📣 The University of Aberdeen is offering 3 AHRC Doctoral Landscape funding awards for doctoral studentships across the arts and humanities. Prospective Philosophy applicants can contact [email protected]. Further info:

📣 The chapter Matt Lister and I co-authored on refugee family reunion is now out in the Handbook of Migration Ethics. Our paper surveys several important questions & issues worthy of further consideration in this under-explored topic. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Beautiful autumn day for the first day of teaching.

New report 🚨 Our 2025 analysis shows the mounting impacts of the UK immigration system: over £870,000 cost, challenges to recruit and delays to life-saving cancer research. Read more: bit.ly/CRUK2025visasblog

⛰️ After the summer school, Anna, Esmé, and Eilidh joined a group trip to the Wudang mountains. Hosted by the Wudangshan Daoist Association and led by Dr Xuelin Deng, they learned about Daoist practice and visited several Daoist temples, including the Golden Palace and the Purple Cloud Temple. (2/2)

📚☀️🇨🇳 Aberdeen Philosophy students Anna, Esmé, Itzel, and Tom had a great time participating in the Political Philosophy Summer School at Wuhan University this month! Our Eilidh Beaton also attended and delivered three lectures in the programme. (1/2) philo.whu.edu.cn/info/1011/74...

For your summer reading: In a new piece on the ethics of migration policy dilemmas, we explain why a 'myth busting' approach to migration policy is insufficient and sometimes misleading. All contributions to this roundtable on "dilemmas" are linked below.

In just four days, one-third of the population of Tuvalu entered a ballot for a new permanent visa to Australia. I explain how the visa came about and why it's so popular theconversation.com/1-in-3-tuval...

New publication!🚨Here, we critically examine the governance of humanitarian protection, showing how both gender-blind and gender-sensitive regimes often reinforce—rather than reduce—the vulnerabilities faced by forcibly displaced women. academic.oup.com/migration/ar...

NEW: A central topic in today's FMQs - we're examining the Flamingo Land decision on the Centre blog 🚨🗣️ Professor Mark Stephens reflects on his role in a previous similar campaign in New Lanark, the democracy of planning decisions and whether planning is political. 🔗 www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

Scotland-based folks: please sign if you too are not keen on a "Flamingo Land" resort being built at Loch Lomond, via an antidemocratic process which ignores the position of the National Park's board, the local community council, and over 155,000 people who previously objected greens.scot/LochLomond

I recently co-authored & circulated (with @alasianuti.bsky.social ) an open letter against Starmer’s anti-immigrant rules & rhetoric. Over 100 of my UK-based political academics & writers signed it. Read the whole thing here: www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/starmer

Cool summer school opportunity for students of political philosophy! philo.whu.edu.cn/info/1011/74...

AHRC-funded PhD at University of Aberdeen/NMS: "Collecting Australia: colonial consumption and the display of Australia in Scotland during the long 19th century", focusing on colonial-era collections in Edinburgh @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social . Please share widely! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🚨 My book "In Our Interest: How Democracies Can Make Immigration Popular" is finally out today with @ColumbiaUP! 🚨 It tackles one of the biggest challenges today: How can we make freer human mobility between countries more politically sustainable? 🧵

I wrote something. I hope it's not too controversial. axdouglas.substack.com/p/political-...

Today's university losing staff is Edinburgh, which has got itself into a frightful muddle and panic about cashflow - but which is becoming emblematic of just how vulnerable the Welsh and Scottish Higher Ed systems really are. www.scotsman.com/education/un...

With @stevecooke.org, @drsvg.bsky.social, @mattwperry.bsky.social, and others I'm organizing the latest conference in the 'Animal Politics' series, this time hosted in Leicester. The theme is 'Forgotten Animals', and we're now accepting abstracts. Spread the word! philevents.org/event/show/1...

Some moments from Seville last week 🇪🇸

University of Derby faces mass job cuts as management plans to make half of senior academics redundant. Please spread the word. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1398...

📣 Delighted to share that my paper "Methodological Nationalism is Not the (best articulation of the) Problem" is forthcoming in Philosophy! 🎉 (1/8)

 A preprint is available here: philpapers.org/rec/BEAMNI

Worried about ChatGPT in your essay-writing classroom? I wrote up some guidelines for my class last year and I think it worked pretty well. (Plus some more links to other resources to come.)

My friend Dr. Joanne Liu, former international president of Doctors Without Borders, was cancelled at NYU. The vice-president in education asked to see her powerpoint, prior to her lecture. One slide showed the number of humanitarian workers who died in Gaza. NYU cancelled the event.

🎓 In today's alumni profile, Ian Nisbet—Fintech and Investment Risk Professional with experience selecting candidates for investment banking careers—explains the value of philosophy graduates from an employer's perspective. #PhiloFortnight2025 #PhilosophyMatters

🌍💉⛑️ To what extent may states prioritise their own citizens' interests during periods of global crisis? Was "vaccine hoarding" during the COVID-19 pandemic unjust? Eilidh Beaton explains how philosophy can guide us, guide us, even in crisis situations #PhilosophyMatters #PhiloFortnight2025

🎓 Today's alumni profile comes from Lucy Shanahan, now a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Leeds. "Philosophy underlies almost everything we do: the law, politics, sports, sex, love." #PhiloFortnight2025 #PhilosophyMatters

📱🧠 🖥️ Can software systems extend our knowledge beyond our bodily boundaries? What are the mechanisms behind online disinformation? As Jesper Kallestrup explains, philosophy provides us with a path to answering these questions #PhilosophyMatters #PhiloFortnight2025

🧑‍⚕️ 🏥 💊 In today's faculty video, Vikki Entwistle, Chair in Health Services Research and Philosophy, explains how philosophy can help in healthcare contexts. #PhiloFortnight2025 #PhilosophyMatters

🎓 Today's alumni profile comes from Tom Flint, Research Culture Engagement Officer at the University of Leeds. "In my work [...] philosophy has helped me foster genuine collaboration and focus on what truly matters." #PhiloFortnight2025 #PhilosophyMatters

🙎➡️ 🤖 "Personal avatars" are "digital duplicates" of real people. How might they be useful? What are their risks? Paula Sweeney explains how philosophy can help us approach these questions #PhilosophyMatters #PhiloFortnight2025

🎓 Our first #PhiloFortnight2025 alumni testimonial is from Steven Wareing, Head of Financial Accounting, Dept for Business & Trade. The skills I gained studying philosophy "have enabled me to perform highly in roles at each grade level in the civil service." #PhilosophyMatters

Together with Paulina Ochoa Espejo and Murad Idris, Leigh Jenco has just published a new introduction to political theory that integrates recent insights from comparative and global political thought. Available here: uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/po...

Sending so much solidarity to colleagues at Dundee Uni. This is awful.

Greetings, all! In case you haven't heard, the deadline to submit abstracts to the 2025 annual meeting of the North American Society of Social Philosophy (NASSP) has been extended to March 15th! Come philosophize with us on BOTH sides of the U.S.-Mexico border! Link below.

This year's summer school is lined up to be a really great one - come join us!

I have a piece at the LRB blog on the UK government's intention to permanently block refugees from citizenship.

Pleased to share that my comments on @deefthymiou.bsky.social's rich & interesting paper on refugee protection in the EU quota system is now out in the Ethics of Migration Policy Dilemmas series at @mpc-eui.bsky.social #philsky migrationpolicycentre.eu/the-ethics-o...

🗓️ 🤥 Want to learn more about why people are drawn to disinformation, "fake news", and demagoguery? Join us for this discussion at Aberdeen Art Gallery next month, featuring our own Jesper Kallestrup. (Free!) tickets available here: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/engage/public/cafe-sci

This latest policy of denying citizenship to refugees not only shows the inhumanity inherent within current “border policies”, it risks the UK violating some of the most central tenets of international refugee law. We urge this government to change course. www.migrantvoice.org/home/editori...

Aberdeen Philosophy are now on Bluesky! Department news, events, and all the usual good stuff can be found over on @abdnphilosophy.bsky.social

First (physical) read of 2025 off to a strong start (unlike this awful cover)

Met Minister Fairlie to discuss free bus passes for asylum seekers. North East Scotland faces a severe lack of access to justice and travel isolation for migrants. There are no local migration solicitors. Urgent need for support, with fate of scheme depending on opposition parties' budget vote.

Updated the 2025 Thinking Trans Conference registration page with a tentative schedule! We are holding the conference March 27-28 at Lafayette College and on Zoom, with no registration fee: philosophy.lafayette.edu/2024/12/29/t...

Sharing an incredible resource for people looking to follow the legal changes on immigration under Trump. A law professor and numerous students at Yale Law and Stanford Law will be tracking and summarizing every change in immigration policy. immpolicytracking.org/home/

As local partners of The Royal Institute of Philosophy, we planned three webinars for the #PhilosophyMatters fortnight in March and five lunchtime workshops at Winterbourne House and Garden in 2025. All events are free but require registration. Check them out: www.birmingham.ac.uk...#PhilosophyMatters#philsky

After stepping up as @ducu.bsky.social co-president in September, I've now chaired A LOT of meetings, and figured out a couple of tricks that have made them go (in my opinion) very smoothly. So I wrote up a guide to chairing: sluckelman.webspace.durham.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

The reading list for my 2024 Global Justice course is now up on my website! eilidhbeaton.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

Now on the top of my to-read pile. Critical engagement which furthers the discussion on important moral and political issues is always welcome.

Highlights from today: a ~4000 year old recumbent stone circle and a cafe in an old post office.