Melina Bell

Bell is a part of the faculty in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability, and the Law, Justice, and Society Program. She also teaches at the Law School. Professor Bell’s primary research interests are in political philosophy, philosophy of law, and feminist philosophy.

Melina Bell

Melina Bell

she/her

Professor of Philosophy and Law

Curriculum VitaeSSRN Author Page

Professor Bell joined the Department of Philosophy in 2005 as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy. She became an Associate Professor in 2011. She is core faculty in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability, and affiliate faculty in the Law, Justice, and Society Program. She also teaches at the law school.

Professor Bell’s primary research interests are in political philosophy, philosophy of law, and feminist philosophy.  Her publications have focused on several different ways in which the basic structure of society, or particular domains within it, reflect hierarchies of social power that unduly restrict human freedom and opportunity and impede human flourishing

Education

  • Ph.D. Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
  • M.A. Philosophy, Tufts University
  • J.D. Boston University
  • M.P.H. Boston University
  • B.A. Philosophy, Hofstra University

Research

  • Social and Political Philosophy
  • Feminist Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Law
  • Applied Ethics

Teaching

Social Inequality and Fair Opportunity, Feminist Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Sex, Philosophy of the Family, Gender and Sport, John Stuart Mill, Introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Distributive Justice, and at the law school, Jurisprudence and Feminist and Queer Jurisprudence

Selected Publications