Dr Jeremy Williams BA (Oxon), MSc, PhD (LSE)

Dr Jeremy Williams

Department of Philosophy
Associate Professor in Philosophy

Contact details

Address
ERI Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy. My work is in moral and political philosophy, with a particular focus on bioethics, the ethics of killing, and theories of political justification, legitimacy, and toleration. 

Qualifications

I hold a BA in Modern History and Politics from Oxford, and an MSc and PhD in Political Theory, both from the London School of Economics. My PhD explored some questions about the extent of a woman’s right to choose an abortion, and was supervised by Cécile Fabre and Anne Phillips.

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Birmingham. I have been at Birmingham since 2011, having previously held the posts of Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and 'Birmingham Fellow'.

Prior to coming to Birmingham, I taught at the University of Reading and the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics at King's College London. I wrote my PhD about the ethics and political philosophy of abortion in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. 

Postgraduate supervision

I'm happy to supervise or co-supervise graduates in most areas of moral and political philosophy, especially where connected to my research interests.


Find out more - our PhD Philosophy  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

My research interests are, broadly speaking, in moral and political philosophy, with a particular focus on bioethics, the ethics of killing, and liberal political theory. I have previously written on topics including public justification, abortion, prenatal screening, procreative ethics, and the allocation of dispositional rights in bodily material.My current research concerns a number of intersecting questions concerning defensive violence, toleration, and moral status (especially prenatal moral status).

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Williams, J 2022, 'On anti-abortion violence', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 104, no. 2, pp. 273-296. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12756, https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12756

Williams, J 2017, 'Death and Consensus Liberalism', Philosophers' Imprint, vol. 17, no. 20, pp. 1-30. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0017.020 >

Williams, J 2017, 'War and Global Public Reason', Utilitas, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 398-422. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0953820816000376

Williams, J 2015, 'Public reason and prenatal moral status', The Journal of Ethics, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 23-52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-015-9190-9

Book/Film/Article review

Williams, J 2024, 'Bioethics, public reason, and religion: The liberalism problem By Fleck, Leonard M. The liberalism problem By Fleck, Leonard M.', Bioethics. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13364

Williams, J 2023, 'To Do, To Die, To Reason Why: Individual Ethics in War, written by Victor Tadros', Journal of Moral Philosophy, vol. 20, no. 3-4, pp. 390-393. https://doi.org/10.1163/17455243-20030015

Williams, J 2015, 'Rawls and Religion: Tom Bailey and Valentina Gentile (eds.), Rawls and Religion, Columbia University Press, 2015', Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. <https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/rawls-and-religion/>

Digital or Visual Products

Williams, J, The Owls' Parliament, 2024, Digital or Visual Products, YouTube. <https://youtu.be/NbXIF3GbpIk?feature=shared>

Other chapter contribution

Williams, J 2014, Conscription. in C McKinnon (ed.), Issues in Political Theory, Third Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 24-7.

Williams, J 2014, Deliberative Polling. in C McKinnon (ed.), Issues in Political Theory, Third Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 93-6.

Williams, J 2014, Torture and Counter-Terrorism. in C McKinnon (ed.), Issues in Political Theory, Third Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 185-8.

Other contribution

Williams, J 2022, Getting to the heart of the abortion debate. CapX. <https://capx.co/getting-to-the-heart-of-the-abortion-debate/>

Williams, J 2019, The ethics of voting for the lesser evil. politics.co.uk. <https://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2019/11/27/election-2019-the-ethics-of-voting-for-the-lesser-evil/?cmpredirect>

Williams, J 2018, The ethics of sex-selective abortion isn't simple. The Conversation . <https://theconversation.com/the-ethical-case-against-sex-selective-abortion-isnt-simple-103806>

Parry, J & Williams, J 2018, When does a foetus have moral status?. The Conversation . <http://theconversation.com/when-does-a-foetus-have-moral-status-94885>

View all publications in research portal