OPGDI In-Conversation Series

This fiercest public health crisis in a century has elicited cooperative courage and sacrifice across the globe. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying social, economic, political, and ethical divides, within and between nations. It is reshaping how we engage with each other and how we see the world around us. It urges us to think more deeply on many challenging issues – some of which can perhaps be transformed into opportunities for building a better future if we handle them well.

In this series, OPGDI presents four conversations, each partnering academic speakers and audiences from the UK and China. Join us in the cross-cultural transmission of these infectious ideas.

CONVERSATION 1:

What is a Fair Ethical Model for Global Vaccine Allocation?

Professor Robert Walker (Beijing Normal University) in conversation with Professor Cécile Fabre (Oxford)

Host: Dr Myra Blyth (Oxford)

This event is in partnership with Beijing Normal University.

Professor Cécile Fabre is a political philosopher, and currently Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. She is also a Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Oxford, and affiliated with the Faculty of Philosophy, the Department of Politics and International Relations, and Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Her research interests are in theories of distributive justice; the philosophy of democracy; just war theory; the ethics of foreign policy, with particular focus on the ethics of economic statecraft on the one hand, and the ethics of espionage on the other hand. Her current research looks at the ethics of the transition from war to peace. She is also developing a few smaller projects – including one on prisoners’ rights, and another one on the question of self-forgiveness.

Professor Robert Walker is a Professor in the China Academy of Social Management, Beijing Normal University. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Oxford where he is also Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College. He was one of 11 foreign experts consulted by the Chinese premier Li Keqiang on the State Council’s 2019-20 Work Plan. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was awarded an MBE in 2012 for his services to social policy research. His recent research includes two major international studies. The first, funded by the ESRC and DFID, sought to establish whether 'shame-proofing' anti-poverty programmes, remodelling them to promote human dignity and to reduce stigma, improves their overall effectiveness. The second study, undertaken with ATD Fourth World, was a deeply participative study working with people experiencing poverty in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Tanzania, Britain, France and the USA to define the dimensions of poverty that should be considered within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr Myra Blyth is a tutorial fellow in Theology and Ecumenical Studies at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford. Her research explores the interface between theology and society, with specific attention to Restorative Justice. Between 2016 and 2019, with colleagues in Oxford, Sheffield and Ulster, she led an ethnographic research project on the place of forgiveness within Restorative Justice, and she is currently developing plans for a UK-China symposium in 2021 on Restorative Justice philosophy and practice.