Ritwik Agrawal

Ritwik Agrawal is Alfred Landecker Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy & Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He is also affiliated with the Uehiro Oxford Institute.

His main research area is moral and political philosophy. He writes on the philosophy of international law, developing a systematic account of colonialism, neocolonialism, and related forms of domination and investigating how these affect our understanding of topics such as international intervention, secession, and legitimacy. He is also trained as a cognitive scientist, specializing in the science of human language, and relatedly in the philosophy of AI. He designed the first Ethics of AI course for the general education program at the University of Arizona, where it is offered to undergraduates throughout the University.
 

Ritwik received his Ph.D. in Philosophy & Cognitive Science at the University of Arizona, and did his undergraduate and master’s work at Hindu College, University of Delhi, reading mathematics and philosophy. He has an abiding interest in Indian philosophy, both classical and modern. His work on colonialism bridges Indian philosophical and postcolonial writing with the mainstream analytic tradition in political philosophy.

Before Oxford, Ritwik taught at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and at the University of Arizona. He is also a recurring visiting faculty member in philosophy and cognitive science at Ashoka University.
 

He has published in leading venues like Philosophy & Public Affairs, the Synthese Library of Oxford University Press, Oxford Bibliographies, Third Text, and others. He is currently under contract to write a guidebook on ethics for civil service officers. He is co-editing an issue of the British Journal of Aesthetics on “transnational feminist aesthetics” and edited a special double issue on social trust for Cosmos+Taxis. He has translated David Schmidtz’ Elements of Justice (Cambridge University Press) into Hindi, which is due to appear in print in 2026.

Before moving into academia, Ritwik worked in political consulting, engaging closely with elected representatives at all levels of government in India. He regularly contributes to public discussion through media appearances and writing for newspapers, magazines, and blogs.