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Dr Jeffrey Howard
Associate Professor
Dept of Political Science
Faculty of S&HS
- Joined UCL
- 1st Sep 2015
Research summary
Dr Jeffrey Howard is an associate professor at University College London, where he has taught political philosophy since 2015. He writes on philosophical debates concerning freedom of expression, democracy, crime and punishment, and counter-extremism. He has published in various journals, including Philosophy & Public Affairs, The Journal of Political Philosophy, Law and Philosophy, British Journal of Political Science, and Annual Review of Political Science. His recent article “Dangerous Speech” won the 2021 biennial Berger Memorial Prize from the American Philosophical Association for the best paper in the philosophy of law.
He is currently on research leave, thanks to a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. He is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, and he has also received the British Academy’s Rising Star Award. He regularly communicates his philosophical ideas to non-academic audiences. He was recently invited to testify before the House of Lords, presenting evidence on free speech and social media regulation to the Communications & Digital Select Committee. He has participated in a variety of discussions on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, along with other outlets such as National Public Radio in the US and many philosophy and politics podcasts. His public writing has appeared in various outlets including The Washington Post and The Independent.
Teaching summary
At UCL, Dr Howard has taught classes in canonical and contemporary political philosophy, ethics and public policy, the philosophy of crime and punishment, and the ethics of counterterrorism, among other topics. He has earned the Prize for Outstanding Faculty Teaching in the UCL School of Public Policy on two occasions, as well as the Award for Educational Leadership in the UCL Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences. At the University of Essex, where he taught prior to joining UCL, he won the Student Union’s award for Best Lecturer at the university, and the THINK series he created won The Guardian’s University Award for Student Experience.
He is currently on research leave.
Supervision: Dr Howard is currently primary or secondary supervisor to various PhD dissertations on a range of topics in contemporary political philosophy. He particularly welcome applications from students working on issues related to freedom of speech, social media regulation, criminal punishment, and the ethics of democratic discourse.