Cécile Laborde

Cécile Laborde is the Nuffield Professor of Political Theory at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. She holds a position in the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) and is affiliated with Nuffield College. Previously, she was a Professor of Political Theory at University College London, and has held permanent posts at the University of Exeter and King's College London. She also served as Associate Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton during the 2010-11 academic year.

Professor Laborde received her DPhil from Oxford University in 1996, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, after studying political science in France. Her academic journey reflects a deep commitment to political theory across multiple prestigious institutions in the UK, France, and the United States.

Her research focuses on the intersection of political philosophy, secularism, and equality. Laborde's work explores how republican theories of freedom relate to issues of discrimination, particularly concerning race and gender. She has made significant contributions to understanding secularism beyond Western contexts, notably through her analysis of Indian secularism. Her approach often challenges conventional wisdom about the relationship between liberalism and religion, arguing for a more nuanced understanding of religious freedom within liberal democracies.

Professor Laborde has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Spitz Prize in 2019 for her book "Liberalism's Religion." She is a Fellow of the British Academy and was elected to the Royal Academy of Belgium in December 2022. Her work has been supported by significant grants, including a European Research Council (ERC) personal grant that funded UCL's Religion and Political Theory Centre, which she directed.

As an academic mentor, Laborde supervises several doctoral students including María-José Gómez Ruiz, Cecile Degiovanni, Simeon Goldstraw, and Samuel Burry. She convenes the Nuffield Political Theory Workshop, fostering scholarly exchange in her field. Her research continues to influence debates on secularism, republicanism, and equality across multiple national contexts.