Agnes Tam

The overarching goal of my research is to restore a proper place for "us" in liberal democracy. I believe the liberal tradition tends to misunderstand the nature of the plural subject "we", exaggerate the risks "we" present, and undervalue "our" contributions to a good society. My past project seeks to correct the Enlightenment narrative and shows that, far from obstructing moral progress, the conformist and parochial tendencies of "we"-reasoning facilitate moral progress. My new SSHRC-funded project "Toward Narrative Democracy" aims to address the ongoing crisis of belonging in the age of heightened migration. It seeks to reimagine the bond of society not as a rational contract but as an artful narrative, and to develop a new ethics of joint narration to tell inclusive stories of who "we" are.