Biography

Short bio: Clare Chambers is Professor of Political Philosophy and a Fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge. She is the author of Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body (Allen Lane / Penguin, 2022); Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State (Oxford University Press, 2017); Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice (Penn State University Press, 2008); and Teach Yourself Political Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (with Phil Parvin, Hodder, 2012); and numerous articles and chapters on feminist and liberal political philosophy.

Long bio: Clare Chambers is Professor of Political Philosophy and a Fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge. She is particularly known for her feminist critique of the liberal focus on choice; her ideas of “shametenance” and the unmodified body; her account of social construction; her problematisation of the concept of ‘normal’; her engagement with beauty norms and the body; her critique and analysis of Rawlsian political liberalism; her work on multiculturalism, religion, and intervention; her critique of state-recognised marriage; and her proposals for the alternative regulation of relationships.

Clare Chambers is the author of Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body (Allen Lane / Penguin, 2022); Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State (Oxford University Press, 2017; winner of the 2018 APSA David Easton Prize); Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice (Penn State University Press, 2008); Teach Yourself Political Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (with Phil Parvin, Hodder, 2012); and numerous articles and chapters on political philosophy, gender, and bioethics. Clare Chambers is also the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality (with Brian D. Earp and Lori Watson, Routledge, 2022) and Editor-in-Chief of Res Publica, the journal of legal, moral, and social philosophy (with Sune Laegaard).

Clare Chambers engages in media work. She regularly appears on radio, including BBC Radio 4 (PM, Broadcasting House, Woman’s Hour, Sweet Reason, How To Disagree); BBC Radio 3 (Free Thinking); BBC World Service (Deeply Human) and has also been featured on the BBC website, on Radio 5 Live, on BBC local radio, on Times Radio and on the cross-platform BBC Rethink series. Her research has featured in print and online media as diverse as the Guardian, the New Statesman, El País, la Repubblica, iNews, The Times of India, the Times Literary Supplement, The American Conservative, Metro, Slate, Philosophy 24/7, Philosophy Bites, Daily Nous, and Aeon. She has appeared at a wide range of festivals and events, including the Hay Literary Festival, Cambridge Literary Festival, Oxford Literary Festival, Bradford Literary Festival, Bristol Ideas, Cambridge Festival of Ideas, the Cambridge Club Festival, and the Trouble Club.

Clare Chambers also engages in policy and impact work. She is a Member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and formerly a member of the Working Party that produced the report Cosmetic Procedures: Ethical Issues. She has given evidence to Parliament on behalf of the Council.

Clare Chambers is also Secretary of the Britain & Ireland Association for Political Thought.

Before joining the Faculty of Philosophy at Cambridge in 2006 Clare Chambers was Mary Somerville Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford and, before that, Lecturer in Political Theory at the London School of Economics. She has a D.Phil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford (DPIR and Nuffield College).

Previous Career and Visiting Positions

2013: Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society, Boalt School of Law, University of California, Berkeley

2010: Early Career Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge

2009: Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society, Boalt School of Law
University of California, Berkeley

2004-6: Mary Somerville Junior Research Fellow, Somerville College
Member of the Centre for the Study of Social Justice
Lecturer in Politics, St. Anne’s and Christ Church Colleges
University of Oxford

2002-4: Lecturer in Political Theory, Government Department
London School of Economics and Political Science
2002-4: Lecturer in Political Theory, Government Department
London School of Economics and Political Science

1999-2003: DPhil in Political Theory, Department of Politics and IR
University of Oxford

1998-9: MSc in Political Theory
Government Department
London School of Economics and Political Science

1997-8: Fast Stream Civil Servant
Cabinet Office

1994-7: BA (Hons) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics
St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford