Dr. James Tully

About Dr. Tully

James Hamilton Tully is an emeritus professor of Political Science and Law.

After completing his BA at University of British Columbia and PhD at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College) he taught in the departments of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University 1977-96 (chair, Department of Philosophy 1994-6). He was professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at UVic 1996-2001 and cross appointed in law, Indigenous governance and philosophy.

In 2001-03 he was the inaugural Henry N.R. Jackman distinguished professor in Philosophical Studies at the University of Toronto in the departments of Philosophy and Political Science and the Faculty of Law. In 2003 he returned to Uvic as distinguished professor. He retired in 2014. As emeritus and adjunct professor he continues his research and work with graduate students.

He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Emeritus Fellow of the Trudeau Foundation. In 2010 he was awarded the Killam Prize in the Humanities for his outstanding contribution to scholarship and Canadian public life. In May 2014, he was awarded the David H. Turpin Gold Medal for Career Achievement in Research.

His two-volume work, Public Philosophy in a New Key (Cambridge University Press 2008), was awarded the C.B. Macpherson Prize by the Canadian Political Science Association for the best book in political theory written in English or French in Canada 2008-10. He was consulting editor of the journals Political Theory and Global Constitutionalism, co-editor of the Clarendon Works of John Locke and former co-editor of the Cambridge Ideas in Context Series. He has published 11 authored & edited volumes and over 90 chapters and articles.

He specializes in political and legal theory/philosophy and their history: public philosophy, freedom, constitutionalism, nonviolence, civic engagement and Indigenous-Settler relations.

For further information, see 'Select Publications' and 'Select Public Lectures' and Wikipedia page.

Research

Working on new relationship between political philosophy and civic freedom

My approach to the study and teaching of politics is a form of historical and critical reflection on problems of political practice in the present. It is an attempt to renew and transform the tradition of critical philosophy so it can effectively address the pressing political problems of a globalising age and establish a new relationship of dialogue between political philosophy and citizens engaged in political struggles in practice.

The aim is to throw critical light on contemporary political problems by means of studies that free us to some extent from hegemonic ways of thinking and acting politically, enabling us to test their limits and to see and consider the concrete possibilities of thinking and acting differently. More specifically, this approach to the study of politics comprises four main steps (See Public Philosophy in a New Key [PPNK] I: chapters 1-3).

First, it starts from and grants a certain primacy to practice. It is a form of philosophical reflection on practices of governance in the present that are experienced as oppressive in some way and are called into question by those subject to them. The questionable regime of practices is taken up as a problem, becoming the locus of contest and negotiation in practice and of reflection and successive solutions and reforms in theory and policy.

Second, the aim is not to develop a normative theory as the solution to the problems of this way of being governed, such as a theory of justice, equality or democracy, but to disclose the conditions of possibility of this historically singular set of practices of governance and of the range of characteristic problems and solutions to which it gives rise (its form of problematisation). Hence, the approach is not a type of political ‘theory’ (in the sense above) but a species of ‘practical philosophy’ (politics and ethics): that is, a philosophical way of life oriented towards working on ourselves by working on the practices and problematisations in which we find ourselves.

However, the objective is also not to present an ethnographic thick description that aims at clarification and understanding for its own sake. Rather, it seeks to characterise the conditions of possibility of the problematic form of governance in a redescription (often in a new vocabulary) that transforms the self-understanding of those subject to and struggling within it, enabling them to see its contingent conditions and the possibilities of governing themselves differently. Hence, it is not only an interpretive political philosophy, but also a specific genre of critique or critical attitude towards ways of being governed in the present - an attitude of testing and possible transformation. 

Third, this practical and critical objective is achieved in two steps. The first is a critical survey of the languages and practices in which the struggles arise and various theoretical solutions are proposed and implemented as reforms. This survey explicates which forms of thought, conduct and subjectivity are taken for granted or given as necessary, and so function as constitutive conditions of the contested practices and their repertoire of problems and solutions.

The second step broadens this initial critique by using a history or genealogy of the formation of these specific languages and practices as an object of comparison and contrast. This historical survey has the capacity to free us to some extent from the conditions of possibility uncovered in the first step and so to be able to see the practices and their forms of problematisation as a limited and contingent whole. It is then possible to call these limits into question and open them to a dialogue of comparative evaluation, and thus to develop the perspectival ability to consider different possible ways of governing this realm of cooperation.

Like the tradition of critical philosophy as a whole, this approach is thus oriented to freedom, but in an intersubjective, situated and immanent manner that is more appropriate to the forms of power and possibilities of civic action today. Moreover, this approach has learned from deep ecology not to idealise the freedom of overcoming limits as an end itself, but to test different possibilities relative to our best understanding of the ground, the ecology, in which politics and critical reflection take place and on which they depend (PPNKII: chapter 3).

Fourth, this political philosophy is practical in yet another sense. The hard-won historical and critical relation to the present does not stop at calling a limit into question and engaging in a dialogue over its possible transformation. The approach seeks to establish an ongoing mutual relation with the concrete struggles, negotiations and implementations of citizens who experiment with modifying the practices of governance on the ground. This is not a matter of prescribing the limits of how they must think, deliberate and act if they are to be legitimate, but, on the contrary, to offer a disclosive sketch of the arbitrary and unnecessary limits to the ways they are constrained to think, deliberate and act, and of the possible ways of going beyond them in this context.

In turn, the experience with negotiation and change in practice and the discontents that arise in response provide a pragmatic test of the critical and historical research and the impetus for another round of critical activity. This approach thus seeks to establish a new relationship of reciprocal elucidation and experimentation between academic research (critical freedom) and citizens’ practices of concrete freedom. These philosophical investigations thus stand in a reciprocal relation to the present; as a kind of permanent critique of the relations of meaning, power and subjectivity in which we think and act politically and the practices of freedom of thought and action by which we try to test and improve them.

Although this type of political philosophy can be interpreted as a tradition that goes back to the Greeks and up through Renaissance humanism and counter-Reformation critical philosophy, I am primarily concerned with its three recent phases: the practice-based political philosophy of the Enlightenment (Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Marx and Mill); the criticisms and reforms of this body of work by Nietzsche, Weber, Heidegger, Gadamer, Arendt, Dewey, Collingwood, Horkheimer and Adorno; and, third, the reworking of this tradition again in light new problems by scholars over the last 20 years.

On my account, this eclectic family of contemporary scholars includes: the historical approach of Quentin Skinner and the Cambridge School; the critical and dialogical hermeneutics of Charles Taylor; the extension of Wittgenstein’s philosophical methods to political philosophy by Peta Bowden, Cressida Heyes, Richard Rorty, and others; the critical histories of the present initiated by Michel Foucault and carried on by David Owen, Paul Patton, Jonathan Schell and other scholars too numerous to mention; and the critical studies of Edward Said, David Scott, Anthony Anghie, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Eunice Sahle and others that apply the methods of this tradition beyond and against its Eurocentrism.

Over the last two centuries there have been many attempts to summarize this tradition. The essay by Michel Foucault written in the last years of his life, 'What is Enlightenment?' is among the best:

The critical ontology of ourselves must be considered not, certainly, as a theory or a doctrine; rather it must be conceived as an attitude, an ethos, a philosophical life in which the critique of what we are is at one and the same time the historical analysis of the limits imposed on us and an experiment with the possibility of going beyond them (de leur franchissement possible).

My research and teaching can thus be seen as an ongoing relationship between work on this approach and applications of it to various problems.

Early studies

My early work was concerned first to understand how the modern concepts of private property and individual rights emerged in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, in relation to John Locke, and what alternatives were set aside (A Discourse on Property). Then I turned my attention to the emergence and development of religious toleration in the same period and the connection between the two (Introduction, Letter Concerning Toleration). Next, I wanted to see what the international system of sovereign European states (the Westphalian system) would look like if one took the complex theory of Samuel Pufendorf, rather than the simpler and more familiar one of Hobbes, as the starting point (Introduction, Duty of Man and Citizen). In An Approach to Political Philosophy I subjected these early works and the helpful criticisms of them to re-examination and revision, responding to the different yet complementary histories of Michel Foucault, John Pocock, Richard Tuck and Quentin Skinner, among others.

I added studies of the concepts of the division of labour and labour power in Marx, the development of governmentality, the natural law tradition to Kant and beyond, the stages view of historical development, the modern and post-modern ideas of progress, and Locke’s theory of the government of free and equal subjects with the duty to obey and the right to judge their governors, also explaining in more detail the contemporary relevance of this kind of study. These studies were also the basis for reflections on method (Meaning & Context, Philosophy in an Age of Pluralism, 'Wittgenstein and Political Philosophy').

Struggles over recognition and dialogical constitutionalism

In response to the standoff between the Mohawk of Kanesatake and Kahnawake and the Canadian Armed Forces near Montreal in 1990, I began to study and teach how European and Euro-American theorists and lawmakers have tried to justify the dispossession, near extermination and colonisation of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas over the last 500 years.

This was followed closely by parallel studies of how Indigenous peoples have resisted dispossession and usurpation and have struggled for self-determination as peoples or First Nations ('Rediscovering America', 'Aboriginal Property & Western Theory').  I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to deepen my understanding by working on the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1992-1995) ('Aboriginal Peoples: Negotiating reconciliation'). I also began a working relationship with Professor Taiaiake Alfred in the Indigenous Governance Graduate Program at UVic. I then tried to place the struggles of Indigenous peoples for self-determination and relations of equality with non-Indigenous peoples in the broader context of other types of struggles for recognition against unjust forms of exclusion, assimilation and subordination.

This led to a broad study of the philosophy and practice of recognising complex forms of diversity in contemporary political associations, such as the freedom of individual expression, feminism, various types of minorities (such as linguistic, cultural and religious minorities in Canada) and minorities within minorities (multiculturalism), nations in multinational constitutional states (such as Quebec and First Nations in Canada), and of all these forms of diversity within supranational associations such as the European Union.

It was first presented as the inaugural John Seeley Distinguished Lectures at Cambridge in 1994 and published as Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (1995) with a dedication to the great Haida artist Bill Reid. At this time Charles Taylor, Alain-G. Gagnon and I were lecturing on these problems of ‘deep diversity’ at McGill and, with Desmond Morton, we helped to set up the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada as a forum for the study and discussion of these issues.

Strange Multiplicity argues that a constitution should not be seen as a fixed set of rules but, rather, as an imperfect form of accommodation of the diverse members of a political association that is always open to negotiation by the members of the association. It should be seen as a form of activity, an intercultural dialogue in which the culturally diverse sovereign citizens of contemporary societies negotiate agreements on their forms of association over time in accordance with the conventions of mutual recognition, consent and cultural continuity, and in respect for the living earth that sustains life.

Contemporary political philosophy thus should be seen, as ensuring that citizens are free to call into question unjust forms of recognition, to enter into fair dialogues over their re-negotiation and so to work out their forms of association themselves over time.

Civic freedom and public philosophy in a globalising age

After Strange Multiplicity I came to see that this dialogical approach needed to be developed in three main ways. First, the exclusive focus should not be theories of justice: that is, what is the just form of recognition of individuals and groups? For theoretical and practical reasons there will always be reasonable disagreement over this question. Rather, the primary orientation is to the conditions and exercise of freedom: that is, are the individuals and groups who are subject to rules of recognition and governance free to call them into question (to speak truthfully to power), to exchange reasons and stories over rival accounts of just forms of recognition, to enter into effective dialogues over them, to strive to reach provisional agreements on their modifications in practice, and, since disagreement is inevitable, to start over again by challenging the injustices of the new regime of rules. I call this ongoing cycle of practices of freedom 'civic freedom' (PPNKI: chapter 9).

This turn has led to a better formulation of my vision of Canada as a multicultural and multinational association in which the members negotiate their identities - their forms of recognition and cooperation freely and equally over time (Unattained Yet Attainable Democracy). I was privileged to be a member of a team of international scholars who studied the multinational associations of Canada, Spain, Belgium the United Kingdom and the European Union from the perspective of this democratic and dialogical view of constitutionalism and diversity (Multinational Democracies).

I also entered into discussions with European scholars working on similar problems in the European Union and on the relation of this vision of constitutional democracy to the republican and liberal traditions ('Reimagining Belonging', 'La conception républicaine de la citoyenneté', 'Ethical Pluralism and Classical Liberalism'). 

Second, these historical and critical studies of the possibilities of civic freedom apply not only to challenges to legal and constitutional rules, but to the contestation of any kind of norms to which we are made subject in various practices of governance, from the workplace to multinational corporations and global regulatory and constitutional regimes.

Third, this kind of study is appropriate not only to cases of struggles over recognition, but also to a wide variety of forms of political and ethical collective action: over distribution and redistribution, over our destructive relationship to the environment; the global struggles of Indigenous Peoples, and the persistence of vastly unequal relationships of informal imperialism between the Global North and South. This research has been supported by a fellowship with the Trudeau Foundation, which was established to bring together scholars, graduate students and civic activists on projects of this kind. It also benefitted immeasurably from the continuing support of Quentin Skinner and the opportunity to reconsider the relation between history and political thought that his monumental work has brought to critical reflection (Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought).

The continuing dialogue with Indigenous scholars such as Taiaiake Alfred, John Borrows, Dale Turner, Val Napoleon, Glen Coulthard and many others has been of fundamental importance. The best of the published and unpublished articles from this period were rewritten and published in Public Philosophy in a New Key in late 2008. As we can see, civic freedom is really a field of possibilities within relations of meaning, power and subjectification. It succeeds as an activity to the extent that it initiates a dialogue between governors and the governed over the norms through which they coordinate their interaction or brings about the cooperative exercise of power by citizens themselves.

It is the most basic kind of democratic freedom, that of having an effective say over or hand in the way we are governed; whether in cooperative self-government, face-to-face Socratic dialogues, democratic institutions and practices of representative governments, political parties, civic disobedience, liberation movements of various kinds, new types of global networks, and so on. It has been and can be exercised individually and collectively in countless practices of governance and in countless ways. So the field of study is really practices of civic freedom in a globalising age.

This brings us back to the outline of my approach from which we began, but, I hope, with a better appreciation of its scope and openness to revision through dialogues of mutual learning with practitioners of civic freedom. With these global themes in mind, I had the privilege to be a member of the great team of scholars, lead by Antje Wiener, who set up the journal Global Constitutionalism: Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law in 2011.

Nonviolence and the Ecological Crisis

Since Public Philosophy in a New Key, I have expanded this approach in two main ways. The first is an exploration of practices and theories of nonviolence and co-operative power-with (Satyagraha) as an alternative to the dominant politics of violence and power-over. In response to the ecological crisis, the second is work on relationships of nonviolence and co-sustainability of humans and their social systems with (and within) the living earth and its ecological systems in both Western and Indigenous practices and traditions (Gaia citizenship). Both themes were presented initially in the conclusion to PPNKII on local and global citizenship and then developed in articles and public lectures from 2009 to 2014.

In 2014 I had the honour and pleasure to learn from and give my responses to constructive criticisms of my recent work by brilliant colleagues in On Global Citizenship and Freedom and Democracy in an Imperial Context, edited by Robert Nichols and Jakeet Singh. 'Reconciliation Here on Earth' and 'Trust, Mistrust and Distrust in Diverse Societies' are the most recent works on these themes (Fall 2014).

Selected publications

Books

• Co-editor with John Borrows & Michael Asch, co-Introduction with John Borrows, and contributor, Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler relations and Earth Teachings, University of Toronto Press, November 2018.
• Editor and Introduction to Richard Bartlett Gregg, The Power of Nonviolence, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, October 2018.                      
• With Robert Nichols and Jakeet Singh, editors, Freedom and Democracy in an Imperial Context: Dialogues with James Tully, London, Routledge, 2014, 11 chapters by authors and my responses.
• On Global Citizenship: James Tully in dialogue, Critical Powers Series, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014, includes revised "On Global Citizenship", 7 chapters by authors and my responses.
• Politische Philosophie als kritische Praxis, Frankfurt, Campus Press. Translation of select chapters from Public Philosophy in a New Key with new Introduction, 2010.
• Imperialism and Civic Freedom, Public Philosophy in a New Key Volume II, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Democracy and Civic Freedom, Public Philosophy in a New Key Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Co-editor with Annabel Brett, Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Co-editor with Alain-G. Gagnon, Multinational Democracies, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• Strange Multiplicity: constitutionalism in an age of diversity, Cambridge University Press, September 1995. Reprinted 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2006,
• Une étrange multiplicité: Le constitutionalisme à une époque de diversité, Les Presses de l’université Laval, 1999. (French edition of Strange Multiplicity). Chinese and Korean editions 2000 and 2001. Turkish edition 2012.
• Editor, with Daniel M. Weinstock, Philosophy in an age of pluralism: the philosophy of Charles Taylor in question, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
• An Approach to political philosophy: Locke in contexts, Cambridge University Press, February 1993. Japanese translation 2006.
• Editor and Introduction Samuel Pufendorf, On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to Natural Law, tr. Michael Silverthorne, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, 1991. Japanese edition 2003.
• Editor, Introduction, Contributor, Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his critics, Polity Press and Princeton University Press, 1988 and 1989. Japanese edition 1990, Korean edition 1996, Chinese edition 2005. Russian edition by New Literary Observer, Moscow, 2016.
• Editor and Introduction, John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1982, reprinted many times.  
• A Discourse on Property: John Locke and his Adversaries, Cambridge University Press, 1980, second edition, 1982.
• Locke, Droit naturel et propriété, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1992. French edition of A Discourse on Property, preface by Phillipe Raynaud.
• Chinese edition with new Preface 2015.

Chapters

• 'Reciprocal Elucidation', Dimitri Karmis and Jocelyn Maclure, eds., Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity: The public philosophy of James Tully, (McGill-Queens University Press, 2019, forthcoming), my response to 15 chapters by interlocutors.
• 'Trust, Mistrust and Distrust in Diverse Societies', Dimitrios Karmis and Francois Rocher, eds., Trust and Distrust in Political Theory and Practice: The Case of Diverse Societies, (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2019, forthcoming).
• 'Life Sustains Life', Akeel Bilgrami, ed., Nature and Value, (Columbia University Press, 2019 forthcoming).
• 'On Resurgence and Transformative Reconciliation', Nancy Turner and Pamela Spalding, eds., Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights and the Roles of Ethnoecology and Ethnobotany: strategies for Canada’s future (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2018), chapter 24.
• 'Integral Nonviolence', Introduction to James Tully, ed., Richard Bartlett Gregg, The Power of Nonviolence, (Cambridge University Press, October 2018), x-lxx.
• 'Rediscovering the World of Franz Boas: Anthropology, Equality / Diversity and World Peace', Ned Blackhawk and Isaiah Wilner, eds., Indigenous Visions: Rediscovering the World of Franz Boas, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), 111-146.
• 'Reconciliation Here on Earth', James Tully, John Borrows & Michael Asch, eds., Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler relations and earth teachings (University of Toronto Press, 2018), chapter 3.
• 'Solidarity and Belonging', with Akeel Bilgrami and others, Nancy Fraser and others, eds., Rethinking Society for the 21^st Century: Report of the International Panel on Social Progress, (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
• 'A Canadian Tragedy', Foreword to Sarah Marie Wiebe, Everyday Exposure: Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada’s Chemical Valley (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016).
• 'Preface' to Alain-G. Gagnon, Minority Nations in the Age of Uncertainty, (University of Toronto Press, 2014). 
• 'Préface' to Dalie Giroux et Dimitrios Karmis, eds., Ceci n’est pas une Idée Politique: Réflexions sur les approaches a l’étude des idées politiques, (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2013), xiii-xv.
• 'A Just Relationship between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Peoples of Canada', Sandra Thomsons and Lorraine Mayer, eds., Philosophy and Aboriginal Rights: Critical Dialogues, (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2013), Part IV.
• 'Two Concepts of Liberty” in Context', Bruce Baum and Robert Nichols, eds., Isaiah Berlin and the Politics of Freedom, (London: Routledge, 2013), 23-52.
• 'Communication and Imperialism', Arthur Kroker and Marilouise Kroker, eds., Critical Digital Studies A Reader, Second Edition (University of Toronto Press, 2013), 257-283, revised and reprinted from Imperialism and Civic Freedom.
• 'On the Global Multiplicity of Public Spheres: The democratic transformation of the public sphere?', David Midgley and Christian Emden, eds., Beyond Habermas: From the bourgeois public sphere to global publics (New York: Berghahn, 2013), 169-205. 
• 'ethinking Human Rights and Enlightenment', Self-evident Truths? Human Rights and the Enlightenment, The Oxford Amnesty Lectures of 2010, (London: Bloomsbury, 2012), 3-35.
• Revised reprint, 'Two Traditions of Human Rights', Matthias Lutz-Bachman and Amos Nascimento, eds., Human Rights, Human Dignity, and Cosmopolitan Ideals, (London, Ashgate, 2013), chapter 7.         

Articles

• ‘Deparochializing Political Theory and Beyond: A dialogue approach to comparative political thought’, Journal of World Philosophies, 1:1, December 2017, 51-74, with 4 responses in the following issue.  
• ‘Political Theory as a Critical Activity: The Emergence of Public Philosophy’, Japanese Journal of Political Thought, 17 (May 2017), 498-514.
• Main author, editorial: ‘Introducing global integral constitutionalism’, Global Constitutionalism: human rights, democracy, law, 5:1, 2016, 1-15.
• ‘Two Ways of Realizing Justice and Democracy’, CRISPP, 16, 2 (March 2013), 220-233.
• ‘Global Disorder and Two Responses’, Keynote Address, Queen Mary University of London, Journal of Intellectual History and Political Thought, (October 2013), 
• With Anver Emon, ‘Introduction: Pluralism, Constitutionalism and Governance’, Middle East Law and Governance, 4 (2012), 189-193.
• ‘Middle East Legal and Governmental Pluralism: A view of the field from the demos’, Middle East Law and Governance, 4 (2012), 225-263.
• ‘Dialogue’, Feature Symposium: Reading James Tully, Public Philosophy in a New Key (Vols. I & II) Political Theory, 39, 1 (February 2011), 112-161, 145-6.

Selected public lectures

• ‘Integral Nonviolence: Two Lawyers on Nonviolence: Mohandas Gandhi & Richard Gregg’, Center for Global Law and Society in a Global Context, Queen Mary University of London, October 17, 2018.
• ‘On the Spirit of Haida Gwaii’, Covenant, Constitution, Commitments, Consent: the power of words from stories to action in honour of Edward Chamberlin, University of Victoria, April 12-13, 2018.
•  ‘On Resurgence and Transformative Reconciliation, Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights and the Roles of Ethnoecology and Ethnobotany: strategies for Canada’s future, University of Victoria & T’Sou-ke First Nation, May 2-5, 2017.
• ‘Two Ways of Being Colonial’, The Workshop Symposium on Colonialism, Liu Institute, UBC, Vancouver, April 12, 2017.
• ‘A Vision of a Renewed Relationship with Indigenous Peoples’, ‘Study on the new relationship between Canada and First Nations, Inuit and Metis’, Senate of Canada Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, February 8, 2017.
• ‘Decolonizing Political Theory and Anthropology’, National Museum of Ethnology, Kyoto University, Kyoto Japan, October 29, 2016.
• ‘Resurgence and Reconciliation of Indigenous People in North America’, Hokkaido University and the Centre for Ainu Studies, Sapporo, Japan, October 26, 2016.
• ‘Political Theory as a Critical Activity: The emergence of public philosophy in a new key’, Keio, University, Tokyo, Japan, October 22, 2016.
• ‘On Gaia Citizenship’, The Annual Mastermind Lecture, University of Victoria, 20 April 2016.
• ‘The Significance of Gandhi’s Satyagraha Today’, The Multi-disciplinary Workshop on the Significance of Gandhi, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, 16 April
• ‘On Ecological Citizenship’, Department of Political Science, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, 18 March 2016.
• ‘Richard Gregg and the Power of Nonviolence’, J. Glenn and Ursula Gray Memorial lecture, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, 1 March 2016.
• ‘What is Consent?’ What is Consent? Reconceptualising the role of Indigenous Peoples, Shuswap First Nation Tribal Council and Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops BC, November 21, 2015.
• ‘The Meaning of the Tsilhqot’in Decision’, The Tsilhqot’in Land Title Decision: A Landmark Case, Tsilhqot’in First Nation and Thompson Rivers University, Williams Lake BC, November 9-10, 2015.
• ‘A View of Transformative Reconciliation: Strange Multiplicity and the Spirit of Haida Gwaii’, Indigenous Studies and Anti-imperial Critique for the 21^st Century: a symposium inspired by the legacies of James Tully, Yale Group for the Study of Native America and the Yale Critical Theory Roundtable, Yale University, October 1-2, 2015.
• ‘Resurgence and Reconciliation: An Introduction’, Resurgence and Reconciliation: Dialogues on the work of James Tully, Michael Asch and John Borrows, First Peoples’ House, University of Victoria, September 18-19, 2015.
• ‘Self-Determination and Interdependency: Some Questions’, Distinguished Speakers’ Talks and After Self-Determination Workshop, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba, March 26, 2015.
• ‘On Civic Freedom Today’, An Encounter with James Tully, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, London, UK, June 24, 2014, summarised in Centre for the Study of Democracy Bulletin, 20, (2015), 21-22.
• ‘Thoughts on Co-Sustainability’, the NOMIS Foundation workshop on sustainability, Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, UK, June 22-23, 2014.
• ‘Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity’, The Public Philosophy of James Tully,  Groupe de Recherche sur les sociétiés plurinationale, Centre Pierre Péladeau, UQAM, April 24-26, 2014.
• Open Academy Community Conversation with James Tully, John Borrows and Michael Asch,  Pier 21, Royal Society of Canada, Halifax, March 22, 2014.
• ‘Reconciliation Here on Earth’, Ondaatje Hall, McCain Building, Dalhousie University, Department of Social Anthropology, College of Sustainability, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, March 20, 2014.
• ‘The role of the Right to Justification: a dialogue with Rainer Forst’, the second annual Global Constitutionalism Conference, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, June 8-9, 2013.
• ‘Global Disorder and Two Responses’, Keynote Address, Conference on Global Order and Disorder in Historical Perspectives, Queen Mary College University of London, London, June, 3-4, 2013.
• ‘Life Sustains Life’, the Heyman Centre Series on Social and Ecological Value, with Jonathan Schell and Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia University, May 2, 2013.
• ‘Citizenship for the love of the World’, Department of Political Science, Cornell University, March 14, 2013.
• ‘Transformative Change and Idle No More’, Indigenous People and Democratic Politics, First Peoples’ House, University of British Columbia, March 1, 2013.
• ‘The Gaia Tradition’, The Workshop on Norm, Nature and Climate Change, The Nomis Foundation and the London School of Economics, London, UK, December 14-16, 2012.
• ‘Forty Years of Native American Studies’, The Workshop on the 40th Anniversary of Native American Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26-29, 2012.