James Forsdyke

James is a DPhil student working in the philosophy of disability, as well as practical and normative ethics. His DPhil research concerns how we ought to define disability and will draw upon insights from, and analysis of, theories of ethics and justice. In 2026 James was elected Tang Scholar at Balliol College, his DPhil research is therefore co-funded by Balliol College and the Faculty of Philosophy. His supervisors are Professor Katrien Devolder and Professor Neil Levy. 

Prior to this, James completed his MSt in Practical Ethics at the Uehiro Oxford Institute, supervised by Professor Guy Kahane. During this time, he served as President of Campion Hall’s Middle Common Room, published a paper in the journal Bioethics, and had an essay published in UOI’s Practical Ethics in The News Blog, titled ‘It’s Physical, Not Intellectual’: The Ethics of Correcting Assumptions About Disability. 

James studied his undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Brasenose College, Oxford. Alongside his undergraduate studies, James worked as Disabilities Officer for two terms on the Oxford Union committee, and later served as Co-President of both The Brasenose College PPE Society and The Addington Debating Society. In March 2022, James began working with fellow students and academics on the Oxford University Free Speech Forum, the aspiration of which was to construct a framework of guidelines in order to facilitate free discussion during events and debates held at the university. James was a panellist in one of the subsequent ‘Debating the Difficult’ events which implemented the framework, during which he spoke alongside Lord Falconer, Baroness Finlay, and Yuan Yi Zhu, on the ethics of assisted dying. 

Email: james.forsdyke@philosophy.ox.ac.uk 

For publications see: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2446-4586 

PhilPeople profile: https://philpeople.org/profiles/james-forsdyke 

Website: https://jamesforsdyke.substack.com