معرفی
Jessica Flanigan is the Richard L Morrill Chair of Ethics and Democratic Values and Professor of Leadership Studies and Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law at the University of Richmond. She earned her PhD from Princeton University in 2012 and serves as Editor-in-chief of Public Affairs Quarterly while also holding associate editor positions at several applied ethics journals.
Her research addresses the ethics of public policy, medicine, and business from a perspective that combines libertarian principles with careful attention to social justice concerns. Dr. Flanigan's work spans pharmaceutical freedom, sex work policy, leadership ethics, public health policy, and distributive justice. She has developed notable positions on patients' rights to self-medication, the decriminalization of sex work, and the relationship between libertarianism and egalitarian concerns. Her research methodology blends traditional philosophical analysis with engagement with empirical social science findings.
Dr. Flanigan's scholarly output demonstrates remarkable breadth across philosophical subfields while maintaining a consistent focus on practical ethical questions. Her work appears in leading journals including Philosophical Studies, The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, The Journal of Moral Philosophy, and The Journal of Political Philosophy. She has authored the influential book Pharmaceutical Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2017) and the forthcoming Why It's OK to Have Bad Spelling and Grammar (Routledge, 2025), and co-authored Debating Sex Work (Oxford University Press, 2019). She is currently writing The Ethics of Expecting about pregnancy and fertility policy and co-editing a volume on the philosophy of Taylor Swift.
As an engaged scholar, Dr. Flanigan frequently collaborates with industry leaders and policy experts. Her editorial leadership of Public Affairs Quarterly positions her at the intersection of academic philosophy and practical policy concerns. She teaches applied ethics and critical thinking classes at the University of Richmond, bringing philosophical rigor to questions of everyday importance. Dr. Flanigan maintains an active research agenda with numerous current projects exploring animal ethics, chronic pain, household labor, and other emerging ethical questions.
