Research Interests:

Political philosophy, nonideal theory, contractualism, affirmative action, rectificatory justice.

Biography:

• BA, Honours (Philosophy) Wilfrid Laurier University
• MA (Philosophy) Toronto Metropolitan University

Joel's research begins from the observation that, while political philosophers working in ideal theory have devoted much attention both to the question “what are the correct principles of ideal justice?” and to the question “which particular arrangements/policies satisfy the principles of ideal justice?”, work in nonideal theory has focused almost exclusively on the analogue to the second question - i.e., “which particular arrangements/policies count as just responses to injustice?” It's been roughly a quarter century since the beginning of the "nonideal turn” in political philosophy, yet philosophers have produced remarkably little in the way of systematic answers to the question “what are the correct principles of justice in responding to injustice?"

Ultimately, Joel’s research seeks to highlight the significance of this lacuna in hopes of encouraging others to take up the work of addressing it. His strategy for doing this consists of demonstrating i) why theories of justice in responding to injustice (i.e., theories of "nonideal justice") are needed to bridge the gap between ideal theories of justice and questions of nonideal policy (e.g., whether race-based affirmative action counts as a just response to injustice) and ii) how one might go about constructing a contractualist theory of nonideal justice.

Research Interests:

Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law, Moral Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, Critical Race Theory

Biography:

• B.A. Honours (Specialist in Philosophy), University of Toronto

Research Interests:

Metaphysics of Time and Logic 

Biography:

• BA (Philosophy) Trent University
• MA (Philosophy) Queen's University

Justyn specialized in ethics as an undergraduate student and focused in on the metaphysics of time and logic during his Master's studies. He plans to continue his research into the metaphysics of time, especially the C-Series of time and how it relates to causation. He is particularly interested in temporal and dynamic logic and how such logics would work under different theories of time, including the C-Series.

Research Interests

Social and Political Philosophy, Democratic Theory, Animal and Disability Ethics, Social Epistemology

Biography

• B.A., Honours (Philosophy), Saint Mary’s University
• M.A. (Philosophy), Concordia University

I’m interested in why democracy matters. Many of us think it matters, but its value is increasingly disputed in political theory. My dissertation explores the idea that democracy enables us to co-author a shared society and asks how democratic values extend to animals, children, and persons with profound cognitive disabilities.

In a second research track, I ask how trust shapes our political life. I focus on how trust deepens political disagreements and when distrust is warranted. I approach these questions through cases involving marginalized minorities as well as conspiracy theories and echo chambers.

I am a Canada Graduate Scholar. In 2023, I was a research fellow at Concordia University’s Social Justice Centre and Montreal’s interuniversity Centre de recherche en éthique. In Fall 2026, I will be a visiting doctoral researcher in philosophy at the University of Arizona.

Publications

• “Trusting Conspiracy Theories” (2025) Social Epistemology: 1–14 (online first)

Research Interests

Environmental Philosophy, Moral and Political Philosophy, Phenomenology

Biography

• B.A. Hons. (Specialist in Philosophy), University of Toronto
• M.A. (Philosophy: Political and Legal Thought), Queen's University

Jessica's PhD research seeks to understand how human language might facilitate or inhibit our moral receptivity to non-human others and the environment, bringing together Wittgenstein's later thought with Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Her past graduate work interrogated the metaphysics and politics of moral agency in corporate bodies. She continues to write on political philosophy as it concerns environmental ethics.

Research Interests:

• Philosophy of Society and Culture, Philosophy of Technology, Continental Philosophy, Agrarian Philosophy, Philosophy of Law

Education:

• Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy), Trent University
• Bachelor of Laws (Law), Swansea University
• Master of Arts (Philosophy: Political and Legal Thought), Queen’s University
• Master of Laws (Law), Queen’s University

Abigail’s current doctoral research builds upon her first Master’s thesis (MA) which applied Continental philosophy to the problem of driverless cars and considered why we should reject increasing oversight and automation in our everyday lives. While she is interested in techno-skepticism generally, including the works of Martin Heidegger and Jacques Ellul, her primary focus is on the American philosopher Albert Borgmann (1936-2023) and his framework for understanding the metaphysical and ethical implications of a life patterned by technology and the resulting disengagement, impoverishment and loss of culture, community and meaning. Her work seeks to call into question the meliorist assumption that our lives are improving with technological progress. To this end, she is especially interested in agrarian philosophy and the phenomenological distinction between urban and rural living, and to a similar aim, the role of traditional values and festivity in cultivating the good life.

Abigail’s other research interests include the philosophy of law, particularly constitutional rights jurisprudence and freedom of speech. Her second Master’s thesis (LLM) focused on the role of speech in online environments, whether online speech can be considered equivalent to forms of in-person or traditional distance communication, and how this tracks the moral and legal regulation of online environments. She also has an interest in Ontario landlord/tenant law, and is working on several projects related to reforming the RTA 2006 to better safeguard tenant rights.

Abigail has been published in The Journal of Camus Studies (2023), How Does the Digitization of Our World Change Our Orientation? (Orientations Press: 2023), and The Christian Scholar’s Review (2025), and she has forthcoming articles in the Lakehead Law Journal, the Ellul Forum and in the edited anthology Food, Technology and Society (Routledge: 2027). In addition, she has an active interest in improving student experience at Queen’s through her work as a Graduate Student Advisor with the Society of Graduate & Professional Students, and her participation on several Committees, including the Principal’s Advisor Committee, the Finance Committee, the Awards Committee and the Graduate Student Research & Academic Subcommittee.

In her spare time Abigail enjoys cooking, running, growing pumpkins and caring for her six cats.

Biography

B.A. Honours (Philosophy), Wilfrid Laurier University

M.A. (Philosophy: Political and Legal Thought), Queen’s University

Research Interests

Normative Ethics, Metaethics

My primary interest is in the role that aggregative considerations should (or should not) play in our moral reasoning. I'm also interested in a range of questions about the ethics of ordinary relational life, especially how sharing close relationships with others can ground special expectations and obligations.