and the Core Curriculum at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY and a professor in the philosophy department. 

I am currently working on a book about Plato and the liberal and applied arts. Plato is thought to be responsible for our perceptions about the differences between these arts, that the liberal arts are impractical but ‘freeing,’ and the applied arts, while practical, are ‘servile.’ But a close reading of the texts shows a more complicated story in which it is the attitude and goals of the practitioner which makes an art genuine or not, and this is what makes a person free or a slave, regardless of the art they are practicing.

• Northwood, Heidi. “Making Music in the Phaedo with Aesop’s Fables.” Plato’s Animals. (2014, forthcoming)
• Northwood, Heidi. “R. F. Holland: Absolute Ethics and the Challenge of Compassion.” Sense and Reality: Essays out of Swansea. (2009)
• Northwood, Heidi. “Critical Notice of Rush Rhees’ In Dialogue with the Greeks. Vol. I:  The Presocratics and Reality and In Dialogue with the Greeks. Vol. II:  Plato and Dialectic.” Philosophical Investigations (2006).
• Northwood, Heidi. “Disobedient Matter: The Female Contribution in Aristotle’s Embryology.” Epoche. (2005)