Dr S. Stewart Braun

Senior Lecturer & Head of School, ACU School of Philosophy
Affiliate: Religion and Theology

Areas of expertise: social and political philosophy; normative ethics; political theology; virtue theory

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full

Phone: +61 7 3623 7207

Email: stewart.braun@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Brisbane Campus

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0426-7215

Dr S. Stewart Braun specializes in social and political philosophy along with normative ethics and political theology. In those areas, he focuses most fundamentally on distributive and productive justice, as well as the nature of virtue and its role in social organization. He is currently in the early stages of a book manuscript exploring the normative implications of workplace democracy. Prior to arriving at ACU, he obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Virginia and his MAR in Philosophical Theology from Yale University. 


Select publications

Journal articles

  • “Workplace Democracy, Exploitation, and Liberalism: Why Labor Managed Firms are Neither Exploitative nor Illiberal.” Journal of Social Philosophy, 53 (2022): 202-220. DOI: 10.1111/josp.12411
  • “A Modest Dilemma: Can the Virtue of Modesty Coexist with the Developmental Account of Virtue?” Journal of Value Inquiry, accepted and forthcoming 2020
  • “Solidarity, Power and the Taxation of Bequest,” Law, Ethics, and Philosophy, accepted and forthcoming 2020.
  • “Pope Francis and Economic Democracy: Understanding Pope Francis’ Radical (yet) Practical Approach to Political Economy,” Theological Studies, 81 (March 2020): 203-224.
  • “Liberty, Political Rights and Wealth Transfer Taxation,” Journal of Applied Philosophy, 33 (2016): 379-395.
  • “Rescuing Indigenous Land Ownership: Revising Locke's Account of Original Appropriation through Cultivation,” Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 61 (2014): 68-89.
  • “Mandatory Health Insurance, Liberalism and Freedom,” Public Affairs Quarterly, 26 (2012): 179-197.
  • “Historical Entitlement and the Practice of Bequest: Is There a Moral Right of Bequest?” Law and Philosophy 29 (2010): 695-715.

Book chapters

  • “Workplace Democracy,” in Goethals, Sorenson, and Burns (eds.) The Sage Encyclopedia of Leadership Studies (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publishing, 2023). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071840801
  • “Compromised Autonomy: Social Inequality and Issues of Status and Control,” in Kirchhoffer and Richards (eds.), Beyond Consent: Limits and Alternatives to Respect for Autonomy in Human Research Ethics and Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
  • “Modesty and the Egalitarian Ethos,” in Birondo and Braun (eds.), Virtue’s Reasons: Essays on Virtue, Character and Reasons (New York: Routledge Press, 2017). 

Appointments and affiliations

  • 2020-present: Head of School, ACU School of Philosophy
  • 2015-present: Affiliate, Religion and Theology, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry
  • 2013-present: ACU School of Philosophy

International journal review panel

  • Oxford University Press
  • Routledge Press
  • Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
  • Journal of Social Philosophy
  • Philosophical Studies
  • Inquiry
  • Journal of Applied Philosophy
  • Public Affairs Quarterly
  • Law and Philosophy

Public engagement

ACU Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry

Mailing address

C/- 115 Victoria Pde
Fitzroy, VIC, 3065.