Dr Anneli Jefferson awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowship for new book on responsibility across the life span

Dr Anneli Jefferson, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Cardiff University, has been awarded a six-month Leverhulme Research Fellowship for her book project, Responsibility through the Life-Span.

In the book, Dr Jefferson explores how the capacities that make people responsible develop and change over the course of a human life.

Her project looks at how our ability to recognise and act on moral reasons depends on feedback and regulation from the social world around us. A hurt reaction to a breach of trust, for example, can reinforce the wrongness of lying – therefore, Dr Jefferson argues, practices of praise and blame help to shape moral agency.

The book will examine how ways of holding people responsible vary depending on factors including maturity, health and situational pressure. It will develop a new account of how we ought to hold one another responsible across the life span, beginning with early childhood and extending to practices such as blaming the dead.

Dr Jefferson said: "I'm really excited about the opportunity to work on this book. For the second chapter, I am currently looking at how our practices of punishing children have changed, shifting from the exhortations to 'spare the rod and spoil the child' to a much less punitive approach. Do these changes reflect a changed understanding of what children deserve, of what works in educating children, or both?"

Dr Jefferson’s Fellowship will begin in August 2026.

The Leverhulme Trust’s Research Fellowships support experienced researchers in any discipline to complete a piece of original research. Awards are worth up to £70,000 and can be held for between three and 24 months.

Leverhulme Research Fellowships are awarded annually to experienced researchers, particularly those whose research time has been limited by routine duties such as teaching and administration.