Alan Coffee is a moral and political philosopher. His work focuses on the ideal of social and political freedom, especially as understood in the republican tradition. He has a special interest in the recovery of marginalised historical philosophers, particularly women from the eighteenth century and African Americans in the nineteenth. His most recent books are on the philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft (Polity, 2025), Harriet Jacobs (CUP, 2025), and a collection of essays on Women and Republicanism, co-edited with Sandrine Bergès (OUP, 2026).Formerly an investment banker with Merrill lynch and Chase Manhattan, he has an MPhil from King’s and a PhD from Birkbeck.

Research Interests 

Coffee’s research is concerned with both contemporary and historical political philosophy. Drawing on the republican notion of freedom as non-domination, he is interested in the threats to that ideal from widespread social prejudices, entrenched cultural biases, and distorting forms of propaganda, as well as in the adequacy of republican responses. Although often overlooked in the history of republican thought, women were amongst the earliest and most insightful philosophical republican critics. In this respect, Coffee’s work has drawn on the ideas of Sarah Chapone, Catharine Macaulay, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Hays, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Shelley, amongst others. Another rich but neglected source of philosophical reflection on the ideal of freedom comes from those formerly made slaves, in the form of speeches, letters, tracts and slave narratives. Here, Coffee has focused particularly on Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.

Teaching 

LLB Jurisprudence (Moral Philosophy; Knowledge, Values and Global Social Indicators)

Selected Publications

• Bergès, S. and A. Coffee (eds). 2026. Women and Republicanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Coffee, A., 2025. Mary Wollstonecraft: Independent Woman. Oxford: Polity.
• Coffee, A., 2025. Harriet Jacobs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Coffee, A., 2024. Interpersonal and structural domination: Frederick Douglass and the invisible chains that bind us. Social Theory and Practice, 50 (4), pp. 543–565.
• Coffee, A., 2024. Mary Wollstonecraft and Richard Price: The theological and philosophical foundations of freedom as independence. Women’s Writing, 31 (3), pp. 392–405.