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Viewing archives for Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)

Introduction

I am a Career Development Fellow in Economics at Queen’s College, Oxford University. I
hold a B.A. in Economics with Honors from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics
from Brown University.

Teaching

I teach tutorials in macroeconomics for both Prelims and the Core course, as well as in the Economics of Developing Countries.

Research

My research delves into the connections between cultural diversity, human capital
formation, and income inequality, investigating how historical and societal influences shape economic trajectories. A key focus of my work is the cultural foundations of human capital formation in Sub-Saharan Africa and the deep factors that contribute to variations in cultural diversity and income inequality across different societies.

Publications

A full list of my publications can be found here

Introduction

I am an applied economist with research interests at the intersection of political economy, economic history, and organisational economics. I recently completed my Ph.D. in Business & Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Before my doctoral studies, I earned a master’s degree in economics from the Barcelona School of Economics and undergraduate degrees in economics and philosophy from the University of Munich (LMU).

Research

My current research explores two related themes: 1) The historical development of state capacity, and (2) personnel selection and performance in public organizations and political parties. I combine novel data sources (archival, administrative, or proprietary) with modern econometric methods. Examples of my current projects include papers examining the electoral return to patronage jobs in early 20th century New York City, the competition between colonial companies in Canada’s early modern fur trade, the rise of Britain’s fiscal state on the eve of the industrial revolution, and the role of political parties in selecting competent candidates in contemporary Finland.

Introduction

I concentrated in East Asian Studies as an undergraduate at Harvard College (1989-1993), and then spent two years in Japan as a Rotary Scholar before returning to Harvard for my doctoral studies in political science (1995-2001).  During my graduate studies I spent a year abroad as a Fulbright scholar with time in Tokyo and Brussels for research on the politics of agricultural trade negotiations. I taught international relations at Princeton University for sixteen years with a joint appointment as a professor in the Department of Politics and in the School for Public and International Affairs. I returned to Harvard in 2018 where I am now the Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and Director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. For the year 2024-25, I will serve as the Centenary PPE Professor at Oxford.

Teaching

At Harvard, I have taught seminars at the graduate and undergraduate level on international organizations.  We explore theoretical perspectives on the conditions that support cooperation and consider specific topics such as trade policy, environmental protection, and collective security. I also teach an undergraduate course, “Law, Politics, and Trade Policy: Lessons From East Asia.” Students examine the transformative role of trade policy for Japan, Korea, and China that produced the East Asian growth miracle and generated trade conflict.

Research

My research examines topics related to trade, East Asian foreign policy, and international organizations. My dissertation research was published in 2003 as a book titled Food Fights over Free Trade: How International Institutions Promote Agricultural Trade Liberalization. My research continued to explore cooperation in trade policy with articles on economic and security linkage in negotiations and a book Why Adjudicate? Enforcing Trade Rules in the WTO (Princeton University Press 2012), which examines the domestic pressures that shape international trade disputes.  My most recent book, Discriminatory Clubs: The Geopolitics of International Organizations, was published by Princeton University Press in 2023. The book reveals the discriminatory logic at the heart of multilateral institutions. With statistical analysis of membership patterns and historical case studies, I show how geopolitical alignment determines who gets into the room to make the rules of global governance. This year I am conducting research for a new book about how international rivalry shapes trade policy and writing several articles on economic sanctions.

Publications

A list of my publications can be found here

About me

I am from Northern Ireland and I read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). I chose PPE because I have always had an interest in politics and history, even at a non-academic level, and then in school also came to love the study of economics. PPE then just seemed like a great fit, and especially because it continued to give me options for when I graduate as far as what job or industry to go into.

College experience

My favourite thing about Queen’s, apart from its central location which is brilliant, is probably the fact that it has a small feel to it. By relative number of students we’re not a small college but somehow I found us to feel like a small community. There’s not, as far as I can see, cliques of much of a divide between Queen’s students and I am so thankful for it.

Oxford life

Within the constraints of when they schedule your lectures and tutorials, your schedule is up to you entirely. I find that I am naturally someone who works better in the evening, but you have to also have the self-awareness to realise that you should still get up and meet the day at a reasonable time. For PPE, in first year at least, we would have up to six lectures a week because they seemed to front-load some lectures in the first term, but then it can be quieter in the following terms. As for tutorials, we got used to having three a week, and a piece of work; either an essay or problem sheet; to complete for each.

As someone who naturally had a great interest in many of my subjects I thought the tutorials were amazing. You get an opportunity, as a fresh-faced 18-year-old with no professional training in your field, to discuss these topics with a world-leading expert and have your own thoughts, and crucially, your questions taken seriously. Sometimes you are obviously put on the spot and have to think seriously but the stereotype about an imposing atmosphere or anything to be afraid of is not something I’ve ever come across here. Outside the academic side, there is such an array of things to get involved in and thankfully, while this can be quite full-on if you choose, you can come and go as you please from a lot of societies and clubs.

Advice for applicants

This is probably advice I wouldn’t have listened to when I was applying, but it is to not worry. As far as I can see, getting in is a question of admissions tutors spotting a natural interest in the subject; so you could talk about it and it wouldn’t sound forced. They can pick this up from your personal statement, primarily by demonstrating that you’re reading or taking stuff in in some way, and then eventually in an interview; not by knowing everything, but by having an appetite to learn more about something. The rest is window dressing, and if your passion for the subject is real and genuine then there’s little more to do other than apply that with a bit of thinking power.

Anything else?

As much as I love Queen’s, I didn’t choose it as my college of choice. After three years here I’ve learned that many people get shuffled around colleges and it doesn’t matter. I met some people who might want to change degrees or options within their courses, but no one who wants to change colleges. Somehow, even if you don’t get your choice, they find you the right place. I haven’t a clue how, but they’ve been doing it forever.

Introduction

I grew up in Eggersriet, Switzerland. In 2013, I obtained my BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University (Lincoln College). After stints as a journalist, a researcher at the Swiss National Bank, an analyst at a development NGO, and a teacher in a refugee reception centre in Switzerland, I read for an MSc in Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE), where I subsequently stayed for an additional year as a pre-doctoral research fellow.  I completed my PhD in Economics at UC Berkeley in spring 2022 and returned to Oxford as an Associate Professor of Economics at the Economics Department and a Tutorial Fellow at Queen’s College later that year.

Teaching

I teach tutorials in Probability and Statistics and Quantitative Economics at Queen’s. At the Economics Department, I am involved in teaching the undergraduate options course in Development Economics, and I also lecture as part of the MSc in Economics for Development. In addition, I supervise a few MPhil and DPhil students each year.

Research

I conduct empirical research on migration, networks, and spatial linkages between economic agents. For instance, one of my current projects investigates to what extent co-national social networks help newly arriving refugees integrate in the local labor market and society more broadly, and how this affects local firms, workers, and politics. In another, I study how unconditional cash transfers to rural households in Kenya shape their social and economic interactions, and how the benefits of cash ripple through existing social networks within their villages.

Introduction

Before starting his Junior Research Fellowship at Queen’s in 2022, Farsan worked at Maastricht University and Lund University. He holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford, an MA in Global Affairs from Yale University, and a BSc in Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Further information on Farsan’s background is available at: www.farsanghassim.com/bio.

Farsan has also worked as a consultant in the private, public, and civil society sectors – among others, with Bain & Company, the United Nations, the European Parliament, the German Foreign Office, and various civil society organizations. Find out more about his consultancy work at: www.farsanghassim.com/consultancy.

Teaching

Farsan has developed courses, taught seminars, and supervised theses in Political Science, International Relations, and quantitative methods, among others, at the University of Oxford, Maastricht University, and for the German National Academic Foundation. Learn more about his teaching and supervision at: www.farsanghassim.com/teaching.

Research

Farsan’s research concentrates on global governance and survey methodology. His work is published or forthcoming in the British Journal of Political Science, Perspectives on Politics, International Studies Quarterly, The Review of International Organizations, and elsewhere. Some of the key questions he focuses on are: Why and how do citizens worldwide want transnational issues to be governed? How can we design surveys to obtain answers that reflect respondents’ underlying attitudes, knowledge, and behavior? Find out more about Farsan’s work at: www.farsanghassim.com/research.

Publications

For the full list of peer-reviewed academic publications, please visit: www.farsanghassim.com/research.

For popular science articles and opinion pieces, please go to: www.farsanghassim.com/media.

Course

  • BA (Hons) Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Admissions

The College typically admits eight students per year for the PPE Course.  It is not necessary to have studied any of the three PPE subjects at school. Although a background in Mathematics is not formally required for admission, PPE applicants should have sufficient interest in, and aptitude for, mathematics to cope with the mathematical elements of the course. Mathematics at A level, IB Standard level, or the equivalent is a particular advantage for the Economics component of the course, as well as for the first year logic course in philosophy, and for understanding theories and data in Politics.

The course

The PPE course lasts for three years.  All three subjects must be studied in the first year.  In the second and third years, many now choose the option of a combination of any two of the subjects but it is possible to continue studying all three if you wish. In either case there is a choice of papers from a wide range of optional subjects.

Teaching

During their first year, all students take introductory courses in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.  These courses are taught within the College.

Students who continue with Philosophy take two core courses (Ethics and either Early Modern Philosophy; or Knowledge and Reality; or Plato’s Republic; or Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics) in the second year, and are then free to choose further options in their second and third years, including the option of writing a 15,000 word thesis on a specific topic of their choice.

Students who opt to continue with Politics choose two courses from the following five: Comparative Government, International Relations, British Politics and Government since 1900, Theory of Politics, and Political Sociology.  They are free to take optional papers covering the government and politics of particular countries and regions, the history and theory of the international system, topics in sociology and social policy, and the history of political thought.  There is also the option to write a 15,000 word thesis on a topic of their choice.

Students who choose to continue with Economics take three core courses (Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Quantitative Economics) during their second year, and are then free to choose up to three option papers in their third year from the following list of papers: British Economic History, Econometrics, Economics of Developing Countries, Economics of Industry, Game Theory, International Economics, Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, Mathematical Methods, Money and Banking, Public Economics.

Interviews

How are candidates selected for interview? All candidates applying to study PPE are required to take the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) test, usually in mid-October.  The PPE admissions tutors select candidates for interview using a number of pieces of information: past and predicted exam results, school reports, personal statements and the TSA test result.  Applicants who do not take the TSA test will not normally be shortlisted for interview.

What happens at interview? All shortlisted candidates will have two interviews: one shorter interview with two tutors from the same subject, and another longer interview with two tutors from different subjects.  In both cases, the initial discussion will focus on a brief text and questions which will be supplied half-an-hour beforehand.  Candidates are not expected to have studied any philosophy, politics, or economics at school, and the discussion will not presuppose or test existing knowledge.  The interviewers will be seeking to assess the candidate’s potential as a PPE student.  Candidates should read the text and questions carefully and be ready to think and respond to problems and criticisms put to them.  They should try to present their arguments and thinking as clearly and concisely as possible.


Introduction

I read Literae Humaniores as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, where I also took an MSt in ancient philosophy.  I subsequently moved to Oriel College, Oxford, where I completed my DPhil in philosophy and taught as a college lecturer.  I then spent five years as Career Development Fellow in Ancient Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford, following which, in 2019, I took up my current position at Queen’s.

Teaching

Ancient philosophy.

Research

My research interests are in ancient philosophy, with a focus to date on Hellenistic epistemology and scepticism.

Publications

‘Proof Against Proof: A Reading of Sextus Empiricus’ Against the Logicians 8.463-481’, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 61 (2022), pp.263-304.

‘The Sceptic’s Art: Varieties of Expertise in Sextus Empiricus’ in Johansen, T. (ed.) Productive Knowledge in Ancient Philosophy: The Concept of Technê, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp.226-244.

Five Modes of Scepticism: Sextus Empiricus and the Agrippan Modes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), pp. x + 204.


Research

My main research interests are in epistemology and metaphysics, philosophy of mind and action, philosophy of art, and the philosophy of Wittgenstein. In my most recent book, Action, Knowledge, and Will, I argue that human behaviour has four irreducibly different dimensions—physical, psychological, intellectual, and ethical—which were amalgamated or confused in the traditional idea of a ‘will’. My work in philosophy of art has focused mainly on the visual arts. My book The Objective Eye is about the nature of colours and shapes, their representation in pictorial art, and the concept of realism in art theory. I have also written about art and neuroscience.

Publications

Links to some of my recent publications:

Introduction

I read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Christ Church, Oxford, and then studied for a doctorate at Nuffield College, Oxford. I have been the Fellow in Politics at Queen’s since 1995, as well as University Lecturer and Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations.

Teaching

I teach the ‘Introduction to Politics’ first year paper, the core political history paper ‘British Politics and Government since 1900’, and the option paper ‘Modern British Government and Politics. I also supervise undergraduate theses, mostly in political history, MPhil theses and doctoral theses in the Department of Politics and International Relations and the History Faculty.

Research

I work on British political history since 1900, especially the politics of governments and parties of the left; the working of colonial systems of government; the decolonization of the European colonial empires after 1945; the theory and practice of anti-imperialism, especially the implications of postcolonial theory for the study of anti-imperialist resistance; and the dilemmas of political leadership in anti-imperialist (and other) social movements; colonial violence, and how it was made tolerable to metropolitan audiences in liberal empires; and problems of participation in social movements.

Publications

  • The British Left and India: Metropolitan Anti-Imperialism, 1885-1947 (Oxford University Press, 2007).
  • The Soft Heart of the British Empire: Indian Radicals in Edwardian London, Past & Present, 220 (2013), 143-184.
  • Men and the 1970s British Women’s Liberation Movement, The Historical Journal, 56 (2013), 801-26.
  • Facts are Sacred:The Manchester Guardian and Colonial Violence, 1930-32, Journal of Modern History, 84 (2012), 643-78.
  • ‘Four straws in the wind’: Metropolitan Anti-Imperialism, January-February 1960, in Sarah Stockwell and Larry Butler (eds.),The Wind of Change: Harold Macmillan and British Decolonization (2013).

Introduction

I grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. I did my undergraduate degree in philosophy and French at the University of Adelaide, followed by Honours in philosophy. I then did a PhD in philosophy at Flinders University. After temporary lectureships at Macquarie University and the University of Adelaide, I started a permanent lectureship at the University of Manchester in 2006. Shortly afterwards, I took leave to complete a three-year Macquarie University Research Fellowship in Sydney. After returning to the UK, I was Senior Lecturer then Reader at Manchester before moving to Oxford to take up my current position at Queen’s in 2019. I have held visiting appointments at the EHESS in Paris, the University of Sydney, and the University of British Columbia.

Teaching

I teach philosophy to undergraduates in all years at Queen’s. I teach the ‘General Philosophy’ first-year paper, and the option papers ‘Knowledge and Reality’ and ‘Aesthetics’. I am happy to supervise graduate work in a broad range of areas in the philosophy of art and aesthetics.

Research

My research addresses issues at the intersection of the philosophy of art, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. Much of it concerns fundamental issues about the representational arts, including the nature of depiction, and of cinematic and photographic representation. I am also interested in the nature and value of art, the expression of emotion, and the nature of genre. In my recent book, Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2020), I develop an account of fiction as a social practice, providing original explanations of the nature of fiction, the norms governing its understanding and interpretation, and the nature of fictional entities. I have recently embarked on a new research project, the aim of which is to determine the nature of artistic media and styles and their interpretative and evaluative roles.

Publications

For a list of my publications, please see my PhilPeople website.

Contact

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High Street, Oxford,
OX1 4AW

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