Political theory · Animal & environmental ethics

Researching and writing on animals, politics, and ethics

William Salkeld is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University working on animal political representation: how democracies include animals under non-ideal circumstances.

Political Theory Animal Politics Environmental Ethics Historical Injustice Democratic Theory
View CV Publications & Talks Get in touch
Portrait of William Salkeld
Doctoral research

Representing Animals in Democracy

William's PhD dissertation asks how the interests of animals might be represented within democratic institutions, given deep disagreement about the place of animals in politics. Supervised by Dr William Bosworth, Dr Serrin Rutledge-Prior, and Distinguished Professor Keith Dowding, the project takes a non-ideal approach — thinking not about the ideal relationship between animals and the state, but about what advocates and institutions can actually do from here.

Outside animal and environmental ethics, William also works on historical injustice and democratic theory.

Recently
Journal Article · 2026

Care and moral repair: Restoring historical land-caring practices

Environmental Values, 35(1), 65–83

Conference · July 2026

A Neo-Republican Account of Animal Political Representation

Politics, Philosophy and Economics Society London Conference, University College, London

Public Talk · August 2026

Festival of Dangerous Ideas — "RAW ETHICS"

Sydney, Australia

Outside the seminar room

When he isn't writing about animal representation, Will is usually rock climbing, attempting to learn jazz piano, or cozied up somewhere with a good book.