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Dr Avia Pasternak

avia
Professor in Political Theory
Room: 3.02, 31 Tavistock Sq
Tel: 020 3108 9301 (x59301)
Email: avia.pasternak@ucl.ac.uk
Biography

I am an Associate Professor in Political Theory at UCL. I joined the Department of Political Science in 2014. Before that I was a member of the Department of Government at the University of Essex. I was also a postdoctoral fellow at the Program on Global Justice at Stanford University, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at UCL.

I earned my D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University, where I studied at Nuffield College. My BA and MA degrees are from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In 2018-19 I was awarded the British Academy Senior Fellowship to work on my book on collective responsibility. In 2019-20 I was a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Princeton University’ Center for Human Values.

Research

One central question I am interested in concerns the collective responsibility of citizens for their state’s unjust policies. I have published several articles on this topic. My monograph on this question, titled Responsible Citizens Irresponsible States: Should Citizens Pay for their State Wrongdoings? is forthcoming in Oxford University Press.  

My second research project examines whether citizens may resort to violent protest against state injustice., My work on this topic has been published in Philosophy and Public Affairs. I am currently writing a monograph, titled No Justice No Peace: In Defence of Violent Protest to be published with Oxford University Press.  

A third question I am interested in is whether citizens who benefit from their state’s wrongdoings have special obligations to their victims. I have published several articles on this question.

Selected Publications

You can find the full list of my publications and abstracts here.

Teaching

In 2020-21 I will be teaching the module ‘Democracy Authority and Resistance’ (POLS0032)

I welcome PhD students who are interested to work on the following or related topics:

  • Civil and uncivil disobedience
  • The ethics of protest
  • Political Obligations
  • Ethics of Self Defence/Just War Theory
  • Collective Responsibility

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