Nicholas Southwood

Nicholas Southwood is a Professor (Level E) and Head of the School of Philosophy at the Australian National University (ANU), within the College of Arts and Social Sciences. He holds an ARC Future Fellowship and serves as Co-Editor of The Journal of Political Philosophy. His research focuses on moral and political philosophy, with engagements in epistemology, philosophy of law, and social science. Southwood has authored influential monographs, including Contractualism and the Foundations of Morality (2010) and Explaining Norms (2014), with a third monograph Feasibility: On What Is Possible in Politics under contract with OUP. His current work addresses feasibility in political theory, exploring how normative principles interact with practical constraints.

Education: PhD and BA (Hons) from ANU.

Research Interests: Southwood’s work bridges contractualism, moral constructivism, and the role of feasibility in political justification. He examines how societal norms and institutions shape moral obligations, with a focus on open borders, social justice, and deliberative democracy. His analysis often critiques idealized theories, advocating for frameworks that account for human nature and institutional realities.

Awards: ARC Future Fellow (2014–2020).

Grants & Projects: Southwood leads projects such as Feasibility, Poverty, and Agents of Justice (2019–2020) and Feasibility in Politics: Taking Account of Groups and Institutions (2017–2024). These explore how feasibility criteria shape moral and political reasoning, particularly in addressing global poverty and institutional design.

Labs/Teams: As Head of School, he oversees interdisciplinary collaborations within the Research School of Social Sciences, fostering research on political theory, ethics, and social philosophy.