Professor Clare Chambers
Clare Chambers is Professor of Political Philosophy.
Academic interests
Prof Chambers is a political philosopher specialising in feminism, contemporary liberalism, theories of social justice, and social construction.
Within feminism she is particularly interested in the body and beauty norms, marriage and personal relationships, the family and the gendered division of labour, the intersection of gender and culture, and concepts of femininity and masculinity.
Within liberalism she is particularly interested in liberal theories of autonomy and equality, multiculturalism and religion, the debate between political liberalism and comprehensive liberalism, and the work of John Rawls.
Her interests in social construction include radical theories of social construction within feminist and post-structural thought, as well as analytical accounts.
The best resource for more information is .
Degrees obtained
- DPhil in Political Theory, University of Oxford, Nuffield College.
- MSc in Political Theory, London School of Economics and Political Science.
- BA Hons in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, University of Oxford (St. Anne’s College).
Biography
Clare Chambers is Professor of Political Philosophy and a Fellow of °µÍø½ûÇø. She came to °µÍø½ûÇø and to the Faculty of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge in 2006. Previously she held academic positions at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics, and has twice been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley.
Prof Chambers is on leave from College duties from October 2018 until October 2021. During that time she has a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust to work on a project titled Intact: The Political Philosophy of the Unmodified Body.
Prof Chambers is a Council member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the UK’s leading independent body informing policy and public debate about the ethical questions surrounding medical and biological innovations and research. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Res Publica, a journal of moral, legal, and political philosophy; a member of the Executive Committee of The Aristotelian Society; and the Secretary of the Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought.
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Publications, links and resources
Clare Chambers is the author of three books: Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice (Penn State Press, 2008); Teach Yourself Political Philosophy: A Complete Introduction with Phil Parvin (Hodder, 2013); and Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State (Oxford University Press, 2017). Against Marriage won the 2018 David Easton Award from the American Political Science Association.
She is currently writing a fourth book, titled Intact: The Unmodified Body, to be published by Allen Lane / Penguin Random House.
Prof Chambers is also the author of numerous articles and chapters on political and legal philosophy.
Prof Chambers and her work regularly feature in non-academic settings, including radio, TV, and other journalism. Links to media appearances and a complete list of publications are available on her personal website at .
