Role: Lecturer in Political Theory

Email: liam.shields@manchester.ac.uk

Tel: 0161 275-4887

Location: Arthur Lewis Building-4.015
School of Social Sciences
The University of Manchester
Manchester
M13 9PL

Websites

• School of Social Sciences
• Personal Website

As an undergraduate I studied Politics & Philosophy at Keele University from 2004-7. My dissertation (10,000 words), supervised by Prof. John Horton, examined the relative merits of prioritarian and sufficientarian principles of distributive justice. From 2007-8 I studied for an MA in Political Philosophy (the idea of toleration) at York University, for which I was awarded a Morrell studentship. My dissertation (20,000 words), supervised by Prof. Matt Matravers, examined the role of intuitions in moral and political philosophy. In September 2008,  I began doctoral research at the University of Warwick, supervised by Prof. Andrew Williams and Dr. Fabienne Peter. My thesis, entitled "The Prospects for Sufficientarianism, was submitted in September 2011 and sought to clarify and defend sufficientarianism, the view that securing enough of some goods, such as wealth, health, education, happiness, is an especially important demand of justice. In October 2011, I was awarded an Early Career Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Study, based at the University of Warwick, to conduct research on the topic of Social Justice & Children and the Good Enough Parent. In January 2012, I gave up this award in order to take up my current position as Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Manchester.