Profile

Biography

I first came to York as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in 2008. Prior to that I did my PhD at the University of Glasgow. I work mostly on problems in moral and political philosophy and their application to contemporary issues in international politics, in particular human rights, global justice and environmental sustainability.

Departmental roles

Convenor of the MAs in Political Philosophy and Political Philosophy (The Idea of Toleration)

Research

Overview

My research has been funded by the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the Society for Applied Philosophy.

At the moment I am working on the following:
1. The motivation and justification of cosmopolitan normative claims
2. Climate change and individual duties
3. Personhood and environmental human rights

I am also working on a manuscript on human rights theory that is under contract with Palgrave Macmillan.

Publications

Selected publications

Forthcoming, ‘Whither Sentiment? Compassion, Solidarity and Disgust in Cosmopolitan Thought’. Journal of Social Philosophy.

Forthcoming. ‘Civic and Cosmopolitan Friendship’. Res Publica, Special Issue on Friendship.
2010. Human Rights and Environmental Sustainability. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

2009. ‘Suffering, sympathy, and (environmental) security: Reassessing Rorty’s contribution to human rights theory’. Res Publica, Vol.15, No.1, pp.53-66.

2009. ‘Environment’, in Human Rights: Politics and Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press), Michael Goodhart (ed), co-authored with John Barry, pp.325-342.

2006. ‘What does the language of human rights bring to campaigns for environmental justice?’ Environmental Politics, Vol.15, No.4, pp.572-591.

Reviews for Philosophical Quarterly, Political Studies Review, and Global Environmental Politics.
 

Teaching

Undergraduate

Introduction to Political Theory

History of Political Thought

Postgraduate

Ethics and World Politics

Contemporary Issues in Toleration

Political Research and Analysis

External activities

Memberships

I am a member of the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment.

In 2012 I will give a plenary lecture at the 17th Annual Finnish Environmental Social Science Colloquium. I have given invited talks at various universities and conferences in the UK and the US.

I also regularly act as a peer reviewer for journals including Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Political Studies and Environmental Politics.