Clarice Starling

Lecturer in Philosophy · Oxford

c.starling@example.com +44 (0)555 018 2237 claricestarling.example.com

Reads better aloud. Most CVs do not. ↤

Summary

I have taught logic and ethics at Oxford for 10 years, running roughly 220 tutorials a year across two colleges. I have published 14 papers and 2 books, mostly on modal logic and the ethics of belief. My teaching was recognised with the Radcliffe Tutorial Award in 2023.*

220 tutorials. That is 220 essays read the night before, every year. Verified, sadly.

Appointments

Lecturer in Philosophy 2019–present

Wetherby College, Oxford

  • Teach 8 tutorial groups per term in first-order logic and normative ethics, 46 students a year.
  • Redesigned the Prelims logic syllabus in 2021; the year-one failure rate went from 11% to 4%.
  • Convene the weekly Ethics Work-in-Progress seminar, 24 sessions a year since 2020.†
Stipendiary Lecturer 2016–2019

St Aldhelm's Hall, Oxford

  • Covered the full undergraduate logic sequence for 3 cohorts, about 30 students each.
  • Marked roughly 400 collections papers; average turnaround 5 days.
"Redesigned the syllabus" means she threw out the truth-table handout everyone hated. Students noticed. Committee did not.

The 5-day turnaround held even in 8th week. I checked the ledger.

Books

Belief Under Protest 2024

Ashgrove University Press · 286 pp.

  • On the ethics of holding beliefs one cannot defend; 6 reviews in print so far.
Small Rooms, Large Claims: Notes on Tutorial Teaching 2021

Merrow Press · 142 pp.

  • Short handbook on one-to-two teaching; adopted by 5 college training programmes.
Chapter 4 of the first one is the whole book. Skip to it.

The second one she wrote in a single vacation. It shows, in the good way.

Selected Papers

"Counterfactuals for the Cautious," Journal of Speculative Logic 41 (2025): 112–139.

"What the Liar Owes the Listener," Ethics & Argument 18 (2023): 44–67.‡

"Necessity on a Budget," The Modal Review 9 (2022): 201–224.

"Blame Without a Ledger," Ashmolean Quarterly of Ethics 27 (2020): 15–38.

10 further papers listed at claricestarling.example.com/papers.

The 2023 one is the paper people actually cite. 31 citations, mostly by people disagreeing with it, which she counts as success.

Education

DPhil in Philosophy 2011–2016

University of Oxford · thesis: Obligation and the Limits of Consistency

BA Philosophy and Mathematics, First Class 2008–2011

University of Barrowfield

The thesis is 74,000 words. The idea fits on a postcard. Standard ratio.

Awards & Service

  • Radcliffe Tutorial Award, 2023, nominated by 19 students across 4 year groups.
  • Examiner, FHS Philosophy, 2022–2024; moderated about 310 scripts a year.
  • Referee for 3 journals; 11 reports since 2019, none late by more than a week.
"None late by more than a week" is the most honest line on this page. ↤

*The Radcliffe Tutorial Award is decided by student nomination; 19 letters were submitted, of which 2 were, by the committee's own account, essentially the same letter.

†Attendance at the Work-in-Progress seminar averages 9; it peaks at 14 whenever the paper is about someone in the room.

‡An earlier draft was rejected twice under the title "Lying Considered as a Loan." The referees were right about the title.

Marked in the margin by a former tutee, with permission. The printed part is all her own.