Jeff Spring
Areas of Expertise
- Human Rights, Civil Rights and Liberties
- Philosophy (Existentialism, Logic, Political)
Biography
I have been teaching for about fifteen years, primarily courses on political philosophy, global justice, human rights, philosophy of law, along with more than a dozen courses in critical thinking. In 2013-2014 I was a full-time visiting professor of politics and philosophy at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna. For five years, from 2015-2020 I was an assistant professor of Political Theory at StFX in Nova Scotia.
I earned my PhD in philosophy from Western University in 2013. I presently live in Kjipuktuk, which is the Mi'kmaw name for Halifax, meaning the great harbour. I am thrilled to be a contract teaching faculty here at Laurier in the Human Rights and Human Diversity Program, where I first taught 'Introduction to Human Rights' in fall 2011. During my day job, I work as a Human Rights Officer at the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.
As a settler scholar and Indigenous ally, my primary research interests and current teaching experience are in Human Rights and Indigenous-settler relations in Canada.
I am presently puttering with a book project largely based on what I think is a simple yet profound insight (that is certainly not original to me): reasonable widespread hope for global justice depends on cultivating, reinforcing, and strengthening robust respect for rights. This seems simple because a just order is usually thought to be a rights-respecting one. This seems profound because it may directly inform our prospects for surviving and flourishing.