Hello

I’m an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. I’m the Director of Monash’s Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.

My research mostly focuses on theories of collective agency and collective responsibility. I’m interested in the question of whether social entities — such as states, corporations, and NGOs — are really agents that can have moral duties and do moral wrong. Are the wrongs of social entities reducible to the wrongs of their members, or is collective wrongdoing ‘more than the sum’ of members’ wrongdoing? Can social entities have all the myriad moral obligations that philosophers attribute to individuals, or are collective obligations ‘special’ in some way — for example, are collectives’ obligations constrained by their goals or constitutions? I’m interested in answering these questions in ways that engage with politics, law, and business ethics. If you work on similar topics, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

In 2020-2023, I completed a three-year project called “Organisations’ Wrongdoing: From Metaphysics to Practice,” which was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Its major output was my new book Organizations as Wrongdoers.

I also sometimes work on care ethics, the moral status of personal relationships, human rights, structural injustice, and the nature of individuals’ obligations in the face of moral collective action problems. My previous books are The Core of Care Ethics and Group Duties.

In 2022-2024, I’m the president of the International Social Ontology Society. I’m on the undergraduate engagement committee of the Australasian Association of Philosophy. I’m on the steering committee of the Melbourne Political, Legal, and Social Theory Network.

I’m on the editorial board at Journal of Applied Philosophy, I’m an area editor in political philosophy at Ergo, and I’m a faculty advisor at the Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Australasia. In 2020-2023, I was an associate editor at Journal of Applied Philosophy. In 2022-2023, I was an associate editor at Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy. In 2016 to 2021, I was an associate editor at Analysis. 

I came to Monash in 2022. In 2018-2021, I held a continuing position in the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at ACU. In 2019, I was a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Vienna, working on the ERC-funded project The Normative and Moral Foundations of Group Agency. In 2017-18, I was a Mind Association Research Fellow. In 2013-2018, I was a Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Manchester. I got my PhD from ANU in 2013. Before that, I did a Master of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) majoring in Philosophy at the University of Auckland.

The photo at the top is Kohimarama Beach, which is right near where I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand.