Dr Kimberley Brownlee

Kimberley Brownlee is a Lecturer in Political Philosophy. She holds a BA in Philosophy from McGill University, MPhil in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge, and DPhil in Philosophy (Rhodes Scholar) from Corpus Christi College, Oxford. While completing her doctorate, she held a temporary Lectureship in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Kimberley is a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Applied Philosophy and the Editorial Advisory Group for Res Publica. Kimberley is also the Reviews Editor for Res Publica. 

Visiting Posts: Canada-US Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, Philosophy Department, Vanderbilt University (2008); H L A Hart Visiting Fellowship, Centre for Ethics and Philosophy of Law, University College, Oxford (2009); Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Ethics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, Philosophy Department, University of St Andrews (with AHRC research leave) (2009).

Kimberley is interested in all areas of political, moral, and legal philosophy. She presently works on normative theory (autonomy; theories of wrongdoing; reasons theory; ideals), political philosophy (political obligation; civic virtue; political protest and disobedience), legal philosophy (punishment and retributive justice), and practical ethics (bioethical issues and disability issues).

Kimberley is currently working an AHRC funded project entitled Protest and Punishment. This monograph (in progress) analyses the moral defensibility of various kinds of dissent and the appropriateness of different legal and political responses to  dissent.

Kimberley recently completed an AHRC funded project entitled Disability and Disadvantage, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Workshops for this project were held 12-13 May 2007 (Manchester) and 1-3 Sept 2007 (UNC at Chapel Hill). Papers presented at these workshops are collected together in the volume Disability and Disadvantage (with A Cureton (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2009).

In 2009-10:

• POLI10702 Introduction to Political Thought (convenor)
• POLI20602 Arguing about Politics
• POLI30112 Protest and Punishment (convenor)

Kimberley is happy to supervise students working in any area of political, legal, and moral philosophy, particularly, in the areas of rights theory, political obligation and authority, dissent and disobedience, reasons theory, ideals and value-pluralism, civic virtue and responsible citizenship, consequentialism, integrity, disability and disadvantage, punishment, and retributive justice.

Publications Database

Book

• 2009 (with A Cureton, eds.), Disability and Disadvantage. Oxford University Press.

Articles

• Forthcoming  'Normative Principles and Practical Ethics: A Response to Onora O'Neill' in the Journal of Applied Philosophy.
• 2008  Legal Obligation as a Duty of Deference' in Law and Philosophy, 27: 6, 583-597.
• 2008  Penalizing Public Disobedience' in Ethics 118, July 2008, 711-716. An expanded version of this discussion is archived as: 2008 Rights, Civil Disobedience, and Punishment' MANCEPT working papers.
• 2008  Justifying Punishment: A Response to Douglas Husak' in Criminal Law and Philosophy, 2:2, 123-129.
• 2007  Civil Disobedience' in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• 2007  The Communicative Aspects of Civil Disobedience and Lawful Punishment' in Criminal Law and Philosophy, 1:2, 179-192.
• 2007  Protest and Punishment' in Current Legal Issues: Law and Philosophy. Ross Harrison and Michael Freeman (eds.), Oxford University Press, 430-458. 
• 2004  Features of a Paradigm Case of Civil Disobedience' in Res Publica 10:4, 337-351.
• 2004  Obedience, Conformity, and Deference' in Res Publica, 10:3, 267-274.

Personal interests: dancesport, cartooning
Media experience: BBC Radio One, CBC Radio One (Canada), Philosophy Talk

Phd Students

• Steve Cooke, The Ethics of Animal Liberation
• Tom Goodwin, Dirty Hands: A Moral and Political Investigation
• Berkin Altinok, Political Expediency and Moral Wrongdoing