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Dr Huw Williams

Overview

Dr Tomos Owen Position: Lecturer Email: WilliamsH47@cf.ac.uk
 Telephone: +44(0)29 208 74806
Extension: 74806
Location: Room 1.40, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cathays, Cardiff

Research Group

Philosophy

Research Interests

Political Philosophy, International Political Theory, The History of Ideas in Wales, John Rawls

Selected Publications

On Rawls, Development and Global Justice: The Freedom of Peoples (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)

Teaching Interests

Contemporary liberal political philosophy, theories of global justice, history of political thought, philosophy and doctrine in Wales.

Publications

Recent Publications

Books:

On Rawls, Development and Global Justice: The Freedom of Peoples (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)

Reviews:

Review of Ben Jackson,  ‘Equality and the British Left’ in Contemporary Political Theory 9/3 (2010).

Review of Oisin Tansey, ‘Regime-Building’ in Intelligence and National Security ifirst (09/12)

Work in Progress

Articles:

‘Justifying War in John Rawls’ Gospel of Peace’, on the incorporation of just war theory in Rawls’ Kantian international theory. Philosophy & Public Affairs
‘Wacky Races: On Miller’s (Mis)conception of Development’, critiquing the analogy of development deployed by David Miller in his work on global justice.  Millennium
‘Freedom and the Problem of Quasi-States’, applying Gerald MacCallum’s concept of freedom to states in transition. The Journal of Intervention and State-Building

Book Chapters:

‘The Law of Peoples’ in Reidy, D. & Mandle, J. (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Rawls (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)
‘Rhyfel Cyfiawn ac Athroniaeth John Rawls’ in G. Matthews (ed.) 'Cenedligrwydd, Cyfiawnder a Heddwch’ (Lolfa, 2013)

Research

My research interests span the fields of political philosophy, international political theory, and the history of ideas.  To date, my research has focused on how contemporary liberal theorists articulate global duties, and their approaches to questions of global justice and inequality.  My monograph, On Rawls, Development and Global Justice: The Freedom of Peoples, elaborates Rawls’ institution-building approach to international assistance, advocating pragmatism and the toleration of difference, offering an alternative to the discourse of democracy-building.  In my current research, I am expanding my commentary on Rawls’ international theory, writing in particular on the issues of just war and democracy promotion.  I am also interested in key figures in the history of philosophy, politics and theology in Wales, and in particular their relation to traditions of egalitarian and radical thought.   

Biography

I joined the Department in Cardiff in 2012.  As an undergraduate I studies philosophy and psychology at the LSE, and as a Morrell Scholar I studied political theory at the University of York Politics Graduate School. I received a Ph.D. from the International Politics department at Aberystwyth in 2009, where I then took up the post of lecturer.  In my role as lecturer with the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, it is my responsibility to expand the teaching of philosophy through the medium of Welsh across the higher education institutions in Wales. My primary research interest is egalitarian thought, in particular the philosophy of John Rawls, and I have spent time as a visiting researcher at Tennessee University with the leading Rawlsian scholar, David Reidy.