Teaching

I have taught a wide variety of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in ethics and political philosophy. I enjoy teaching and I learn a great deal from it.

My aim is to communicate two things to my students: a sense of why it is worth thinking hard about the topics they are studying, and a sense of how to make progress in doing so—where that needn’t be a sense of how to solve an outstanding philosophical problem, but could instead be just a matter of getting clearer about the nature of it.

Together with my colleague Isabel Gois, I co-authored an open-access e-textbook on applied ethics. I received a Lord Dearing Award in July 2016, and I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research students

Currently I have four PhD students. Sean Shields (supervised with Zachary Hoskins and Jussi Suikkanen) is working on praise and blame in the light of scepticism about moral responsibility. Ewan Swift (supervised with Koshka Duff) is working on microaggressions. Mat Basford (supervised with Benedict Rumbold and Joe Cunningham) is working on utilitarian ethics. Hayley Seddon (supervised with Adam Lindsay) is working on Arendt and perfectionist theories of well-being.

I am always interested in hearing from potential research students with interests in normative ethics, applied ethics, or political philosophy—especially but not exclusively in areas connected with pattern-based reasons, consequentialism, utilitarianism, and dignity. Please get in touch to discuss your ideas, and note the funding available at Nottingham.