Dr. Blake B. Francis
Tenure-Track
College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
He/Him/His/Himself
About
I earned my Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University in August 2017. I have degrees in philosophy from Northern Arizona University (BA) and the University of Montana (MA), where I also studied Forestry and Conservation. Before graduate school, I worked with the US Forest Service in wilderness management, trail construction, and cabin maintenance in Southern Arizona and Southeast Alaska.
Research interests
My research focuses on responsibility for climate change. In past research, I have defended national responsibility for climate change against the objection that holding nations responsible is unfair to citizens, who would ultimately bear the burdens of wrongdoing for which they are not responsible. I argue that the objection is based on false assumptions about collective responsibility and civic responsibility. Recent research identifies and theorizes a gap in the existing literature—often centered on the distribution between the wealthy and the poorest—regarding emissions from the world’s middle-class individuals and countries. I consider whether emissions between luxury and subsistence are permissible and whether it is fair to seek opportunities to reduce emissions among those in the global middle class.
A more nascent research project develops a theory of climate change reparations detailing what wrongful emitters owe those impacted by climate change. In ongoing research, I defend the need for an account of climate change reparations that focuses specifically on the repair of the moral relations of trust and equality damaged by climate change impacts. I defend this relational account of climate change reparations against the view that climate change reparations requires monetary compensation alone and against the view that holds that climate change reparations requires massive global redistribution without concern for holding particular agents responsible.
Teaching interests
In my teaching, I engage with students about the most contentious issues of our time, including climate change, abortion, artificial intelligence, free speech, global poverty, and what it means to be happy. My goal as a teacher is to help students discover their own reasoned position on a meaningful issue, teach them philosophical tools for engaging with others, and help them gain an appreciation for reasonable disagreement in the classroom and beyond.
Topics of interest:
Climate Change Justice
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Justice
Contemporary Moral Issues
Applied Ethics, broadly construed to include political philosophy
Ethics and Technology
The Ethics of AI
Well-being and Happiness
Harm
Education
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Ph D, Philosophy
— Stanford University (2017) Wrongful Harm by Emitting: Individual and Collective Agents in the Context of Climate Change
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MA, Philosophy
— University of Montana (2009) Guidelines for a Pluralist Society: Could Rawls Help with Struggles Over Identity
- BA, Philosophy — Northern Arizona University (2000)
Presentations
- Responsible Computing at UMBC: A Follow Up Report 2025
- Remember Wildness: The Role of Memory in Environmental Ethics and Activism 2025
- Socially Responsible Computing in the CS Classroom and Across the Undergraduate Experience 2024
Courses Taught
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Indep Study In Phil
- Independent Study In Philososophy
- Justice and Climate Change
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Harm in Morality and Law
- Well-Being and Happiness
- Well-Being and Happiness
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Justice and Climate Change
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Honors Indep Study-Phil
- Contemporary Moral Issues
- Adv Topics In Philosophy