Sisheng Chris ZHANG

FPI Fellow of Political Philosophy at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

• Roger de Llúria (campus de la Ciutadella), Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27
• 08005 Barcelona

Area of Interests

Normative and Analytic Contemporary Political Theory

Ethics

Distributive Justice

Philosophy of Work

Self-Employment

Philosophy of Higher Education

Education

2021-2026 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

• Ph.D Law / Political Philosophy, “Justice, Autonomy, and Self-Employment”
• Supervisors: Iñigo González-Ricoy (Barcelona) and Jahel Queralt Lange (UPF)
• Examiners: Anca Gheaus (Central European), Tom Parr (Warwick), and Pablo Scotto (Barcelona).

2023 Q2 Concordia University, Canada

• Visiting Researcher, Centre for Social Justice and Department of Philosophy
• Supervisor: Pablo Gilabert (Concordia)

2017-2018 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

• MA Political Philosophy, “Sufficiency: Distributive or Contributive?”
• Supervisors: Edward Page (Warwick) and Andrew Williams (ICREA-UPF)

2016-2017 University of Warwick, United Kingdom

• MA Political and Legal Theory, double degree with Universitat Pompeu Fabra

2013-2016 University of Essex, United Kingdom

• BA(Hons) Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Employment

TBC 2027 Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve

• Fellow
• Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics

2021-2022 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

• Research Assistant
• “Family Justice” for Serena Olsaretti (ICREA-UPF)

2016-2017 University of Warwick, Coventry

• Research Assistant
• “The Ethics of Santa Claus” for Matthew Clayton (Warwick) and Tom Parr (Warwick)

Teaching

2021-2024 Justice and Individual Rights, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Module leader: Jahel Queralt, and since 2024 Eze Paez

2021-2024 History of Political Philosophy, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Module leader: Josep-Juan Moreso, and since 2023 Eze Paez

Certificate

• Received “Excellent” for Initial Training in University Teaching Programme (FIDU), Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Funding

2021-2025 Full funding for PhD / FPI scholarship from Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, PGC2018-095917-A-I00

2017 Participation grant for “Equality and Citizenship Summer School 2017”, University of Rijeka

Work in Progress and Presentations

“Self-Employment and Relations of Occupational Inferiority”

• Oct 2026 The 3rd Workshop of “Frontiers of Ethics and Political Philosophy”, Zhejiang University

“The Inversion of Meaningful Work”

• Sep 2026 Public Reason and Just Community Workshop, East China Normal University
• Apr 2026 21st Annual Doctoral Conference 2026, Central European University

“The Fractured Collective”

• Jan 2026 The Sustainable Corporation: How to Secure Value in a Competitive World, University of Groningen

“Autonomy and Meaningful Work: a Bridge Thesis”

• May 2025 UPF Law and Philosophy PhD Seminar

“How is Self-Employment Meaningful?”

• October 2024 UPF Law and Philosophy PhD Seminar

“Is Well Done Enough?: An Analysis on Meaningful Work”

• Mar 2026 UPF Law and Philosophy PhD Seminar
• Feb 2024 Warwick Graduate Conference in Political and Legal Theory 2024

“Meaningful Work: a Double-Sided Coin”

• Oct 2023 UPF Law and Philosophy PhD Seminar

“Meaningful Work as Reciprocity”

• Jun 2021 UPF Law PhD Jornada Conference

“What is Distinctive about Contemporary Self-Employment?”

• Apr 2021 UPF-UCLouvain Hoover Chair Workshop

A paper on an individualist conception of social contribution

“What Special Duties do the Self-Employed Owe to the Society?”

“Post-Work and Self-Employment”

“Meaningful Work as a Public Good”

Two papers on Sufficientarianism: 1) a critical reply, and 2) on Lottery

A paper on methodology, “on Itemisation”

Other Presentations

Jun 2021 “Justice and Self-Employment”

• SOAS Postgraduate Political Theory Workshop, online

Jul 2018 “If You’re an Egalitarian, How Come You Like Lotteries?”

• The 15th Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Feb 2018 Commentator for Robert Huseby (Oslo), “Sufficiency and the Threshold Question”

• Sufficiency: Never Enough
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra

May 2017 “Speech and National Self-Determination”

• University of Warwick MA Dissertation Conference

May 2016 “Should there be a right to Euthanasia? A case against Velleman”

• University of Essex Annual Government Student Conference

Administration and Organisation

Current Contemporary Political Theory Reading Group, online

• Convenor, Cross-institution

Current The Political Philosophy of Work, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Member

Current Barcelona Institute of Analytic Philosophy - BIAP, Universitat de Barcelona

• Member

2021-2024 Justice at Work, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Member

2022-2024 UPF Law & Philosophy PhD Seminar, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Co-Convenor, Law & Philosophy

2022-2024 UPF Law & Philosophy Mailing List, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Creator and Manager, Law & Philosophy

Oct 2022 Republicanism and Labor Justice, Universitat Pompeu Fabra & Universitat de Barcelona

• Conference Co-Organiser, Justice at Work

Jul 2022 Labor Market and Workplace Justice Workshop, University of Oxford

• Conference Co-Organiser, Justice at Work

Jul 2021 Labor Justice and Transformation of Work, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Conference Co-Organiser, Justice at Work

Outreaching

Summer 2020

• Seminar on Sufficientarianism and Distributive Justice (in Chinese)
• 706 Guangzhou, Guangzhou, China

Document Last Update: Monday, 7 September 2026