Dr Joel Yalland

Joel joined the University of Kent as a lecturer in Philosophy after completing his PhD at Kent in 2024.
He previously worked as a tutor at Northeastern University, London (2021-22) and King's College, London (2019-20) and primarily specialises in epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. 

Joel's research interests focus primarily on agreement and disagreement, with his PhD thesis offering a critical examination of the concepts of agreement and disagreement as well as responding to the peer disagreement discourse. He is also interested in the relation between testimony, agreement, and disagreement, the prospects of peer agreement, and the significance of non-peer agreement and disagreement. Beyond that, Joel is interested in the philosophy of comedy and humour, the ethics of belief and issues surrounding population ethics and moral responsibility.      

In 2025/26, Joel will teach PHIL6004 (Political Philosophy), PHIL6005 (Epistemology) and PHIL6002 (Metaethics) and welcomes enquiries about these modules.

During 2024/25, Joel taught PHIL6400 (Ethics: Normative and Practical) and PHIL6665/6666 (Environmental Ethics and Climate Change.)      

Joel is happy to supervise dissertations on topics within epistemology, ethics, metaethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics.
During 2024/25, he supervised two undergraduate dissertations, one on the ethics of CRISPR-CAS9 technology and human enhancement and the other on epistemic pluralism and non-Western epistemologies.