Justin Ryan Hawkins

I am a Postdoctoral researcher in bioethics at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. My current research focuses on the significance of disability theory for clinical care, and the legal and philosophical issues surrounding Presidential Bioethics Commissions in the United States.

I received my PhD with distinction from Yale University in 2024. My dissertation was titled “Crowned with Glory and Honor: The Virtue of Magnanimity, and Its Discontents.” I attempt there to articulate an account of magnanimity, that most troublesome of virtues, which is historically informed without being nostalgic, that inspires human excellence without the cultivation of contempt, and that is a viable and attractive source of democratic agency. That dissertation forms the basis of my current book manuscript project.

In addition to pursuing that research agenda, I frequently lecture, teach, and supervise reading groups. In 2023, I was named one of Yale’s Prize Teaching Fellows.