A philosopher, Thomas Mulligan used his residency at A Studio in the Woods to continue work on his dissertation which sought to answer the question, “What is the role that merit should play when we choose our political leaders and distribute the benefits of social cooperation?”

Mulligan is a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics, where he works on economic justice and group decision-making. His book, Justice and the Meritocratic State, offers a new, desert-based theory of distributive justice. Details are on his research page.

Before coming to academia, Mulligan served in the U.S. Navy and as an Operations Officer in the Central Intelligence Agency.