TEACHING

 CURRENT COURSES    PAST COURSES  |  ADVISING

Normative Political Theory (University of Geneva)
Level: Undergraduate and graduate level course
Synopsis: The course introduces students to contemporary issues in philosophy and public policy. It draws on political and moral philosophy as well as philosophy of law in order to examine the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary political debates over civil rights and liberties, democratic institutions and procedures, inequality and disadvantage and human rights.

Epistemology and Methodology (University of Geneva)
Level: Graduate level course
Synopsis: This course helps students to become more self-conscious about the ways they think and write, as well as more aware of the subtleties of style, voice and methodology in normative political thought. The course aims to help students find their own 'voice' and subject matter as political thinkers, while introducing them to debates about the place of idealisation, comparison, and formalisation in normative political theory, and over the conceptual and methodological implications of moral claims for sexual and racial equality.

Theories of Justice (University of Geneva)
Level: Graduate level course
Synopsis: This graduate-level course examines competing theories of justice and the implication of these theories in areas of contemporary social and political controversy. The theories that we will discuss are utilitarian (Mill), Libertarian (Friedman) and liberal egalitarian (Rawls), as well as debates on Paternalism, Basic Income, the communitarian critique of Rawls (Walzer/Sandel). This seminar course will help students to explore the structure, as well as the content, of the main contemporary theories of justice so that they will be able to recognize the methodological as well as substantive differences amongst different 'schools of thought' about justice, and will be able to distinguish typical forms of each school from new or atypical variants. The course will therefore help them 'to map' key elements in the domain of normative political theory, and will give them the tools to complete that map for themselves, and to locate their own ideas and research questions within it.

Contemporary Normative Political Theory (University of Geneva)
Level: Graduate level course
Synopsis: This Masters-lever course is an introduction to key areas within contemporary political theory which YOU have requested: feminist theory, religious freedom, security. It builds on debates about methodology and substance which we examined in Théorie Politique Normative 1, when studying competing theories of justice, and takes them in new directions. However, those with sufficient interest and/or experience may wish to take this course even if they missed TP Norm 1. It will complement many of the readings that we examine in the course Epistémologie et Méthodologie.

 PAST COURSES 

Theories of Justice (University of Rochester)
Level: Undergraduate and graduate level course
Synopsis: Utilitarian, libertarian, liberal egalitarian and communitarian theories of justice, with examples illustrating the strengths and weakenesses of each.

Theories of Rights (University of Rochester, Harvard University)
Level: Upper level undergraduate and graduate level seminar
Synopsis: Introduction to the conceptual and normative debates about rights, their justification, function, variety, relationship to each other and to other moral and political considerations.

Classics of Social Theory (University of Rochester)
Level: Upper level undergraduate and graduate seminar
Synopsis: Synthesis of Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Marx, Weber and Durkheim, based on a two-term undergraduate course version, covering Adam Smith to Habermas taught at Harvard’s Programme in Social Studies.

Debates in Feminist Theory (University of Rochester, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Level:
Both lecture and seminar versions
Synopsis: Examines the ways feminism has changed our understanding of politics and at the challenges with which politics has confronted feminism. Topics included the idea of sexual politics, feminism and methodology, domestic violence, reproductive choice, the sexual division of labour, the sex/gender distinction, problems of essentialism, equality as gender blindness and as non-subordination.

The Right to Privacy (University of Rochester, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Level: Upper level undergraduate/graduate seminar
Synopsis: Key conceptual and normative puzzles about the right to privacy, drawn from the philosophical and legal literature. Topics included the relationship of privacy to liberty, equality, and community, privacy and the media, privacy and the family, privacy and government.

Philosophy and Public Policy (London School of Economics)
Level: Two-term MSc level lecture and seminar course
Synopsis: Introduction to methodological and substantive issues in the philosophical analysis of public policy, combining general philosophical analysis with the discussion of particular policy issues. Topics included rights, equality and responsibility, democracy and the issues included affirmative action, racial profiling, torture, drug policy.

Morals, Values, Politics (London School of Economics)
Level: Two-term undergraduate lecture + graduate seminar course
Synopsis: Joint course in which I have taught the sections on Utilitarianism and on Rawls

Research and Writing Seminar (London School of Economics)
Level: Undergraduate level one-term seminar for students writing their undergraduate thesis Synopsis: Designed to help students with the presentation of their ideas, the shaping of their arguments, and their ability to identify and to respond to alternative hypotheses.

Research and Writing Seminar (London School of Economics)
Level: MSc level two-term seminar
Synopsis: Designed to help students formulate and write a thesis in philosophy and public policy. The first term introduces students to different styles of philosophical writing and argument. The second term helps students to present their ideas clearly, to shape the presentation and development of their arguments, and to identify and respond to alternative hypotheses.

 ADVISING 

I currently supervise MA and PhD theses in normative political theory, ethics and public policy and epistemology and methodology. I also run a 'writing workshop' for doctoral students.

I have previously supervised and examined theses at undergraduate and graduate levels on topics including the idea of public reason, truth and reconciliation commissions, affirmative action, abortion rights, and cost benefit analysis. In 2007-9 I have taught the undergraduate and graduate research and writing courses at LSE which prepare students to write their theses.