Garrath Williams

Websites

https://garrathwilliams.weebly.com and https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/ppr/people/garrath-williams

Recent talks

• Kantian free markets. (Society for Applied Philosophy annual conference, Gdansk, June 2025; Royal Institute of Philosophy / University of Keele seminar, February 2025; Immanuel Kant, 300 Years from Now, University of Catania, October 2024)

• Neo-colonial climate damage. (Conference: Cosmopolitanism, Migration, Climate Change, University of Cagliari, May 2025)

• The transnational corporation as neo-colonial boomerang. (Reconceiving Business Corporations in Times of Political Contestation, Utrecht University, May 2025)

• The Groundwork lays the ground for right. (14th International Kant Congress, Bonn, September 2024; Amsterdam Kant Conference, June 2024)

• “They that have power to bind…”: artificial legal persons threaten Kantian civil equality. (Workshop: Means, Ends and Trolleys, University of Bonn, September 2024) – Kant-Zentrum NRW video 

• Kantianism as a method: Hermann Cohen and the form of capitalism. (Left-Kantianism Workshop, Cardiff University, July 2024; conference: What's Left of Kant?, University of Chicago, March 2024)

• The intractable injustice of corporate food systems. (Food, Family, and Justice conference, John Cabot University, Rome, June 2024)

• Does freedom support rights to incorporate? (Workshop: Kant’s Practical Philosophy, Leeds University, May 2024)

• Business corporations – a Kantian view. (Conference: Kant and the World Today, Johns Hopkins University/North American Kant Society, Baltimore, March 2024)

• What is a free market, really? Kant's critique of neoliberalism. (University of Warwick Philosophy Society, February 2024; Purchase SUNY Philosophy Colloquium, March 2024; also to workshop to this project, University of Bochum, February 2024)

• “Charities for the wealthy classes”: corporate shareholding as the capture of state power. (Philosophy Department, University of Amsterdam, January 2024; Society for Applied Philosophy Annual Conference, Antwerp, June 2023; conference for this project, University of Bristol, July 2023)

• Corporations and Kant’s categories of right. (Workshop for this project, Lancaster University, November 2023)

• Response to Alix Cohen, "In Defense of Epistemic Autonomy: A Kantian Proposal." (Conference: Kant on Epistemic Autonomy and Authority, University of Cologne, September 2023)

• Comments on Jordan Pascoe, Kant's Theory of Labour. (Online symposium, September 2023)

• Response to Jordan Pascoe, "Kant and Marx on Racialized Labor." (Kant and Marx: Revisiting the Intersection, Erasmus University Rotterdam, July 2023)

• Employment as a Kantian status relation. (Workshop on Kant's Practical Philosophy, Ruhr-University Bochum, February 2023)

• Kantian right as the authorisation to use coercion. University of Bonn workshop, The Tasks of Practical Reason in Kant (October 2022); St Andrews Kant in Progress (August 2022)

• Corporate activity and climate destabilisation: a Kantian analysis. (Launch workshop of Digitales Kant-Zentrum NRW, University of Siegen, September 2022)

Short CV

Areas of specialization

Moral responsibility, political responsibility, Kant, Arendt, public health

Areas of competence

Moral philosophy, political theory, applied ethics, public policy

Academic qualifications

• 1998 PhD, Action and Knowledge in Kant’s Critical Philosophy, University of Manchester – examined by Ralph Walker & Hillel Steiner; Political Studies Association prize for best doctoral dissertation in political theory

• 1994 MA in Health Care Ethics, University of Manchester

• 1993 BA (Hons) in Philosophy & Politics (first class), University of Manchester

Academic appointments

• Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University (2010 onwards)

• Lecturer in Philosophy, Lancaster University (2003–2010)

• Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Central Lancashire (1998 –2002)

• Lecturer in Political Thought, University of Manchester (1997–1998)

Visiting appointments

• Visiting Professor, Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto (2025-26)

• Guest Researcher, University of Amsterdam (2024)

• Visiting Professor (Ethics, Economics, Law & Politics), Ruhr-Universität Bochum (2017–18)

• Visiting Fellow, Copenhagen Business School (2013)

• Visiting Fellow, European Academy of Technology and Innovation Assessment (2003), Bad Neuenahr

• Visiting Fellow, University of St Andrews (2002)

Funded research

• Media representations of obesity – ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (cass.lancs.ac.uk): I took part in a work package on media representations of obesity (2018-2020), looking at stigmatising aspects of obesity discourse in British newspapers and online reader responses.

• I.Family: Determinants of eating behaviour in European children, adolescents and their parents: EU FP7 Collaborative Project (2012-2017). Coordinated by Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS).

• Leapfrog: Transforming public sector consultation by design: AHRC funded project (2015-2018). Coordinated by Leon Cruickshank, Lancaster. The project collaborated with public sector and community partners to design and evaluate new approaches to consultation. 

• IDEFICS: Identification and prevention of dietary-and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants (www.ideficsstudy.eu): EU FP6 Integrated Project (2006-2012). Coordinated by Bremen University. I was Principal Investigator at Lancaster, responsible for the ethical and policy aspects of this project on childhood obesity prevention.

Scholarly societies

• British Philosophical Association: Treasurer (2021 onwards)

• Society for Applied Philosophy: Honorary Treasurer (2011-2021)

• UK Kant Society: Member of the advisory board (2019 onwards), Treasurer (2013-19), Member of Executive Committee (2008-13)