Melis Kirtilli

A key problem in contemporary political philosophy is the attempt to reconcile liberty and equality on the one hand and finding the institutional design principles that would foster freedom as non-domination on the other. My project proposes to reconcile a libertarian socialist account of freedom and equality with non-statist constitutional design principles. I aim to demonstrate that the anarchist political economy of decentralised federalism reconciles liberty and equality on left-libertarian terms and meets republican defenses of freedom. By showing the real-world applicability of this model, this research will move us towards a more grounded and institutional design driven ‘political political theory’, which is motivated to rebuild more just, equal, and free institutions beyond the narrowly defined existing notions of private property and state.

I am the Honorary Secretary of the James Madison Trust, which supports and commissions research on federal studies, and a member of the Political Studies Association, Anarchist Studies Network. Prior to my PhD, I worked at Oxford University Press, interned at Rotterdam Turkish Consulate General, and was a Junior College Advisor at St Cross College, University of Oxford. I previously held the positions of Vice-President for Academic Affairs at the International Association for Political Students, co-chair of the October Club, and management team member at Informal Forum for International Student Organisations.