Harriet Green

Profile

Between 2015 and 2019, I completed a BA in Politics and an MA in Political Theory at the University of Sheffield.

My Undergraduate dissertation focused on relational duties of justice in global health, highlighting that there exists a duty for the Global North to remedy the harm that its actions (and inactions) have impinged – historically and presently – on the health of the Global South.

My interest in applying theory to pertinent global challenges translated to my Masters dissertation, where I switched my focus from Health to Humanitarian Intervention by evaluating the Responsibility to Protect doctrine against a Cosmopolitan framework.

Whilst my research focuses on ‘the global’, outside of academia I am involved in local politics as an elected representative. I was first elected onto my local Council in 2015, aged 18.

Research interests

Broadly, my research interests include: global health; Cosmopolitan political theory; global ethics; development; distributive justice; international law; transnational duties and responsibility; global governance.

My PhD combines my two main research interests: Global Distributive Justice, and Health. The project focuses on unpacking the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3.8 of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), with the purpose of producing a clear understanding of what UHC is and specifically, as the master norm driving global health development, what it ought to deliver. Presently there is much ambiguity surrounding UHC and what it might look like as a realised norm. The lack of conceptual clarity associated with UHC is a significant blockage preventing universal health from transitioning from a norm to a practical reality capable of imprinting tangible positive effects on global health. It is only by gaining a solid conceptual understanding of UHC and what it ought to do – which, I argue, is inextricably bound in questions of global distributive justice – that we may determine how it ought to be financed and hence how the norm can be practically delivered. Thus, once conceptual clarity of UHC has been reached, my project then turns to the UHC financing dilemma and aims to identify a workable global financing mechanism to deliver equitable universal health coverage.

Qualifications

• MA Political Theory
• BA Politics

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Global Development
• Centre for Contemporary Political Theory