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David Jenkins imageBA(Birmingham) MSc DPhil(London)

David Jenkins is a Senior Lecturer in political theory. After completing his PhD, he was the Krzysztof Michalski Junior Fellow (2015) at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He then became a Teaching Fellow at University College London (2016–2017), before taking up a postdoctoral research position in the Philosophy Department at the University of Warwick (2017–2020). Before pursuing an academic career, David worked in London, UK, as a civil servant in the housing sector.

He has published work on social rights, populism, Japanese philosophy and conservatism, commuting, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) in Kerala, civic friendship, housing rights and homelessness, terrorism, police abolitionism, and the writings of James Baldwin and José Saramago. In 2020 he co-edited Being Social, a collection of essays on social rights (with Kimberley Brownlee and Adam Neal). He is currently working on two books – one on populism, and another on social rights (with Kim Brownlee again) – as well as a podcast and book on the CPIM in collaboration with Lipin Ram.

His teaching interests traverse both contemporary political theory and the history of political thought, and he is happy to supervise students in subjects related to either of these fields. He particularly welcomes dissertations on themes of housing, political parties and unconditional basic income.

Teaching

  • POLS 110 Political Ideas in Action
  • POLS 244 Political Theory: Basic Problems
  • POLS 501 The 'Political': Theory and Practice

Contact details

Room 4N8, 4th floor, Arts (Burns) Building
Email david.jenkins@otago.ac.nz

Publications

Jenkins, D. (2026). Understanding the UDHR’s rebellious “last resort”. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 29(1), 227-244. doi: 10.1080/17539153.2025.2609377 Journal - Research Article

Brownlee, K., & Jenkins, D. (2026). Social access and inclusion. In J. Tomalty & K. Woods (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of the philosophy of human rights. (pp. 389-402). New York, NY: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003644828-32 Chapter in Book - Research

Jenkins, D., & Neal, A. (2025). Work relationships and autonomy. Journal of Value Inquiry, 59, 223-244. doi: 10.1007/s10790-023-09939-4 Journal - Research Article

Jenkins, D. (2025). Gentrification as domination. Critical Review of International Social & Political Philosophy, 28(2), 188-214. doi: 10.1080/13698230.2022.2119523 Journal - Research Article

Jenkins, D. (2025). Understanding and evaluating populist strategy. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 51(1), 77-97. doi: 10.1177/01914537231155171 Journal - Research Article

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