Magdalene College Cambridge

Dr Alexander Bryan

Dr Alexander Bryan is Director of Studies in Philosophy and the Isaac Newton Trust Career Development Fellow in Philosophy.

Before joining Magdalene in September 2023, I worked as a Lecturer in Philosophy at Cardiff University and held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and Tel Aviv University. I received BA and MA degrees from the University of York, and then moved to King's College London for my doctoral research. My research engages with a range of topics in political philosophy, including theories of freedom, economic justice, and democratic theory. Much of my published work explores the conditions of economic freedom and the kinds of economics relations which promote or constrain that freedom. I have also developed research exploring the conditions of justified civil disobedience, arguing that there are epistemic conditions justified civil disobedience must meet in sufficiently health epistemic contexts.

My current research project explores the idea that states can be conceived as group agents. This project draws on work in social metaphysics on the concept of group agency and work in political philosophy on the legitimacy and justification of coercive states.

Research Interests

  • Political Philosophy
  • Ethics
  • Economic justice
  • Political freedom
  • Democracy

Qualifications

  • PhD in Law, King's College London
  • MA in Political & Legal Theory, University of York
  • BA in Philosophy & Politics, University of York

Selected Publications

Bryan, A. (forthcoming). ‘Vulnerability, Domination, and the Conditions of Equality’, in Vulnerability and Relational Equality, edited by Costanza Porro and Christine Straehle, Cambridge University Press.

Bryan, A. (forthcoming) ‘Better but not enough: on the limitations of reformed temporary labour migration programmes’, Journal of Social Philosophy. http://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12606.

Bryan, A. (forthcoming). ‘Responsibility Fictionalism’, Inquiry, Forthcoming Online First, https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2024.2436940.

Bryan, A. (forthcoming). The Epistemic Dimensions of Civil Disobedience, The Journal of Political Philosophy.

Bryan, A. (2023) Structural Domination and Freedom in the Labor Market: From Voluntariness to Independence, American Political Science Review, 117(2), 692-704. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055422000922

Bryan, A. (2023) The Material Conditions of Non-Domination: Property, Independence, and the Means of Production, European Journal of Political Theory, 22(2), 425-444. https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851211050620

Bryan, A & Kouris, I. (2022) Should Republicans be Interested in Exploitation?, Res Publica, 28(3), 513-530. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-021-09542-z

Bryan, A. (2022) Political Parties and Republican Democracy, Contemporary Political Theory, 21(2), 262-282. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-021-00499-5

Bryan, A. (2021) Freedom as Non-Domination, Robustness, and Distant Threats, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 24(2), 889-900. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-021-10222-3

Bryan, A. (2021) The Dominating Effects of Economic Crises, Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy, 24(6) 884-908. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2019.1581492