Remembering the philosopher Miladin Životić, the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory of the University of Belgrade awards the award for critical engagement to leading theorists whose work produces significant repercussions in social practice. The award for 2021 was conferred to Jonathan Wolff.
Jonathan Wolff is currently the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Prior to taking up this position in 2020, Wolff was the Blavatnik Professor of Public Policy also at Oxford University since 2016, and Professor of Philosophy and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at University College London. During his long academic career, Wolff engaged with various topics in political and moral philosophy. In his scholarly work, Wolff paid particular interest to developing the idea of a “society of equals,” the idea of disadvantage as well as to the analysis of key socio-political controversies such as drug regulation, animal experiments, gambling, immigration, labor regulation, and the morality of developing and using new technologies. Moreover, Wolff was a member of several organizations and councils in the United Kingdom which seek to give a voice to experts in the policy-making process. Among others, Wolff was a member of the Nuffield Council Working Party on Research Involving Animals, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Board of Science of the British Medical Association, and a trustee of the Responsible Gambling Trust. Finally, Wolf is also a regular columnist of The Guardian.