Madison Powers, JD, DPhil

Dr. Powers is Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. From 2000 to 2009, he served as Director of the Kennedy Institute. He is a Fellow of the Hastings Center, and since 2016 he has held the Francis J. McNamara, Jr. Chair at Georgetown University. Dr. Powers has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on a variety of topics in normative and practical philosophy, including a long-standing interest in questions of justice in public health and social policy. Drs. Powers and Ruth Faden are co-authors of Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Care Policy (NY: Oxford University Press, 2006; revised edition, 2008) and Structural Injustice: Powers, Advantage, and Human Rights (NY: Oxford University Press, 2019). Dr. Powers was a recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Investigator Award, and for many years he also served as a member and as chair of the National Advisory Committee for the Program. In addition, he has participated in many other private and governmental advisory bodies including a four-year term as a member of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) for the National Institutes of Health. Before his professional career as a philosopher he was a lawyer working primarily in health and environmental law. Current Research and Work in Progress: Beyond the basic theoretical work contained in the new book, his primary research focus is on a set specific issues of justice pertaining to climate change, the global production of food, and the management of water resources. The overall aim is to show how the production, distribution, and regulation of vital, and increasingly scarce resources affect paths to global development, poverty alleviation, and the capacity of individuals and nations to secure the basic requirements for decent human lives and to preserve sustainable human habitats. This aspect of research involves a series of papers and public lectures, an encyclopedic, regularly updated website, and ultimately, a book intended for a broader audience. The provisional book title is: Six Environmental Crises: The Narrow Pathway to a Just and Sustainable Future. You can read an evolving description of the book project on the landing page of my website, http://www.FEWResources.org/. (new window)