We are very happy to announce that Evrensel Sebep has successfully defended his doctoral thesis entitled ‘The Citizenry as a Collective Agent‘. In his thesis Evrensel challenges the traditional view by arguing that the citizens of a democracy should be seen as a single, collective agent, not just a group of individuals. His work develops a new framework for collective citizen responsibility, explaining how the entire citizenry can bear collective blame for unjust actions carried out by the state. This research offers a richer foundation for understanding political accountability and challenges the individualistic focus of normative political philosophy. Some of the material covered in the thesis has already been published by Evrensel in the Journal of Social Ontology [see here].

Bill Wringe (Bilkent/ York) was Evrensel’s supervisor, and his external examiners were Stephanie Collins (Monash) and Saba Bazargan-Forward (UCSD).

Congratulations to Evrensel on this wonderful achievement!