Monique Deveaux Faculty Webpage

Monique Deveaux

I use ideas from social and political theory to try to illuminate concrete problems of structural injustice, like poverty and exploitation. I have also written about the justice claims of cultural and religious groups within the context of constitutional democratic states. My most recent book, Poverty, Solidarity, and Poor-Led Social Movements (Oxford University Press, 2021), argues that progressive and just poverty eradication needs to be centered on the analyses and aims of poor-led social movements and their organizations. You can download a free copy here.

I hold a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Ethics & Global Social Change at the University of Guelph, where I am a Professor of Philosophy and co-director of the Grounded & Engaged Theory (GET) lab.

From 2012 to 2019, I directed Initiatives in Global Justice (IGJ), a research consortium of U of Guelph researchers addressing ethical and political issues related to globalization. In 2022, Dr. Candace Johnson (Political Science) and I started up the GET Lab at the University of Guelph to encourage and support student and postdoctoral researchers doing empirically-informed normative theorizing.

In 2021, with Brooke Ackerly, Genevieve Fuji Johnson, and Chris Tenove, I co-founded the Engaged Theory Community, a global network that connects political philosophers and theorists — students too — who do grounded and engaged normative political theory. What is engaged theory and why do it? Take a look at recent webinars on our website, below. The Oxford Handbook of Grounded and Engaged Normative Theory (in progress), of which I am a co-editor, is an outcome of this collaboration.

Note to Prospective Graduate Students:

I supervise M.A. and Ph.D students in social and political philosophy, normative and applied ethics (including development ethics), and feminist philosophy. If you are interested in doing socially-engaged philosophy/political theory with an empirical research component, consider applying to join our GET lab.

Post-Doctoral Scholars:

If you are a researcher looking for a vibrant political philosophy community to carry out your funded postdoctoral research, please get in touch. Past postdoctoral researchers: Dr. Jennifer Szende (PhD, Queen’s) and Dr. Cristian Dimitriu (PhD, U Toronto).

Ph.D. Dissertation Supervision (Advisor)

  • Shannon Boss, “You Are What You Eat: Orthorexia, Purity, and Health in the Digital Age” (defended Sept. 2022) 
  • Cameron Fioret, “The Ethics of Water: From Commodification to Common Ownership” (defended August 2021)
  • Marie-Pier Lemay, “Grounding Transnational Feminist Solidarity” (defended Nov. 2021)
  • Veronica Majewski, “Toward a Listening-Focused Account of Deliberative Democracy” (2013—2018/withdrew)
  • Joshua Mousie: “Nonhuman Publics and Human Politics: Reimagining the Political Sphere” (defended Dec. 2015)
  • Christi Storfa: “Global Justice Unbounded: Social Connection Through Mutual Flourishing” (defended Sept. 2021)
  • Mirella Tranquille, “Agency of the ‘Freed Slaves’: the Ethics of Violence in Black Resistance in the U.S.” (2020 —)
  • Gordon Trenbeth, “Solidarity with Non-Human Others: Theorizing and (Re)Presenting Interspecies Solidarity” (defended Sept. 2023)

MA Supervision (Advisor)

  • Jeremy Wiens, “Doing Development Justice: Corruption, Non-ideal Theory, and Global Justice” (Sept. 2023)
  • Gregory Corey, “Non-Economic Contradictions of Capitalism” (Aug. 2021)
  • Mahdi Dadgari Alamdari, “Cosmopolitanism as an Answer to Ethnic Issues in Iran” (June 2021)
  • Marian Kelly, “Theorizing the Relationship between Participation and Health Equity in Brazil’s Participatory Health Councils” (Aug. 2018)
  • Sofian Aouamri, “An Alernative Framework for Transnational Solidarity: Edith Stein’s Concept of Solidarity” (April 2017)

Conferences Hosted:

Education

Ph.D. and M.Phil, University of Cambridge
M.A. and B.A. Hon. (Political Science), McGill University

Positions

Professor and CRC (tier 1) in Ethics & Global  Social Change, Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph, 2010 to present.

Assistant Professor (1998-2004) Associate Professor of Political Science, Williams College, 2004-2010

Residential Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, 2001-2002

SSHRC Post-doctoral fellow, Wiener Center, JFK School of Government, Harvard University, 1997-1998

Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy Book Cover

Research

Books

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Selected Talks:

  • December 2020 “Grounding Normative Theorizing in Concrete, Justice-Seeking Struggles.” Carleton University Philosophy Colloquium (zoom talk).
  • March 2020 “The Capability Approach and Transformative Poverty Reduction.” Western University Philosophy Colloquium.
  • June 2017 “Movements versus Markets: What, If Anything, is Special About the Organizations and Social Movements of the Poor?” University of British Columbia workshop: New Directions in Ethics and Poverty. 
  • March 2017 “Why Global Inequality – and Not Just Poverty – Matters.” Ohio State University COMPAS (Conversations on Morality, Politics & Society) conference: On Global Inequality. 
  • February 2017 “Religion, Tradition, and Autonomy: Can Intersectionality Reveal Openings for Women’s Agency?”. Keynote lecture, VII Congress of the Italian Society of Women Historians, Pisa, Italy.
  • February 2017 “Reframing Chronic Poverty and its Alleviation through the Insights and Strategies of Poor-led Movements.” Talk, Dept. of Ethics, Social & Political Philosophy, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
  • October 2016 “Reframing Chronic Poverty and its Alleviation through the Insights and Strategies of Poor-led Movements.” Ethics & Public Affairs Program, and Dept. of Philosophy, Carleton Unviersity
  • May 2016 “Global Justice From Below? The Value of Poor-led Social Movements to Poverty Alleviation.” Keynote talk, University of Salzburg Workshop on Philosophy and Poverty
  • May 2016 “Global Justice From Below? The Value of Poor-led Social Movements to Poverty Alleviation.” Free University, Berlin (Kolloquium Zur Praktischen Philosophie)
  • April 2016 “Global Justice From Below? The Value of Poor-led Social Movements to Poverty Alleviation.” Society for Women in Philosophy workshop (SWIP-SHOP), CUNY Graduate Center
  • Sept. 2015 “How Should the Political Movements of the Poor Figure in Theorizing About Global Justice?” Symposium on ‘Global Justice: New Directions in Research and Advocacy,’ Ghent, Belgium
  • May 2015 “Is the Cross-Border Trade in Human Eggs Wrongfully Exploitative?” Gender and Global Justice Conference, Centre for Global Ethics, University of Birmingham (UK)
  • July 2014  “Egg Donation: An Assessment of Key Feminist Ethical Objections.” British Society for Applied Philosophy, Oxford, UK
  • July 2014  “Global Injustice and the Market in Human Eggs.” 15th International Association of Women Philosophers Symposium, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
  • June 2014  “Sexual Equality and Personal Autonomy: Possibilities of Pluralistic Interpretations.”  Conference on ‘(Not) Outside My Culture: Paradoxes of Personal Autonomy in a Plural Society,’ Max Plank Institute, Halle, Germany
  • Feb. 2014  “The Cross-Border Trade in Human Eggs: an Ethical Conundrum from the Perspective of Global Justice.” Workshop on Global Surrogacy and Reproductive Markets, University of Ottawa
  • Jan. 2014  “Sufficiency, Priority, and the Harms of Inequality.” Invited talk, Philosophy Department colloquium series, McMaster University
  • March 2013 “The Global Poor as Agents of Justice.” Invited talk, Laurentian University (Seminar on Thought and Culture)
  • Nov. 2012  “Agents or Subjects of Global Justice?”. Invited talk, McMaster University (Society for Philosophy and Culture & the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition)
  • March and April 2011 “When is Sufficiency Not Enough? Revisiting Sufficiency and Priority Views in Light of Inequality’s Harms.” Talk presented at the University of Toronto (Centre for Ethics); University of Waterloo (Philosophy Department), and the University of Ottawa (Graduate School of Public and International Affairs)
  • April 2010 “The Subjects of Global Justice.” Philosophy Department Colloquium, Dalhousie University