Dr Merten Reglitz

Dr Merten Reglitz

Department of Philosophy
Associate Professor of Philosophy

Contact details

Address
ERI Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I’m a political philosopher/theorist and my main research interests are in distributive justice, global justice and ethics, and normative approaches to the internet.

Qualifications

  • PhD University of Warwick (2011)
  • MA Linköpings Universitet and Universiteit Utrecht (2007)
  • Magister Artium, TU and FU Berlin (2007)
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Arts, University of Auckland (2005)

Biography

After undergraduate studies at the University of Greifswald (Germany) and postgraduate studies at the Free University Berlin (Germany), the Technical University Berlin (Germany), the University of Auckland (New Zealand), Universiteit Utrecht (The Netherlands), and Linköpings Universitet (Sweden), I obtained my doctorate in political philosophy from the University of Warwick. During my PhD studies, I spent 1 ½ years as a visiting research student at the University of Arizona (USA). Subsequently, I spent a year as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science of the Central European University (Hungary) and a bit more than 2 years as Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Political Science of the Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany) before starting my post as Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of Birmingham in 2016.

Teaching

  • Ethics and Global Ethics
  • Ethics and Global Ethics (DL)
  • Human Rights
  • Human Rights (DL)
  • Social Justice

Postgraduate supervision

I am happy to supervise students working on topics in global ethics, political philosophy, and normative approaches to the internet.


Find out more - our PhD Philosophy  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

See also this College Graduate School page for information on how to write a research proposal, which is an essential part of all applications for PhD supervision.

Research

  • Social and political philosophy
  • Global justice
  • Egalitarianism
  • Internet ethics
  • Political authority
  • Kant's practical philosophy

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Reglitz, M 2024, Free Internet Access as a Human Right. Cambridge University Press. <https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/free-internet-access-as-a-human-right/B34F7618F9794B5F983314442E5C53F0>

Article

Reglitz, M 2023, 'The Socio-Economic Argument for the Human Right to Internet Access', Politics, Philosophy & Economics, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 441–469. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594X231167597

Reglitz, M 2022, 'Fake news and democracy', Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 162-187. <https://doi.org/10.26556/jesp.v22i2.1258 >

Reglitz, M & Rudnick, A 2020, 'Internet access as a right for realizing the human right to adequate mental (and other) health care', International Journal of Mental Health, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 97-103. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207411.2020.1727019

Reglitz, M 2020, 'The human right to free Internet access', Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 314-331. https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12395

Reglitz, M 2019, 'A Kantian argument against world poverty', European Journal of Political Theory, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 489-507. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474885116662566

Reglitz, M 2017, 'Fairness to non-participants: a case for a practice-independent egalitarian baseline', Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 466-485. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2015.1037575

Reglitz, M 2016, 'The Practice-Independence of Intergenerational Justice', Utilitas, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 415-440. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095382081600008X

Reglitz, M 2015, 'Political legitimacy without a (claim-) right to rule', Res Publica, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 291-307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-015-9267-0

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Reglitz, M 2025, Internet and Communications. in J Tomalty & K Woods (eds), Routledge Handbook for the Philosophy of Human Rights. Routledge.

Digital or Visual Products

Reglitz, M & Bortolotti, L, The Tortoise and the Hare: The importance of being connected, 2024, Digital or Visual Products, The Philosophy Garden, Online. <https://youtu.be/EK-MT8a-Y0Q?si=rTgJKP3Ni4gV7fkr>

Special issue

Reglitz, M 2016, 'Medical Brain Drain: Free-Riding, Exploitation, and Global Justice', Moral Philosophy and Politics, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 67-81. https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2015-0021

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Social and political philosophy, human right to Internet access

Articles discussing my research

Press releases

Languages and other information

  • English
  • German

Media experience

Press interviews

Radio interviews

  • Interviewed by Clive Bull for LBC Radio, November 2024.
  • Interviewed by Grace Galante for Viewpoints Radio, American Urban Radio Networks, December 2022.
  • Interviewed by Maj Valerij for Frekvenca X, Radio VAL 202 (Slovenia), June 2020.
  • Interviewed for the World Business ReportBBC World Service, November 2019. 
  • Interviewed by Eddie Mair for LBC Radio, November 2019.
  • Interviewed by Manfred Kloiber for Computer und KommunikationDeutschlandfunk (Germany), November 2019.

Podcasts

Blogs

Expertise

  • Global justice 
  • Egalitarianism
  • Internet ethics
  • Political authority
  • Intergenerational justice
  • Socio-economic inequality

Policy experience

Research featured in: