Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT)
Providing an active forum for education and research in political theory, MANCEPT is one of the largest and strongest groupings of its kind in the UK, with a long tradition of international excellence.
About
Its core membership includes teaching and research staff as well as postgraduate students. Members' research interests cover a wide range of topics in contemporary political theory, making use of the tools of analytical political theory to address theoretical issues and their real-world implications. Each year MANCEPT hosts two of the biggest events in the political theory calendar: 1) The Brave New World graduate political theory conference and 2) the MANCEPT workshops. The Centre also engages with numerous scholars with cognate interests from other parts of the University.
Highlights
- Clara Sandelind’s Podcast “Talking Migration”. Follow on Twitter.
- A Leverhulme Research Fellowship awarded to Miriam Ronzoni for her project Constructing Justice.
- Christian Schemmel won a 'Political Economy Research Fellowship from the Independent Social Research Fund. The project, 'Making All Work Pay: Just Wage Regulation' runs from 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. The project abstract can be found on the ISRF website. Christian is also affiliated to the Work and Equalities Institute.
- Steve deWijze was awarded a Mind Association 6-month fellowship in 2018/19 to work on a project entitled 'Dirty Hands: a philosophical analysis'. The project abstract can be found on the Mind Association website.
People
Academic staff
- Research specialisms: Global justice, punishment, nationalism.
Steve de Wijze (convenor)
- Research specialisms: Dirty hands, democratic theory, evil, theories of justice.
- Research specialisms: Morality of markets, democratic theory, ideal and non-ideal theory.
- Research specialisms: Responsibility to protect, alternatives to war, private military companies.
- Research specialisms: Constructivism, transnational justice in non-ideal circumstances.
- Research specialisms: Political theories of immigration, asylum and nationalism.
- Research specialisms: Theories of equality, republicanism, welfare state, self-respect.
- Research specialisms: Distributive justice, equality of opportunity, education, parental rights.
- Research specialisms: Distributive justice, morality markets, justice and legitimacy in the EU.
Hillel Steiner (Emeritus Professor)
- Research specialisms: rights, freedom, left-libertarianism, distributive justice.
Timothy Kenyon (Honorary Research Fellow)
- Research specialisms: Ricardian socialism.
Postgraduate Researchers
- Jeannine Bringmann: Neorepublican distributive justice. Supervisors: Liam Shields and Christian Schemmel
- Vittorio Gerosa: The role and functioning of deliberative mini-publics in contemporary representative democracies. Supervisors Miriam Ronzoni and Christian Schemmel
- Tawan Manakun: ‘Non-domination, wealth inequality, and the property system.' Supervisors: Christian Schemmel and Miriam Ronzoni
- Davide Pala: 'Assessing the global order: A republican idea of global politics justice.' Supervisors: Christian Schemmel and Miriam Ronzoni
- Matthew Perry: 'What is the point of dignity? A re-characterisation of dignity as the basis of (human) rights status.' Supervisors: Richard Child and Liam Shields
- Molly Powell: Privacy rights, technology design, and state obligations. Supervisors: Richard Child and Miriam Ronzoni
- David Rubin: Inventing collective defence: A rational model for the assessment of alliances Supervisors: James Pattison and Miriam Ronzoni
- Karolina Jedrzejczak: The crisis of representative democracy: the issue of self-alienation. Supervisors: Stephen de Wijze and Christian Schemmel
- Riki Yamochi: Introducing realism into just war theory Supervisors: James Pattison and Stephen de Wijze
- Dennis Pirdzuns: Poverty and the Problem of Enough. Supervisors: Liam Shields and Juri Viehoff
Associates and Alumni
Alumni
Graduated 2020
- Anh Le: Towards a theory of jus ad vim (justice of force short of war).
Graduated 2019
- Giacomo Floris: Teaching Associate in Political Theory, The University of Manchester. Thesis: Moral status, equality and distributive justice.
- Ruxandra Ivanescu: Lecturer in Political Theory, The University of Manchester. Thesis: On self-ownership and self-enslavement.
- Joseph Roberts: Research Fellow in Law and Philosophy, University of Birmingham. Thesis: Individual rights, bodies, modifications and enhancements.
Graduated 2018
- Anna Wienhues: Postdoc, Department of Philosophy, University of Zurich. Thesis: Just footprints: distributing ecological space across species, place and time.
- Jonny Benson: Lecturer in Political Economy KCL. Thesis: Markets, deliberation and environment problems.
Graduated 2017
- Billy Christmas: Lecturer in Political Theory KCL. Thesis: Self-ownership, appropriation, and the means of production: towards anti-capitalist libertarianism.
- Bolarinwa Adediran: Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, the University of the West of England. Thesis: Whither humanitarian intervention; resetting the discourse on the responsibility to protect.
- Wen-Chin Lung: Assistant Researcher at National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan. Thesis: Non-consequentialist approach to solve the humanitarian dilemma.
- Sara Van Goozen: Associate Lecturer, Politics, University of York. Thesis: Distributing the harm of just wars: the requirement to minimise merely foreseen harm.
- Nicola Mulkeen: Teaching Fellow, PAIS, University of Warwick. Thesis: Commerce, coin and exploitation.