Ethics in Public Life

The Group organises conferences, public lectures, research projects, and other activities on a range of topics which address key ethical issues across the disciplines of science, politics, history, and business. We host regular events with external speakers, both in-person and online. Recent speakers include: Kimberley Brownlee, Andrew Mason, Liam Shields, Maeve McKeown, Chiara Cordelli, Hugo Drochon, Stuart White and Alasia Nutti.  

The group is convened by Dr. Guy Aitchison. 

• Dr. Guy Aitchison has broad interests in applied ethics and political philosophy with a focus on theories of human rights, social justice,  political resistance and migration. From July 2026, he is PI for the three-year Leverhulme Trust-funded project, ‘The Right to Liveability: An Ethical Assessment’. 
• Dr. Victoria Browne works within political, feminist and phenomenological philosophy, with a particular interest in body politics and the politics of reproduction. She is currently writing on the relationship between miscarriage and abortion, while also co-editing the journal Radical Philosophy.
• Dr. Alex Christoyannopoulos focuses on the ethics of violence, war and militarism; the ethics of state violence and coercion; and the ethics of pacifism and nonviolence. He also edits the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence, where some of these themes are discussed.
• Dr. Josh Milburn is a moral and political philosopher primarily interested in animal ethics. His first two books, and his current British Academy fellowship, address animals, food, and food systems. Emerging projects look to, first, animals in the thought of the right libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick, and, second, animals in the ethics of war and violence.
• Phil Parvin is a political theorist who works on challenges to democracy, in particular political disengagement and inequality. He has also written on wider issues in political philosophy including liberalism, justice, inequality, and multiculturalism. His work evaluates philosophical claims about politics and democracy against their real-life practice, and vice versa. His most recent research is on the role of unelected lobby groups in democratic theory and practice.
• Dr Varun Uberoi is a political theorist who focuses on ethical debates relating to racial and cultural diversity. He has won grants from the ESRC, British Academy, Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Indian Council of Philosophical Research. His most recent project focuses on what will make cultural majorities secure enough to not feel threatened by cultural differences.
• Dr Joe P. L. Davidson focuses on the political theory of alternative futures, ranging from the utopian to the apocalyptic. His book, Saving Utopia (2026), examines how to revive visions of hopeful futures in dystopian times. He is currently working on the relationship between apocalyptic visions of the future and the upsurge of climate activism in the last decade.
• Elif Başak Ürdem is a PhD student working in political theory and qualitative comparative analysis, with a focus on democratic theory, moral equality, meritocratic ordering and political misrecognition. Her work examines how these dynamics shape perceived social standing and attraction to populist alternatives.
• Hermione Spencer is a doctoral student interested in the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ethical security practices. She focuses on the comparison of human and AI decision-makers in national security.